A man who went on the run after shooting and killing his co-worker at the Maryland Transit Administration after she finished her shift as a bus driver in Baltimore was ordered on Wednesday to serve life in prison with all but 40 years suspended.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert K. Taylor Jr. called the killing senseless and bemoaned that two lives were thrown away for nothing as he sentenced Leon Hill, 55, of Windsor Mill, on a charge of first-degree murder. He must also spend three years on probation.

On Oct. 18, 2022, Hill fatally shot Elaine Jackson, 40, a mother of four, at the MTA lot near Washington Boulevard and Bush Street in Southwest Baltimore. She was later pronounced dead at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Four days earlier, Jackson filed a petition for a peace order against Hill that alleged he was stalking her and her husband. In court documents, Jackson wrote that Hill stated that if he could not have her “no one will.”

Taylor said any sentence he handed down would only further the turmoil of the two families. At the same time, he said, the punishment had to fit the crime.

“We can’t even pretend to understand what made this happen,” Taylor said. “It’s just incomprehensible.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Paul Crowley asked for a sentence of life in prison with all but 50 years suspended — the maximum allowed under a plea agreement.

Hill, he said, got into an argument with Jackson, shot her, stomped on her face and then shot her again. He then went on the run to Atlanta, and more than two months after the shooting, law enforcement arrested him.

Following the shooting, Crowley said, Hill told a friend that he committed the crime because Jackson disrespected him.

“This was a daylight gunning down,” Crowley said. “Cold-blooded and brazen.”

Her father, Timmy, was one of three loved ones who spoke at sentencing and described Jackson as a lovely and respectful person.

Jackson, he said, was well loved.

“I can’t even say how much I miss my daughter,” he said. “For me, Elaine will always be in my heart.”

Marc Zayon, Hill’s attorney, requested a sentence of life in prison with all but 20 years suspended and called two characters witnesses.

Zayon described what happened as a tragedy for both families and stated that his client was an “atypical defendant.”

Hill, he said, has no prior criminal record. He previously worked as a longshoreman at the Port of Baltimore, ran his own transportation business and drove a school bus. And family members and friends recalled how he would drop everything to help them.

“Mr. Hill snapped that day,” Zayon said. “This was an isolated incident.”

Later, Hill apologized to both families. So many loved ones showed up that they could not fit into the small courtroom in the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse.

He said he wanted to take responsibility for his actions and understood that he needed to be held accountable.

Said Hill: “All I can do is apologize wholeheartedly, full of remorse, riddled with guilt.”