PRINCE FREDERICK — Anthony Gerald Fleming will stay in prison for life. A Calvert County Circuit Court judge has rejected the convicted killer’s latest bid to shorten his sentence for the 1991 murder of Linda Pellicano in Chesapeake Beach, ruling that his release would still endanger the public.
Judge Mark S. Chandlee denied Fleming’s motion to reconsider his sentence in a nine-page memorandum opinion and order filed Oct. 27, according to the Calvert County State’s Attorney’s Office. The ruling followed a Sept. 17 hearing at which Fleming presented evidence of his education and conduct in prison and State’s Attorney Robert H. Harvey Jr. opposed any reduction with witnesses, exhibits and statements from Pellicano’s family.
It was the 16th time Fleming had asked the court to revisit his sentence, the State’s Attorney’s Office said.
“There has to be some finality in sentencing. Life has to mean life,” Harvey said in a statement. “Each time a case is reopened, it further traumatizes the victim’s family, friends, and the community in general.”
A 35-year-old case
Pellicano was found dead in her home on Dalrymple Road in Chesapeake Beach on May 13, 1991. According to the court’s opinion, she had been bound and gagged, and the medical examiner ruled that a stab wound to the chest combined with asphyxia caused her death. She had also been raped, the State’s Attorney’s Office said.
DNA evidence tied Fleming to the crime, according to the opinion. A check taken from Pellicano’s home and later found in Sunderland carried handwriting that matched his. Chandlee wrote that Fleming repeatedly lied to investigators and tried to implicate others before admitting he was there; DNA and handwriting analysis excluded the people he named.
Fleming, who was 24 at the time of the killing, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 1997 to life in prison.
How the law reopened the case
Fleming filed under the Maryland law the State’s Attorney’s Office calls the “Second Look Act,” which it said the General Assembly enacted in 2021. The law, codified at Section 8-110 of the Criminal Procedure Article, lets certain long-serving inmates ask a court to reduce their sentences and requires the judge to hold a hearing and weigh ten factors. The central questions are whether the person still poses a danger to the public and whether a shorter sentence would serve the interests of justice.
Chandlee also relied on the Maryland Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Trimble v. State, which held that no single factor, including a defendant’s age at the time of the crime, controls the outcome and that judges may weigh other relevant evidence.
What weighed against him
The judge found that most of the factors cut against Fleming:
- The crime. Chandlee called it a grave and violent offense and wrote that Fleming was the primary actor.
- Prison conduct. Fleming committed 24 rule violations between 1992 and 2021, including fights, disobeying orders and a 2011 letter threatening to kill a Calvert County resident and his children. That letter cost him 300 days in segregation.
- Criminal history. The opinion lists more than a dozen prior cases, from breaking and entering and theft to escape from confinement, battery and a handgun charge. Chandlee wrote that Fleming appeared to be a career criminal at a young age.
- Remorse. At sentencing, the judge wrote, Fleming did not apologize and instead asked whether he could get a transcript. He added an expression of remorse to his motion only after the state filed its opposition.
Chandlee did credit Fleming’s progress over the past five years, during which he has had no infractions. Fleming earned his GED in 2018, completed Bible study courses, a social work program and counseling groups, attended SMART Recovery meetings at Jessup Correctional Institution and volunteered with the Alternatives to Violence Project. He has worked as an observation aide for other incarcerated people since November 2022 and has been trying to start a nonprofit for incarcerated fathers, the opinion said.
Those efforts were commendable but recent, the judge concluded, and not enough to show he was fit to reenter society.
The family’s voice
Two victim impact statements were presented at the hearing. Pellicano’s sister-in-law, Agnes Jones, told the court the killing devastated the entire family and that Pellicano’s husband, who died two years ago, never recovered from losing his wife.
Harvey read a statement on behalf of Pellicano’s son, who wrote that the day of the murder took away the foundation of his family and sent him into years of self-destruction. Both urged the court to keep Fleming in prison, arguing that because Pellicano never had the chance to grow old, he should not either.
Chandlee wrote that the pain of the crime remains fresh for her family.
The ruling leaves Fleming’s life sentence in place. The State’s Attorney’s Office did not say whether he can file again or how soon.
The Chronicle has covered other recent Southern Maryland homicide sentencings, including a 38-year sentence in a Charles County murder.
