Man Asks for Mercy, Police Denounce 'Gun-Carrying Criminal'

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ANNAPOLIS, MD — An Annapolis man facing a judge on gun charges for the second time in four months again pleaded for mercy, and again was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

William Teat, 28, was sentenced Wednesday to a second 10-year prison term to be served consecutively with another 10-year sentence he received in November.

For the first offense Teat was sentenced for multiple firearm charges, according to the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office, including firing a weapon within 100 yards of an occupied structure and illegal possession of a regulated firearm, wear, carry and transport a firearm upon their person.

He stood in a street spraying bullets in the first criminal case; no injuries were reported.

While out on bond for the earlier offense, Teat was arrested by Annapolis Police for firing a gun Feb. 6, which sent one victim to the hospital. Investigators say Teat shot at the vehicle the victim and three other men were in.

Although Teat’s family and minister asked that he shown leniency, the Annapolis Police Department said on its Facebook page that “we are glad to see a violent criminal sentenced to 10 years for this incredibly dangerous shooting. … Every community deserves to be safe from this type of gun-carrying, gun-shooting, violent criminal. We are thankful that no children were struck at home asleep in their beds.”

The department urged residents to help to help it get guns off the streets. Anonymous tips about any kind of crime can be made by calling 410-280-CLUE (2583).

Teat has recently earned his GED and was taking community college classes, his attorney said.

“My son is not a monster. He has made some mistakes, but he is not a monster,” Teat’s mother told the judge, reports The Capital-Gazette. “I don’t want him to spend the rest of his life in jail.”