Columbia Quick Stop Stabbings: 50-Year Sentence Ordered

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — A Baltimore County man who was 41 when he stabbed two people outside a convenience store in Columbia will be in his 90s when he gets out of prison. That's what a Howard County Circuit Court judge ordered on Monday, May 20.

Damien Gary Clark, 43, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for stabbing two people, including one who died, prosecutors said.

Police responded to the Quick Stop Food Mart in the 10700 block of Hickory Ridge Road at 9:40 p.m. on Christmas Day 2017 for a call about a fight and stabbing at the store.

When they arrived, they found two men who had been stabbed multiple times.

Based on the investigation, police determined Clark had gone into Quick Stop with his wife, and a fight ensued between him and his friend.

After a Columbia man nearby joined in the fight, prosecutors said Clark pulled out a knife and began stabbing both men.

The friend, Warner Donnell Jackson, was stabbed once in the upper left side of his back. He was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where officials said he was treated and released.

The man who intervened in the dispute — James Donte Fallin Jr. — collapsed in the parking lot, prosecutors said. He had been stabbed once in the left chest and once near the sternum, according to authorities.

Fallin was taken to shock trauma as well and died from his injuries that evening, officials said.

A jury convicted Clark of voluntary manslaughter, attempted second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree assault in February.

Howard County Circuit Court Judge Timthy J. McCrone determined the sentence, and Assistant State's Attorneys Natasha Byus and Doug Nelsen prosecuted the case.