Cedric Dion Callaway changed the course of his jury trial by admitting first-degree murder after prosecutors had presented evidence for four days.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Four days into his murder trial, Cedric Dion Callaway abandoned the contest over whether a jury would find him guilty and admitted killing his wife, setting up the life sentence with 40 years to serve that an Anne Arundel County judge imposed the following month.
Callaway, 51, pleaded guilty Aug. 13, 2026, to first-degree murder in the death of 44-year-old Sarah Elizabeth Bundy. Circuit Judge Christine Celeste, who had been presiding over the jury trial, accepted the plea and later sentenced Callaway on Sept. 15 to life imprisonment with all but 40 years suspended. The change of plea was the pivotal courtroom development in a case that prosecutors had spent more than a year preparing after Bundy was found dead in a Brooklyn Park alley in May 2025.
The timing mattered because Callaway’s admission came after the trial had already begun and the state had started presenting its evidence. State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess described the plea as a surprise and said she believed it showed the case was not going well for the defense. Her statement reflected the prosecution’s view rather than a judicial finding about why Callaway changed his plea. Publicly available records do not include a complete transcript of Callaway’s plea colloquy or a statement from him explaining his decision, so the exact personal reasons behind the timing have not been independently established.
Whatever prompted the change, the plea removed the central question from the jury. Callaway no longer faced the possibility of acquittal or a jury verdict on first-degree murder because he admitted the charge himself. The remaining proceeding was sentencing. Maryland law classifies a deliberate, premeditated and willful killing as first-degree murder, along with killings committed under several other specified circumstances. A conviction carries life imprisonment or, when additional statutory requirements for that punishment are met, life without the possibility of parole. In Callaway’s case, Celeste imposed a life term while suspending everything beyond 40 years.
The prosecution that reached that point had been built from several categories of evidence. One was surveillance footage. Investigators recovered video near the alley where Bundy was found that showed a woman matching her appearance with a man dressed in dark clothing and a black hooded sweatshirt. According to prosecutors, the man guided her toward the alley during the early morning hours of May 23, 2025. Detectives initially treated the man as a person of interest and later concluded that Callaway matched the person shown in the recording.
A second set of recordings gave investigators a wider timeline. Footage from a laundromat at 716 Church Street showed Callaway and Bundy together until about 12:15 a.m., prosecutors said. The pair left and walked toward Sixth Street. At about 1:30 a.m., Callaway appeared on camera returning to the laundromat alone from the direction of Alley 79. He carried a jacket and a crossbody bag. Investigators said Bundy had been wearing the same bag earlier in the footage. The video also recorded Callaway throwing the jacket into a trash can outside the business.
A separate part of the prosecution case arose from what police observed after Baltimore officers encountered Callaway. While Anne Arundel County detectives were investigating Bundy’s death, Baltimore police told them Callaway was in custody on an unrelated matter. He said he and Bundy had been victims of a robbery in the area the previous night. Callaway claimed he had been pistol-whipped and told police his wife was missing. According to a report based on charging documents, he said he escaped from the alleged attack and fled on foot.
Anne Arundel County investigators said the physical observations did not fit his description of being struck with a gun. They reported seeing no injuries consistent with a pistol-whipping. Detectives did notice apparent blood on his hands and under his fingernails. Those observations became important because they were made as investigators were also reviewing footage placing a man they believed to be Callaway with Bundy near the location where her body was found.
Callaway’s words provided another piece of the state’s account. After detectives took him to the Criminal Investigations Division office, prosecutors said he spontaneously remarked that he was going to “prison” and said he would kill himself if he was being charged with murder. Authorities emphasized that detectives had not told Callaway his wife was dead at the time. The public prosecution summaries do not contain the rest of the interview or a complete description of what information Callaway might have learned from other sources, so the significance of the statement is reported as prosecutors presented it rather than expanded through speculation.
Those investigative developments followed the discovery of Bundy earlier that day. Anne Arundel County police said officers responded at about 9:05 a.m. on May 23, 2025, to Disney Road and Alley 79 after receiving a report of a body. The department’s initial release said officers found a dead woman with apparent trauma and had not yet identified her. Evidence technicians and homicide detectives collected material at the scene, and the body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore.
By May 24, police had publicly identified the victim as Bundy and announced that detectives had obtained an arrest warrant for her husband. Prosecutors later said Bundy’s body had been covered with tires in what investigators viewed as an effort to hide it. They described substantial trauma to her head, face and neck without releasing gratuitous detail. A local report drawing from charging documents said a witness heard a woman shout words resembling “I love you, don’t hurt me” around the time video showed Bundy and a man entering the area.
The legal case took formal shape in June. A Maryland Judiciary filing report shows that Callaway was indicted in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court on June 20, 2025, on one count of first-degree murder. More than a year passed before the matter reached a jury. The public materials consulted for this account do not provide a comprehensive docket narrative of every motion, hearing or evidentiary ruling during that period, and no unsupported procedural details have been added.
When the trial finally opened, prosecutors began putting the accumulated evidence before jurors. The case lasted through four days of trial before Callaway entered the guilty plea. Leitess said afterward that she was grateful the prosecution had obtained what she called justice for Bundy and praised Assistant State’s Attorney Katherine D. Anthony for her work presenting the case. The Anne Arundel County Police Department Homicide Unit led the underlying investigation.
The plea did not immediately determine how much of the required life sentence Callaway would serve before the suspended portion took effect. Celeste scheduled a separate sentencing date for Sept. 15. When Callaway returned to court, she imposed life and suspended all but 40 years. The sentence matched the statutory structure requiring a life term for first-degree murder while allowing the court to suspend part of that sentence. The state’s public announcement did not specify additional probationary terms or provide a complete account of arguments made by defense counsel during sentencing.
Leitess used the sentencing announcement to characterize Bundy’s killing as a calculated act of domestic violence. She said the prison term ensured Callaway was held accountable and added that the office continued to think of Bundy’s loved ones. Prosecutors did not release detailed biographical material about Bundy or reproduce private family statements, leaving the public record focused largely on the investigation and court proceedings rather than turning her death into a collection of unverified personal details.
The case therefore ended in a way that was not apparent when jury selection and testimony began. Jurors never returned a verdict because Callaway’s fourth-day plea made one unnecessary. The surveillance recordings, police observations, reported witness evidence and Callaway’s own statements remained part of the case history, but his conviction ultimately rested on his admission of guilt. One month later, Celeste supplied the final punishment: life in prison, with all but 40 years suspended.
Author note: Last updated November 6, 2026.