A Lancaster County jury today convicted a man of shooting and killing a Baltimore man along a Brecknock Township highway following a weeklong trial.

The jury found Kevin Shareed Harmon, of Gwynn Oak, Md., guilty of third-degree murder, theft by unlawful taking and firearms not to be carried without a license for killing 54-year-old Miguel Vazquez-Ruiz near the southbound shoulder of State Route 222 during the early morning hours of April 23, 2023. The jury acquitted Harmon of the more serious offenses of first- and second-degree murder.

“While we respect the jury’s decision and the time they put into this case, we are nevertheless frustrated at their apparent willingness to give credibility to the defendant’s shifting version of events on the stand claiming self-defense,” District Attorney Heather Adams said. “The defendant admittedly never told anyone that he shot the victim in self-defense and destroyed evidence, took money from the victim and immediately began paying his past-due bills after the homicide. We stand by our evidence that this was a pre-planned robbery and a cold, calculated murder.”

Judge Craig Stedman, who presided over the trial, is scheduled to sentence Harmon in May. Harmon is currently being held in Lancaster County Prison on $1 million bail as he awaits his sentencing.

Harmon, 38, shot Vazquez-Ruiz five times, then took more than $2,000 from his body and left his corpse lying mere feet from the road where it was discovered hours later by State Police. A resident who lives half a mile from where Vazquez-Ruiz’s body was found heard several gunshots shortly after 2 a.m.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Ponessa, who prosecuted the case, told the jury Harmon killed Vazquez-Ruiz for money.

Texts and voice messages Harmon sent to his son indicated he was struggling with finances and unable to pay his rent. In the hours after the murder, Harmon suddenly made numerous large transactions.

In one voice message, sent mere minutes after the killing, Harmon told his son he “just got some extra cash because of this ride.”

Vazquez-Ruiz’s fiancé told police he had departed their shared Baltimore residence hours before his death with several thousands of dollars in cash.

Investigators quickly identified Harmon as a suspect, using surveillance footage from outside Vazquez-Ruiz’s home and multiple other locations to identify his vehicle as the one Vazquez-Ruiz was seen entering before his death. When Baltimore County police first arrested Harmon they found dark clothing he had been seen wearing on the night of the killing, though the murder weapon itself was never recovered.

When first questioned by police Harmon claimed Vazquez-Ruiz, his passenger, was suddenly shot and killed by two unknown perpetrators in another vehicle. A terrified Harmon panickily left Vazquez-Ruiz to die as he fled for his life, he claimed.

But DNA evidence pointed to Harmon as the person who fired the shots that killed Vazquez-Ruiz. A State Police K9 identified residue on the center console of Harmon’s car that was later determined to have been produced from a gun being fired. Additional gunshot residue as well as Vazquez-Ruiz’s blood was found on boots seized from Harmon’s residence.

The jury returned a guilty verdict after about 13 hours of deliberation.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper George Lockhart filed the charges.