Annapolis man sentenced to five years on firearm conviction after raid on ‘stash house’

A 22-year-old Annapolis man was sentenced to five years in prison after a police raid on an apartment earlier this year led to a firearm conviction.

In January, Deontae Jayron Simms was one of three people arrested in a Newtowne Drive apartment that Annapolis Police detectives suspected of being used to traffic guns and drugs.

According to a news release at the time, members of the department’s Drug Enforcement Unit and Special Enforcement Action Team found two loaded ghost guns inside a “stash house,” as well as a loaded 9 mm pistol, a loaded rifle and various drugs, including crack cocaine and fentanyl.

As the only adult apprehended, Simms was the only suspect identified by police. Information on the two then-17-year-old juveniles arrested with him was not made available.

At the time of the raid, Simms initially faced seven felonies, including narcotic possession with the intent to distribute, but was later indicted by a grand jury on 24.

During an Oct. 29 hearing before Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Mark Crooks, Simms submitted an Alford plea to possessing a firearm with a previous felony conviction. That conviction, court records show, came less than a month before the police raid. That case resulted in an Alford plea to first-degree assault from a 2020 incident. Simms was also charged in a 2022 armed robbery case, which was placed on the STET, or inactive docket.

An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt, but rather an acknowledgement that had the case gone to trial, the state would have had enough evidence to convict. In terms of sentencing, it is treated the same as a guilty plea.

Defense attorney John H. Robinson III said Tuesday the Annapolis apartment did not belong to his client and that the plea was based on “the strengths and weaknesses of the case.”

Have a news tip? Contact Luke Parker at [e-mail], 410-725-6214 and x.com/@lparkernews.