Hebron man sentenced to 40 years for 2024 gunfight that killed bystander
SALISBURY, Md. – A Hebron man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, with all but 25 years suspended, for his role in a fatal gunfight that took place in Feb. 2024.
On Oct. 23, 25-year-old Logan Trader was sentenced by Judge S. James Sarbanes for one count of second degree murder following his guilty plea in July. Trader was held in custody during the interim pending completion of a pre-sentencing investigation.
Trader’s sentence will be followed by five years of supervised probation. Should Trader violate his probation once he is released from his active incarceration, he would face the possibility of 15 additional years of confinement in the Division of Corrections.
“This is yet another example of the senseless violence that results from the illicit drug trade,” Wicomico County State’s Attorney (SA) Jamie L. Dykes said. “This victim’s death as a result of Trader’s reckless and wanton conduct was completely unnecessary and absolutely avoidable.”
On Feb. 16, 2024, Trader and a second person engaged in a gunfight on North Division Street in Salisbury following a dispute over a previous drug transaction. About five minutes after the initial volleys were fired, Trader circled the block, firing down North Division Street toward his adversary’s home with an AR-15 rifle. At the moment Trader fired the second time, an innocent bystander, later identified as 49-year-old Richard Darlington Smith of Salisbury, was walking up North Division Street and was struck by Trader’s bullets twice from behind, resulting in his death.
