SILVER SPRING, Md. — A Silver Spring man has been found guilty of two counts of murder for killing his pregnant girlfriend and her unborn child in 2022. This is the first time a defendant has been convicted of murder of a viable fetus in Montgomery County.
According to officials, the victim was a 26-year-old woman who was 38 weeks pregnant with a boy the day she was shot to death. She was found when detectives stormed the apartment of a 31-year-old Torrey Moore, but officials believe her body had been inside the apartment for at least a month.
According to police, Moore walked into the Shell Station and Dash In Convenience Store on New Hampshire Avenue just before 3 p.m. on Dec. 8, 2022.
Investigators believe Moore grabbed a bottle of iced tea before walking up to the counter where 61-year-old Ayalew Wondimu was working the register.
Citing video surveillance, detectives say the two men got into an argument that led Moore to grab items from around the counter and throw them at Wondimu. The register clerk then grabbed a metal pole from behind the counter and attempted to hit Moore.
That is when police say Moore stepped back, pulled a handgun from his vest pocket and opened fire on Wondimu, hitting him in the chest at point-blank range. Wondimu fell to the ground after he was hit and police say Moore reached around the counter to continue shooting the man before leaving the store with the bottle of iced tea and running to the Enclave Apartments across the street.
Investigators learned Moore lived at the Enclave Apartments and SWAT conducted a no-knock search warrant the next day. However, officials did not expect to find the badly decomposing body of a woman on the floor of the apartment. The woman was later identified as Denise Middleton.
Then-Police Chief Marcus Jones said Moore waived his rights when he was taken into custody and made statements implicating himself in Wondimu's death as well as tying himself to the dead woman found in the apartment where he was living.
Moore reportedly told investigators that he had been in a relationship with the woman who was pregnant. The two allegedly got into an argument a month earlier that led to the Middleton's murder.
Neighbors who lived in the apartment at the time said they were shocked by the grizzly discovery.
"It's scary, you never know who your neighbors are," said someone who lived in the apartment but did not want to be identified.
Moore was found guilty for the murder of Wondimu earlier this year. He was expected to be sentenced in that case on Dec. 12. Sentencing has not been set in the Middleton case.