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‘A great loss’: Community remembers Maryland judge fatally shot outside his home
Andrew “Drew” Wilkinson, a 52-year-old Washington County Circuit Court judge who was shot to death in his driveway Thursday night, was an upstanding community pillar who was generous with his time and his talents, and whose loss will reverberate throughout the various communities of which he was a part, those who knew him from work, church and service said.
Authorities are still seeking the suspect, 49-year-old Pedro Argote, who failed to appear at a divorce hearing Wilkinson oversaw on Thursday.
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“From my perspective, as an attorney and as a member of the community, he was the kind of person that you’d want on the bench,” said Washington County Attorney Kirk Downey, who knew Wilkinson well from their years together in the county attorney’s office and later, when Wilkinson was in private practice as a land-use attorney, from working on land issues involving the county government.
“He was courteous, he acted with civility, he treated people who appeared before him with respect. And he was knowledgeable and prepared,” Downey said. “He was exactly what you’d want a good judge to be and his absence is going to be a great loss for this community.”
Downey, whose family is also friends with Wilkinson’s, said he was in disbelief and shock Friday, and concerned for the late judge’s wife, Stephanie, and their two children.
Faith appeared to play a significant role in Wilkinson’s life.
Parishioners at St. Ann Roman Catholic Church in Hagerstown, where Wilkinson was a member for nearly 40 years, said he was very cheerful, had a good sense of humor and was level headed.
Msgr. Bruce Jarboe, the church’s pastor, said he spoke about the tragic news of Wilkinson’s death with parishioners following the church’s daily 8 a.m. Mass.
Jarboe said he also heard from people who knew Wilkinson from church, from work and from the broader county community, who called the church to share the impact Wilkinson had on them.
Wilkinson was perceived as a community pillar, as someone who held an important title in a respected field and was a leader in numerous organizations, but he was “rather modest and unassuming in nature,” Jarboe said.
Wilkinson’s professional peers told Jarboe that the late judge had a strong reputation as a trustworthy, hard-working man.
“The sense that I have clearly received from folks is that he was just a great guy,” Jarboe said.
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Wilkinson and his wife were supportive and involved in the spiritual growth and development of their children, involving them in the church’s faith formation ministries, Jarboe said.
“It’s clear that they were a very fine example for living a faith-filled life with and among their family,” he said.
“The healing that needs to come from a truly tragic event like this will not happen quickly,” Jarboe said. “We have a spiritual community here, and the larger Hagerstown and Washington County community, that will always do all that we can to support the Wilkinson family.”
Wilkinson was involved in his community outside of work, coaching youth soccer and baseball, serving on the board for a food resources organization and as a member of community clubs like the Downtown Rotary, and holding multiple roles with the local YMCA, including as a board member and legal counsel.
In a 2019 letter in support of his nomination for the Circuit Court for Washington County, Hagerstown YMCA CEO Maria Rubeling wrote that, during the preceding five years in which she knew and worked closely with Wilkinson, she found him to be “of high ethical standards and strong moral character.”
Rubeling wrote that she was impressed with Wilkinson’s service to the broader Washington County community, especially to young people and their families, through the various organizations and committees on which he served.
“He has a strong foundation in which to serve the citizens of Washington County,” Rubeling wrote to a judicial nominating commission in Annapolis. “I also enjoy Andrew’s sincere approach to work and life and I am confident that he would be an excellent choice.”
Wilkinson shared his time and knowledge with young people in his profession, too, mentoring younger lawyers like Zachary Kieffer, now an assistant Washington County attorney.
Kieffer, who worked under Wilkinson when he was in private practice at the firm Divelbiss & Wilkinson, said that even after Wilkinson was appointed to the bench he was willing to sit down or get on a phone call to share advice with Kieffer, or to check in on his family.
“(He was) someone that you look up to, or I looked up to, in both the professional sense and on a personal level,” Kieffer said. “I just can’t say enough how great of a guy I thought he was.”
