Catholic University Homicide Case Advances Towards Plea Deal After Mistrial

By Patrick D. Lewis

The renewed case against the suspect in the fatal shooting of a Kentucky man on Catholic University’s campus in July 2023 is heading towards a plea deal.

Jaime Macedo was indicted on several felony counts, including murder, for the July 5, 2023, shooting death of Maxwell Emerson, a high school wrestling coach from Kentucky who was in Washington for a conference. According to prosecutors, Emerson was walking to the Brookland-CUA Metro station around 8 a.m. when Macedo asked him for money.

Emerson complied, and the two walked onto the Welcome Plaza near Catholic University’s O’Connell Hall while having a conversation. There, prosecutors allege Macedo held Emerson up at gunpoint and ultimately intentionally shot him. Emerson died at a hospital.

At a trial earlier this year, Macedo’s attorneys argued that Macedo had a gun in his pants that went off when Emerson attacked him, resulting in Emerson being hit. Prosecutors said Emerson attacked him only after Macedo pulled the gun on him.

A significant amount of evidence in the case was compromised due to misconduct by investigating detectives and officers, and failure on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s part to disclose those incidents, but the case survived a defense motion to throw it out altogether.

The jury ultimately convicted Macedo of unlawful gun possession, as Macedo was already a felon when the shooting occurred, but hung on all other counts. The judge declared a mistrial.

Since then, the government has offered Macedo a plea deal that would see him plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, punishable by up to 30 years’ imprisonment, in exchange for all other charges being dropped and not holding a new trial. The two sides, under the offer, would also agree to recommend that the judge sentence Macedo to between 12 and 15 years.

The deal has not yet been formally agreed to and would need to be approved by a judge. Hearings in the case are still ongoing.