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Drug deal gone wrong lands a man in prison for 55 years

A Silver Spring man will serve years in prison for his role in the murder of 22-year-old Jose Osvaldo Genao Romero.

ROCKVILLE, Md. — A Silver Spring man will serve the next 55 years in prison for his role in the murder of 22-year-old Jose Osvaldo Genao Romero. 

On Tuesday, a Circuit Court judge for Montgomery County, sentenced Malik Jefferson after a jury convicted him on charges of Second-Degree Murder, Use of a Firearm in Commission of Crime of Violence, and Robbery back in January. The judge sentenced him to 50 years for Romero’s murder but was also found in violation of probation and was sentenced to an additional five years. 

On March 21, the judge sentenced Jefferson’s co-defendant, Jackson Garcia, to life in prison suspended all but 60 years to serve and five years of supervised probation upon release. 

These charges stem from an incident that occurred on February 17, 2022, in Rockville, Maryland. According to court documents, Jefferson and Garcia picked Romero up at his house and drove him to Rockville, where they shot him. A nearby surveillance camera caught the entire thing.

State’s Attorney John McCarthy, attributed Romero’s death to “another case of a marijuana deal gone bad.”

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