State v. Elijah Bernard Barnes, C-08-CR-23-000078
LA PLATA, MD—Tony Covington, State’s Attorney for Charles County, announced that on Monday, May 12, 2025, Charles County Circuit Court Judge Monise A. Stephenson sentenced Elijah Bernard Barnes, 20, of Waldorf, to 45 years in prison for the Second-Degree Murder of Rajon Lateef Jackson, III, as well as related charges.
On March 7, 2025, a Charles County jury convicted Barnes of the aforementioned charges.
On January 13, 2023, officers responded to Harvest Fish Place in Waldorf for the report of a shooting. When officers arrived, they located the 17-year-old victim on the street suffering from four gunshot wounds to his face and neck. The victim, identified as Rajon Lateef Jackson, III, was transported to the hospital; however, he, unfortunately, succumbed to his injuries.
A witness at the scene reported to officers that Jackson had exited his school bus and was walking toward his residence. The suspect, later identified as Barnes, called Jackson over to his vehicle. Jackson began making his way to the car when Barnes shot him four times. Barnes then fled the scene. During the shooting, Barnes was seated in an older model silver Toyota Corolla with a missing hub cap on the front driver’s side.
Surveillance video from a nearby gas station shows the Toyota Corolla, with the missing side hub cap, entering the gas station and parking at a pump moments before the murder. The driver and only occupant, Barnes, entered the business and was captured on video surveillance.
Approximately three minutes after leaving the gas station, personally-owned surveillance cameras from the neighborhood captured the Toyota Corolla in the area of the shooting. Barnes matched the witness’ description of the shooter.
After the killing, investigators were able to identify Barnes, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Barnes, who had fled the State after the murder, was located and arrested in Rocky Mount, North Carolina five days after the killing.
At sentencing, Assistant State’s Attorney John Stackhouse asked the judge for 65 years in prison. He told the judge that the victim “had a lot of people in his life that really cared about him. Rajon’s father moved Rajon here to Waldorf for a safer environment and that is just heartbreaking. A month before his murder, [Rajon] was told that he was going to be a dad. He’s never ever going to be able to meet his daughter. There is real generational trauma in this case – a little girl who will never know her dad, parents who lost a child, grandparents who lost a grandson.”
He furthered that the incident “traumatized the whole neighborhood. He is clearly a danger – executing someone in the middle of the day, when he gets off a school bus, steps away from his home. It just doesn’t get any worse than that.”
Sentence
Count 1
• Second-Degree Murder
• 40 years
Count 2
• Use of a Firearm During the Commission of a Crime of Violence
• 20 years with all but 5 years suspended
• Consecutive to Count 1
Count 3
• Possession of a Regulated Firearm Being Under 21
• 5 years with all suspended
• Consecutive to Counts 1 and 2