Retrial of Man Convicted of 2008 Wilde Lake Murder Set to Begin

A Columbia man convicted of a 2008 Wilde Lake murder will be retried beginning this week.

Antajuan Lawntee Wilson, 23, of Columbia, was convicted of the first-degree murder of Bryan Antoine Adams Jr., 20, who was shot to death outside the Wilde Lake Village Center in April of 2008.

However, the conviction was overturned after Maryland's highest appellate court ruled the jury instruction in the trial was insufficient, according to Explore Howard. The court ruled the jury was not instructed to take into account that Wilson may have been in a "kill-or-be-killed situation" and could have been acting in "imperfect self-defense", which is grounds for a reduced sentence, according to the report.

Wilson has been held in prison since his 2008 conviction, according to the Howard County State's Attorney's office.

The April 2008 murder shook the Wilde Lake community, which, after the shooting, began to question the safety of what had become a vacated village center after losing two grocery stores in two years, according to a report in the Washington Post.

The deadly shooting was reportedly a result of an argument, according to the charging documents.

The retrial begins Monday with jury selection and is expected to last about two weeks, according to Wayne Kirwan, spokesperson for the Howard County state's attorney's office.

Sign up for the Columbia Patch newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for instant news updates and community conversations.