Suspect in robbery spree had escaped harsh sentence
You got to figure robbing a store called Killer Trash can lead to nothing but trouble.
And robbing it three times can lead to real trouble.
The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton takes readers today through a crime spree in which police say one robber hit 17 shops in downtown, Mount Vernon and Fells Point. At one, Killer Trash in Fells Point, a clerk's boyfriend beat him with a baseball bat. That was after police said he had robbed it for the third time.
At a place called Tuxedo Zone, the owner and former city cop said the suspect tried on pants before holding him up, and then police said the man robbed a Lutheran Mission that gives mosts of its stuff away to anyone who asks.
"It's over," Fenton reports detectives telling the man he was finally arrested.
"Thank God," a police spokesman said 39-year-old Mark Lomax answered.
Charges are pending against the suspect, who of course has a long criminal record. Of note, Justin writes, is his robbery of a Subway shop on North Charles Street in 2005. He hit it three times in eight days, and his attorney at the time tried to argue to a jury that his client had to be innocent because what person in his right robs the same place so many times in such a short period?
The jury didn't buy it and a judge put him away for 21 years. But his conviction was overturned on appeal -- a prosecutor had mentioned during opening statements that the defenant had refused to talk with police after his arrest, which is something he is of course allowed to do without it having an adverse effect on his case.
But when Lomax returned to court and got pleaded guilty, a different judge sentenced him to 15 years and suspended all but five. Judge John Addison Howard then made the sentence retroactive to 2005, and Lomax was set free. The judge had accepted a plea deal worked out between prosecutors and Lomax's attorney.
That was June.
Police said the latest robbery spree started a few weeks later.
Comments
I am just appalled by our lack of a justice system in this country. If this criminal was convicted and the judge in this case had the opportunity to put this man behind bars, why on earth would he retro his jail time and suspend all or most of his sentence? He's a criminal! That certainly did not deter this man from being a far worse criminal, back; free on the streets. Maybe, these judges that sit on the benches should get escorted out of their ivory towers and be placed in an office on the business man's streets where he can learn first hand what it is like to be a victim of a crime. Then maybe he wouldn't be so passive to suspend jail time and really penalize this life long criminal. Our society has no hope with a justice system like this one!
Posted by: md resident | August 27, 2009 8:51 AM
I wonder how much time the clerk will do for assaulting this poor bugger?
Posted by: Chipperhead | August 27, 2009 9:54 AM
Baltimore does not have a crime problem we have a Justice System Problem. Shame on Judge John Addison Howard for allowing Lomax to avoid any jail time for his prior crime spree... and same on anyone that would re-elect Judge John Addison Howard to another term.
Posted by: Concerned About Baltimore | August 27, 2009 12:37 PM
leave the judge alone. what idiot prosecuter said the defendant should have testified?
Posted by: defense attorney | August 27, 2009 3:29 PM
Awesome that he clerk's boyfriend gave him a beat down. Too bad the ploice were unable to catch him sooner. Not good P.R. for an already struggling Baltimore Police Department.
Posted by: bdc | August 27, 2009 5:52 PM
Only in Baltimore can police staking out a business and hunting down a serial robber who the criminal justice system let go be considered bad P.R. and bad police work by the Baltimore Police Department.
Posted by: justme | August 27, 2009 8:40 PM
Why in the world do we even have elected judges in MD? Am I the only one who thinks that brings politics directly into the supposedly impartial judicial process? It is blatantly contradictory.
As for this guy, the future victims of this dirt bag's criminal activity should feel free to blame the incompetent attorney and idealistic judge for their troubles
Posted by: Hank | August 28, 2009 9:31 AM
Hank - "an idealistic judge"??? You are so ignorant of the facts it is beyond belief. You can't possibly be that stupid. The judge was pragmatic - if it weren't for this plea the guy would have got off Scot-free. I swear the more I read comments on here the more I am convinced that most people don't know how to think.
Posted by: Attorney | August 29, 2009 9:28 AM
That lead sentence is libelous, in my opinion. KT has been around for more than a decade. You should know better than to poke fun at the name of any person or business that has been the victim of a crime anyway?
Posted by: StanM | August 30, 2009 11:52 AM
the cleck should have beat him down i mean down no getting right upl
Posted by: felicia | August 31, 2009 12:35 AM
Dear Attorney: It seems you have a lot of pent-up anger. You wouldn't by any chance be the genius counsel who tried this case and had the conviction overturned because of a mistake any 1L would never make in opening statements, are you? My point about "idealistic judges" is a shot to the institution of having elected judges, which I find to be ludicrous. I mentioned nothing about the plea arrangements. If you'd take the time to read my short 4-sentence statement instead of reading 3 keywords and blowing your top from some deep-down pent-up angst or frustration, youd've known that. I sure hope you don't work for the state or fed... I'd like the attorneys my tax dollars pay for to read things before they render judgments, criticize, and call people names like a child would.
Posted by: Hank | August 31, 2009 8:54 AM