Md. judge fatally shot in ‘targeted attack;’ authorities seek man who had divorce case before him

HAGERSTOWN — A messy divorce exploded into violence Thursday when a father who lost custody of his children that day fatally shot the judge handling the case in what police called a “targeted attack.” Washington County Circuit Judge Andrew Wilkinson was shot outside his home Thursday evening, officials said.

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Authorities are still seeking the suspect, 49-year-old Pedro Argote, who failed to appear at Thursday’s divorce hearing, Washington County Sheriff Brian Albert said at a news conference Friday.

Argote is considered armed and dangerous. He is 5-foot-7 and 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, and may be operating a silver 2009 Mercedes GL450 with registration plates 4EH0408, authorities said.

Anyone with information about Argote’s location is asked to not approach him but to immediately notify law enforcement. The U.S. Marshals Service is offering up to $10,000 for information that helps to locate Argote.

Wilkinson, 52, granted Argote’s wife a divorce and full custody of the couple’s four children in an order issued Thursday. Argote was also barred from the family’s home and ordered to pay $1,120 in child support per month.

Court filings show the couple had a contentious relationship. Argote lived with the family even after he filed for divorce in June of 2022, though the couple lived separately in the home, each taking one floor of the cream-colored house in a development on the outskirts of Hagerstown.

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As the divorce proceeded, Argote’s wife was awarded possession of the home. Argote moved briefly to West Virginia before getting an apartment in Frederick in April, the records show.

Argote ran a digital advertising business with his wife, according to the records, but they were experiencing financial challenges during the divorce. The couple also used to run a food truck, but it shut down during the coronavirus pandemic.

“This was a targeted attack.”
— Washington County Sheriff Brian Albert

Argote’s wife testified at a hearing a year ago that they fought constantly.

“Every time we are around each other, there is always some kind of fight, for any reason whatsoever,” she said in court. The “discussions,” as she called them, sometimes involved their divorce proceedings, which at the time were taking place before a magistrate, not Wilkinson.

Argote’s wife said at one point: “There is a lot of conversations about Judge, and Court.” The arguments were becoming “too much” for the couple’s four children, aged 12, 11, 5 and 3.

Argote’s strategy in the divorce was odd. He filed for divorce from his wife but seemed to believe that they would continue living together for two more years in order to save money and prepare for the separation.

Wilkinson addressed this unorthodox plan in an opinion issued in March.

“It seems that Father entered the court process of divorce without recognizing that the court will not simply sit back and wait for two years while he figures out what he wants to do,” Wilkinson wrote.

The case also left the judge with “the uneasy sense that Father engages in absolute control over Mother, their finances, and their lives,” Wilkinson wrote. “This is not in the best interest of their children.”

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In the same opinion, Wilkinson wrote that Argote’s wife should have primary custody, but agreed that a preliminary agreement did not provide Argote with enough time to spend with the children. The judge also rejected a request from Argote’s wife to temporarily move to Florida, where she has family.

The Florida trip seemed to trigger fear in Argote that his wife would take the children out of the country. At the hearing in October, Argote’s wife said she would agree to turn over the children’s passports to her husband’s lawyer.

Photographs included as exhibits in the divorce show Argote playing with his children, who are smiling in many of the images. One shows two children sitting in front of a chalk drawing that reads “I love you Dad.”

But a petition for a domestic violence protection order from June 2022 portrays Argote as extremely controlling and sometimes violent.

In the petition, Argote’s wife wrote that Argote was leaving her without any financial resources and controlling her movements because he kept the car keys in his possession at all times.

She had to intervene when he tried to become violent with their daughter in October 2020, according to the petition.

“I got in the middle and told him for him to get to her he needed to hit me or kill me,” she wrote. She called an intimate partner violence center in 2012, she wrote, but never got enough help to leave.

“I need help,” she wrote. “Physical violence is not the only kind of violence.”

The woman wrote that she began trying to save money, following advice she had read for domestic violence victims, but Argote took what she had saved. In a later proceeding, Argote’s wife said she had managed to save $2,800 from the food truck before the money disappeared.

“I can’t get out of the house without his knowledge,” she wrote in the petition for a protection order.

“I have been trying to get out of this relationship for the longest time but for the fear that he will try to get custody of the kids,” she wrote.

A temporary protection order was granted, but Argote’s wife ultimately asked to dismiss her petition because the couple agreed on a separated living arrangement, court records show.

A list of the couple’s property shows that Argote owned a 9mm Glock handgun. His wife listed in the domestic violence petition that he owned at least two firearms.

Argote is now being sought in Wilkinson’s slaying. Sheriff’s deputies responded at about 8 p.m. to the 19100 block of Olde Waterford Road and found the judge in his driveway with what appeared to be gunshot wounds.

Wilkinson was transported to Meritus Medical Center but did not survive his injuries, the office said. His wife and son were home at the time of the shooting, the sheriff said Friday.

The judge’s home sits in a quiet residential neighborhood a few minutes north of Hagerstown’s historic downtown district. Neighbors were declining to speak with reporters Friday.

A single bouquet of flowers had been placed outside the garage at the judge’s house, where a silver Toyota truck was parked in the driveway next to a basketball hoop. The yard outside the brick one-story was neatly manicured, free of the autumn leaves that color western Maryland’s landscape in October.

Wilkinson became a Washington County Circuit judge in January 2020, following an appointment from then-Gov. Larry Hogan. Wilkinson worked briefly as a solo practitioner before he joined the bench, and from 2012 until 2018 he worked at Divelbiss & Wilkinson, where he specialized in land use, according to his LinkedIn page.

He also served as an assistant county attorney in Washington County for six years, according to his biography in the Maryland Manual. He graduated from the University of North Carolina with an economics degree in 1994, and received his J.D. from Emory University School of Law  in 1997. He clerked on the Washington County Circuit Court after graduating law school, according to the biography.

Wilkinson was born in Agana, Guam, in 1971. His online biography also tells of a rich personal life: He was a longtime member of St. Ann Roman Catholic Church and had coached youth soccer. He was a father and husband.

The killing shook judges across Maryland, who received little information from the judiciary until late Friday morning. It also intensified the focus on security measures for judges in the wake of a number of threats or attacks on jurists.

Albert, the Washington County sheriff, said there is not believed to be a threat against other judges.

Maryland State Police did precautionary checks at Washington County judges’ homes Thursday night, and in nearby Frederick County, the Sheriff’s Office had been conducting checks on the homes of judges and magistrates, though no known threats have been made.

The Maryland Judiciary released a statement on Thursday morning: “The Maryland Judiciary mourns the tragic death of Judge Andrew Wilkinson. As we grieve his loss, we ask that you keep the Wilkinson family in your prayers and please respect their privacy.”

The Judiciary said it is actively engaging with law enforcement to assist in resolving this matter and to ensure the safety of judges, staff and visitors.

The Washington County Courthouse was open for most of Friday, though it remained quiet throughout the day. Staff members spoke in hushed tones on the third floor, where Wilkinson presided, and where his portrait still hangs.

Daily Record reporters Jack Hogan and Rachel Konieczny contributed to this report.