A Baltimore man was charged with second-degree murder in Harford County Circuit Court after being linked to an August suicide in Forest Hill, according to court documents.

Michael Privett, 30, is also charged with involuntary manslaughter, assisting suicide by providing means, reckless endangerment and nine additional charges. Privett “knew” about the Aug. 7 suicide and provided “assistance on obtaining the means to do so,” according to charging documents.

This case differs from other assisted suicide cases that often involve someone who is terminally ill. In this case, the person who died was not ill, and Privett was charged after police say he took the person to buy an electrical cord, which was eventually used in the suicide.

Thomas J. Maronick Jr., a local criminal defense attorney not involved in this case, said he thinks the prosecution is “overcharging” and would have a difficult time with the charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter since Privett did not apparently directly assist in the suicide.

“That’s the thing that I find just stunning. If somebody’s not actually taking part in the act, how can that be second-degree murder?” Maronick said.

He said prosecutors frequently charge greater than they may be able to prove to provide options for a jury.

“There’s a big difference between assisting someone else to commit a criminal act and taking it upon yourself to perform the act itself,” Maronick said.

The closest situation, Maronick said, he had seen to this was second-degree murder charges for a person who gave drugs to a man who ended up dying. But, he said since the drugs were an illicit substance and the person was already addicted to them, it makes it a different case.

The charges against Privett originate from a well-being check by the Harford County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 10 in Forest Hill. When police arrived, they found the man already dead.

A friend of the victim said they had moved into the apartment about two weeks prior and that their vehicle — a 2017 Gray Nissan Sentra — was not at the apartment. Police noted the victim’s car keys, house keys and wallet were also not at the scene.

Police found a plastic bag in the apartment with a receipt for an electrical cord used in the suicide. The item was purchased at Tractor Supply in Fallston on Aug. 7.

Police reviewed video footage at Tractor Supply and found the victim and an unknown white man, later determined to be Privett, exiting a car at 5:11 p.m. The victim purchased the electrical cord, and the two returned to the car.

Police matched the car’s registration to Privett, and found him on Aug. 11 with the victim’s Nissan car keys in his possession. Privett said in an “excited utterance” that his friend had given him the keys since he was planning to flee the country, according to charging documents.

Then, in a police interview containing “numerous inconsistent statements,” Privett stated he believed the electrical cord was going to be used in the suicide, according to the charging documents.

Privett said when he left the victim’s apartment on Aug. 7, he realized he had forgotten the Nissan’s car keys, so he drove back. He knocked on the door and eventually entered the unlocked apartment, as no one answered. Privett then found the victim and confirmed they had died. He then went into the victim’s bedroom and took the keys before leaving, charging documents say.

Privett said in the police interview he left the Nissan at a relative’s house in northern Harford County. The relatives told police Privett said he had bought the car from someone and would be back in a day or two, according to charging documents.

Police also located a container of the victim’s possessions in Privett’s room, including the victim’s wallet, an unsigned title to the Nissan and cannabis. Charging documents state Privett never notified law enforcement about the victim’s death, attempted to prevent the death or sought assistance to save the victim’s life.

Maronick said the assisting suicide charge in Privett’s case was “flimsy” and comes down to whether the defendant was there during the suicide. Maryland law states that assisting a suicide by providing means requires “knowledge of that individual’s intent to use the physical means to commit suicide.”

In a similar case in 2000 in Anne Arundel County, a teenager provided his girlfriend with a gun used in a suicide. The teenager was eventually found not criminally liable in his girlfriend’s death due to her mental illness.

Maronick alluded to the 1999 murder conviction of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a pathologist who assisted in more than 130 suicides. Kevorkian gave terminally ill patients instructions on how to attempt suicide through machines that administered lethal amounts of narcotics or carbon monoxide, but he “never actually pressed a button,” Maronick said. Kevorkian was eventually convicted of second-degree murder because of a video in which he injected the patient with lethal chemicals.

Maronick said the collateral damage that could come from this case would be that the state could imply anything could be a murder weapon. He used the example of someone providing an exercise band to another person and then that person using it for suicide. If the person then dies, “almost anybody could be a murderer at that point,” he said.

“I’d be very concerned about this case from the standpoint of where this could go,” he said.

Maronick said there is a much better case for reckless endangerment – a misdemeanor.

“By giving the instrument of death to somebody that you knew was likely to take advantage of that could be a reckless act,” he said.

The Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office said it would not provide pretrial comment on pending cases. Lawyers representing Privett did not respond to requests for comment.

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