Silver Spring Man Gets 25 Years for Attempted Laurel Hotel Robbery After 45-Year Sentence

Silver Spring Man Gets 25 Years for Attempted Laurel Hotel Robbery After 45-Year Sentence

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Joel Manuel Moreno, a 32-year-old Silver Spring man, will spend the next quarter-century in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in an armed robbery attempt at a Laurel hotel, Fox Baltimore reported. On Monday, November 2, 2026, Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Morris sentenced Moreno to 45 years in prison, suspending all but 25 years to serve in the Division of Correction, according to the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office.

What happened began more than three years earlier, in the early morning hours of September 8, 2023, when Anne Arundel County Police were dispatched to the Garden Inn in Laurel for a reported shooting. Investigators determined that the victim had been lured to the hotel to meet a woman he had met on a dating application. When the victim tried to flee the attempted robbery, Moreno fired several shots at the victim’s car, striking it once. No one was physically harmed.

Shots in the Parking Lot, Shell Casings on the Ground

Surveillance footage from the area tracked Moreno and his codefendants’ movements and clothing before, during, and after the crime, while crime scene technicians recovered three spent shell casings where Moreno fired three of the four shots. After a three-day trial that ended July 16, 2026, a jury convicted Moreno of attempted armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, using a firearm during a violent crime, possessing a regulated firearm after a previous violent crime conviction, carrying a loaded handgun, and illegally wearing or transporting a handgun.

Moreno had been held since March 29, 2024, and will receive credit for that time already served. Upon his release, he must complete five years of supervised probation.

The Mandatory Minimum Behind the 25-Year Sentence

For Moreno, the 25-year term was the mandatory minimum required by Maryland law given his two prior violent convictions. As the Baltimore Sun reported, Moreno’s attorney, Michael Clinkscale, told the Capital Gazette that 25 years is the minimum sentence Moreno could have received given his two prior convictions for violent acts, because Maryland law requires that a person convicted of a violent crime for the third time be sentenced to no less than 25 years’ imprisonment.

“I believe this was the best outcome possible,” Clinkscale said.

Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said the defendant set out to rob someone he had drawn to the hotel under false pretenses.

“This defendant lured a victim to a hotel with the intention of robbing him. It is fortunate that no one was physically harmed during this incident. Based on this defendant’s significant criminal history, the Court appropriately gave a lengthy sentence.” Attorney Anne Colt Leitess

The case was prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorneys Nancy Jeffein Olin and Matthew Rabb, with the investigation led by Sgt. Sean Buente of the Anne Arundel County Police Department. You can read the full sentencing announcement from the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office, and the Baltimore Sun’s coverage details the sentencing-law context.

What comes next is fixed by the sentence itself: Moreno serves his term in the Division of Correction with credit for time incarcerated since March 29, 2024, and if he is ever released, five years of supervised probation follow.

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