LA PLATA, MD—Tony Covington, State’s Attorney for Charles County, announced that on Thursday, August 21, 2025, Charles County Circuit Court Judge Monise A. Stephenson sentenced Edward Stanley Stewart, III, 39, of Waldorf, to 20 years in prison for First-Degree Assault and Possession of a Firearm with a Felony Conviction.

 

On July 2, 2025, Stewart pleaded guilty to the above charges.

 

On April 10, 2024, officers responded to an apartment complex in Waldorf for the report of a shooting. Upon arrival, they made contact with Stewart, who was bleeding and had a torn shirt. Stewart reported to officers that he was shot by the victim. He was later flown to Medstar Hospital Center for treatment of his injuries.

 

An investigation revealed that the day before the shooting, Stewart found his wife intoxicated in the victim’s apartment. After Stewart confronted the victim, he and his wife returned to their apartment. The following day, Stewart continued to threaten the victim through text message and warned him to stay away from his wife. Later, while walking his dog, Stewart saw the victim working in a vacant apartment through a window. Stewart put his dog in a vehicle, then climbed through the window to confront the victim again.

 

The two men left the apartment, and shortly after, Stewart, armed with a gun, began a verbal altercation with the victim that turned physical in the breezeway of the apartment building. The altercation moved back inside the vacant apartment building, where Stewart was shot multiple times by the victim, who was also armed.

 

Stewart was prohibited from possessing firearms due to prior convictions.

 

Sentence

 

Count 5

First-Degree Assault

20 years

 

Count 9

Firearm with a Felony Conviction

5 years

Concurrent to Count 5