The despicable reaction of some to the cold-blooded murder of a Maryland judge

Judge Andrew Wilkinson was murdered last week, and some are cheering.

Maryland Judge Andrew Wilkinson was murdered in his front lawn last Thursday

A Maryland judge was murdered in his front driveway, and a man whose custody case the judge presided over is the chief suspect.

Judge Andrew Wilkinson was murdered in his driveway in Hagerstown, Maryland last Thursday.

Wilkinson was shot in the driveway of his Hagerstown, Md., home on Thursday night. According to the sheriff's office statement, the 52-year-old judge was transported to Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, where he later died of his injuries.

Earlier that day, Wilkinson awarded Argote's wife full legal custody of the estranged couple's four children in divorce proceedings. The judge also ordered Argote not to contact them.

According to NPR member station WYPR in Baltimore, Argote did not attend the hearing. But authorities believe the suspect targeted Wilkinson as a result of the judge's ruling.

Argote had no earlier criminal record in Washington County, the station reported. Sheriff Brian Albert earlier told reporters that his deputies had been called to Argote's house twice in recent years for verbal domestic assaults, though no charges were filed.

The chief suspect in this murder is Pedro Argote.

Pedro Argote, the chief suspect

As the news story above indicated, Argote was involved in a divorce which had a hearing earlier that day. Argote never showed and Judge Wilkinson awarded his ex-wife sole custody.

She’s now in hiding.

On October 19, 2023, Pedro Argote took the life of Judge Andrew Wilkinson after Judge Wilkson ordered there to be no contact between Argote and Ms. Argote and their 4 children due years of extreme abuse. Argote currently remains on the loose and Ms. Argote and her 4 children (12, 10, 5, 3) are displaced from their home until he is captured. They are unable to make or go out for meals, get clothing (they left the home with nothing) or attend to their needs.

These children have been through horrendous things, and on the day that they thought it would finally be over, it got unimaginably worse. Whatever you can do to assist the children and mom is greatly appreciated.

Due to the safety concerns for Ms. Argote, we are asking for donations. If you would like to make a donation another way, please contact [email redacted] or [phone redacted].

This meal train has been set-up for the family by the attorney for the minor children!

Coincidentally, the minor’s counsel- who set up the Go Fund Me- is Ashley Wilburn, who is the minor’s counsel for Ben Villanueva. I didn’t write about her in the written article, but Ben and I did discuss her involvement in the interview.

Details remain scant- for now- about what happened in the Argote divorce, but the NY Post did write an article.

Argote filed for divorce in June of 2022, and Eugenia was granted a temporary protection order against him that same month. In her request, she wrote her husband was abusive and she was afraid of him.

“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,” Eugenia wrote in the petition viewed by USA TODAY.

“I can’t get out of the house without his knowledge,” she wrote.

She had to intervene when he allegedly tried to become violent with their daughter in October 2020, according to the petition, also obtained by The Daily Record.

“I got in the middle and told him for him to get to her he needed to hit me or kill me,” she continued.

She called Ruth’s House, a partner violence center, in 2012, she wrote but never got enough help to leave.

“I need help,” she added. “Physical violence is not the only kind of violence … I don’t know what to do.”

The arguments were becoming “too much” for the couple’s four children, aged 12, 11, 5 and 3, she added.

Given that Argote likely killed his judge, it’s a good chance that he was also abusive to his wife and children, but that hasn’t stopped some- many who know nothing about the case itself- from sticking up for the alleged murderer.