UPDATED: Columbia Teen Pleads Guilty in Fatal Long Reach Stabbing

UPDATE: 4:45 p.m. - This story has been updated to include plea information.

A 19-year-old Columbia man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder at Howard County Circuit Court on Monday for stabbing 17-year-old Christian Lendell Hall to death in a Long Reach apartment complex in July of 2011.

Bates stabbed Hall at least 10 times in the chest, back and arms, according to the statment of the facts in the case. Hall's mother was awoken by the stabbing and reportedly pulled Bates off of her son as they struggled inside her apartment, according to the statement of facts.

Bates is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 14, according to a spokesperson for the Howard County state's attorneys office.

The prosecution recommended a sentence of 60 years, which, if accepted, could make Bates eligible for parole in 2042, reported Explore Howard.

In August, Bates was ruled competent to stand trial after a psychiatrist who had previously ruled him mentally unstable withdrew his opinion.

At the time of the alleged stabbing, police said Hall and Bates were involved in a fight earlier in the day at Long Reach Village Center. Afterwards, police said Bates went to Hall's apartment, forced himself inside, stabbed Hall multiple times and then fled on his bicycle.

The violent incident left residents of the Sierra Woods apartment complex, near the 8700 block of Airybrink Lane, where Hall lived, in shock. 

"You think you're safe in your house," said Agnes Chery, 17, in 2011. "He was [my] same age. He didn't even get to his 18th birthday."

After the stabbing, Howard County Council member Calvin Ball organized a neighborhood event to discuss safety issues in the area. 

“The crime rate is very, very low,” said Major Merrit Bender, who compared the area with other regions in Maryland at the safety meeting in 2011.  “However when something like [the stabbing] happens, all the good things don’t seem to matter… It really scares people.”

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