A Cordova man accused of shooting at a SUV filled with people after a disagreement about a football game was sentenced to 20 years in state prison. Damian Alexander, 28, was convicted in July of four counts each of first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment after a two-day jury trial. He was acquitted on two counts each of attempted first- and second-degree murder. Talbot County Circuit Court Judge Broughton Earnest sentenced Alexander to serve 20 years in the Maryland Department of Corrections with five years suspended and five years of supervised probation in the shooting case. Special conditions of the probation include: restitution for the victims’ medical bills, no contact with the victims, and undergoing drug and alcohol counseling. Earnest also imposed five years of suspended time from two previous burglary cases for which Alexander was on probation at the time of the shooting. Time at the Patuxent Institution, a maximum-security rehabilitation center, also was recommended.

Maryland State Police Det. Sgt. Jesse Haas responded December 28, 2008, to a home on Harris Range Road after a 911 call was placed from Amber Nicole Candel, who was in a 2003 Ford Explorer with three other people who were shot at with a shotgun at the residence. Justin Griep drove Candel, Charles Howard Thompson and Amanda Sutphin to the house, where Thompson had arranged to fight Alexander after the two argued over the phone about the football game. Alexander approached Griep with a shotgun, at which point Griep drove off. Alexander then shot between two and five rounds from a .410 shotgun at the Explorer, hitting Griep with 20 pellets and hitting Sutphin with four pellets. Griep and Sutphin were treated at Memorial Hospital at Easton.