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WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A man accused of shooting five co-workers, killing three, at a granite company in Maryland was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison for the later shooting of a man in Delaware.
Radee Prince, 38, was convicted last month of attempted manslaughter, reckless endangering, resisting arrest, carrying a concealed weapon and two counts of possession of a firearm during commission of a felony in the shooting of Jason Baul. He faced a minimum eight years in prison, with a potential maximum of 89 years.
Prince told Superior Court Judge Charles Butler that he has struggled with mental health issues since childhood and that he needed treatment, not punishment.
"I learned how to bottle it all up inside until I could no longer do so," Prince said, leaning on a table and reading from a prepared statement. "I now know that was a mistake."
Prosecutor Mark Denney said Prince deserved the maximum punishment for the harm and terror he caused, and it was only sheer luck that no one was killed in Delaware.
Denney noted how Prince stopped at a local business looking for his former boss, who fortunately was not there, before going for Baul, a former friend with whom he had long-running disputes. Denney said Baul, who was shot in the face, was alive because Prince's gun jammed several times and a bullet stopped just short of Baul's spine in a "medical miracle."
"After Maryland, he was all in," Denney said after the sentencing. "This was his chance to take out someone he's always wanted dead for a long time, and he went for him."
Denney said Prince will now be extradited to Maryland to be tried on charges including three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder. Authorities say that after shooting five co-workers at Advanced Granite Solutions in Harford County, Maryland, last October, Prince drove to a used car lot in Wilmington and shot Baul.
Prince was captured in Delaware after a 10-hour manhunt during which local schools and businesses were locked down.
Prince had been scheduled for sentencing in August, but officials moved up the date to accommodate Maryland authorities.
"They're eager to pursue justice for all of the victims that they've dealt with. ... They wanted us to try to get this over the finish line best we could as fast as we could," Denney said.
Before sentencing Prince, Butler pointed to the graphic images caught on a surveillance camera of Prince attacking Baul.
"It's a haunting piece of video," the judge said, noting Prince's "persistent, dogged effort" to get to Baul after Baul had been shot in the face and tried to seek refuge in an office.
"I can't conclude that that this is anything but an aggravated case," said Butler, who sentenced Prince to 25 years for attempted manslaughter, two years for reckless endangering and 13 years on firearm charges. He also ordered that Prince undergo a mental health evaluation.
Defense attorney Michael Heyden said he expects Prince will finally get treatment for mental health issues his mother refused to address.
"She thought it would stigmatize him, so he never got any treatment, and I think that was really the problem here," Heyden said after the hearing.
"It doesn't go to the level of an insanity defense, but he does have mental health issues," he added.
Denney said prosecutors never believed the case was about mental health.
"We think we were dealing with a criminal, a killer. ... We had no psychiatric or psychological or medical evidence, none was presented to us, to make us think this was anything other than a criminal killer," he said.
Prince has an extensive criminal record that includes 42 arrests and 15 felony convictions in Delaware. He was charged with offensive touching in 2014 after putting a co-worker in a chokehold, but that case was dismissed. In 2016, he was arrested for allegedly assaulting Baul, but those charges were dropped.
Maryland authorities have said that on Oct. 18, Prince gathered several co-workers around him at Advanced Granite Solutions, a countertop manufacturing firm, telling them he wanted to talk to them, then opened fire without warning.
Bayarsaikhan Tudev, 53, of Virginia; Jose Hidalgo Romero, 34, of Aberdeen, Maryland; and Enis Mrvoljak, 48, of Dundalk, Maryland, were killed. Jose Roberto Flores Gillen, 37, and Enoc Sosa, 38, were wounded.
Investigators have not disclosed a specific motive for the shootings, but co-workers and acquaintances said Prince had a violent temper and difficulty getting along with others.
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