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Wise pleaded guilty to murder and other charges for his role in the fatal shooting of Chesley Patterson and has been sentenced to life in prison with all but 50 years suspended, followed by three years of probation if he is released.
In late January 2022, police in Baltimore were were called to investigate a shooting in the 1700 block of Eastern Avenue near the intersection of South Broadway, where they found Patterson lying in the street behind a vehicle with a gunshot wound to his chest.
Patterson was rushed to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was laster pronounced dead soon after being admitted, officials said.
Investigators say that shortly before the shooting, Patterson made a purchase at Bristol's Wine store, placed it in his trunk, and as he was getting his car ready to pull away from a parking spot on Eastern Avenue, he was blocked in by a gold Honda Odyssey van that pulled up and prevented him from leaving the area.
Seconds later, a person - later identified as Wise - ran up to Patterson's car, pulled open his front door, and a struggle ensued between the two, ending with the restaurant manager being shot in the chest before the shooter retreated to the van, which fled the area.
"Just after the shooting, Patterson could be seen on video struggling from the car, clutching the left side of his chest, and then collapsing in the street," prosecutors said.
The gold van was swiftly located before midnight on the night of the shooting at a BP gas station on Waterview Avenue, and when they attempted to stop him, officers were taken on a short police pursuit and the now-vacant vehicle was located and towed in the 3000 block of Southland Avenue, leading police to identify Wise as a suspect.
According to investigators, messages in Wise's cellphone on the night of the murder implicated him further.
"At 10:54 p.m., the person asked Wise, 'Why can’t I come and get you,' to which Wise replied in part, 'Bae im out sticking s--t,' prosecutors said. "The person responded by asking, 'What that mean?' Wise texted back at 10:56 p.m., 'I'm robbing,'" according to court documents.
This was less than 10 minutes before the attack on Patterson, which Citiwatch recorded as happening at 11:05 p.m. on Jan. 23 last year.
Additionally, detectives found a location ping in the phone’s data showing that at 11:18 p.m., Wise’s phone was on Eastern Avenue just past Haven Street between Highlandtown and Greektown, and minutes later at 11:26 p.m., Wise texted that he was "coming threw (sic) the toll."
Toll plaza records later linked the Honda Odyssey van from the shooting heading into the I-95 Fort McHenry tunnel at the time Wise sent the message.
Wise texted the same person during a text squabble, “im rey (sic) get booked for a f-----ng murder and you keep trying be f----ng smart.”
The day after the fatal shooting, Wise was alerted to the reality of what had happened.
Detectives say that they found a conversation from 6:18 a.m. on Jan. 24, 2022, when a person texted Wise a Citizen App alert for "shots fired at (South Broadway and Eastern Avenue)" in Fells point that had been issued the night before minutes after Patterson was killed.
Wise had nothing clever to say about that and simply texted back with an emoji of a person slapping their head and a message confirming "That was us geeking im rey (sic) come out now."
Wise pleaded guilty to:
- First-degree murder;
- Use of a firearm in the commission of an act of violence;
- First-degree escape.
“The tragic death of Mr. Patterson was a shock to this tight-knit community and our City as a whole," Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates said in a statement following the sentencing. "As his family and loved ones approach the second anniversary of his murder, we continue to grieve with them and extend our victim services to them during this immensely difficult time,”
“This case highlights my administration’s focus on holding violent offenders accountable," he continued. "I thank my Homicide Unit for gathering detailed evidence that made this case impossible to refute by the defense and ultimately hold this offender accountable to a 50-year prison sentence.”
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