Baltimore County police investigating a man who shot a child in the leg with a pellet gun in February got a surprise when they searched his apartment in Owings Mills -- a pile of guns, ammunition, bombs, fuses and metal pipes.

In addition to bomb making materials, police said they found books with titles such as "The Anarchist Cookbook," "Blaster's Handbook," "The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives," "Improvised Radio Detonation Techniques," "The Do-It-Yourself Gunpowder Cookbook," "Home-Built Claymore Mines," and "Ragnar's Homemade Detonators -- How to Make 'Em, How to Salvage 'Em, How to Detonate 'Em."

Timothy Ray Berry, 28, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Thursday to possession of firearms and explosives and faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on March 1. Here's what police said they found in his apartment:

The BB gun used in the assault, a loaded 9mm handgun, a 12-gauge shotgun, 3 boxes of ammunition, handcuffs, brass knuckles, other BB guns and airsoft pistols and a stun gun.  Police also observed "several improvised explosive devices, including: C-4 explosive material; and a clear plastic container with gray powder and a M-800 pyrotechnic device inside, secured with a white lid with a burnt hole in the center."

Authorities searched the apartment a second time and said they found "items commonly used in the production of illegal improvised explosives, including, among other things: containers of potassium nitrate and potassium chlorate, smokeless shotgun powder, model rocket igniters and motors, pool chemicals, various fuse materials, PVC and metal pipe of varying lengths and pipe fittings."

Police also said they found "numerous books related to firearm and the manufacture of illegal improvised explosives. Berry had underlined and starred book titles including, “Clear Your Record & Own a Gun,” and “How to Lose Your X-Wife Forever.”  Berry’s computer was also seized and a subsequent forensic analysis revealed that less than a month before, Berry had searched online for how to make homemade C-4, and how to fabricate tags for Maryland license plates."

The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement that on March 1, "following Berry’s arrest and detention on state charges related to child abuse, reckless endangerment, and gun possession, and with knowledge of the imminent federal investigation, Berry called another individual from jail and instructed that person to “burn” the “other books” and to get rid of “anything that looks like it could be suspect...”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

The jury had just been seated, pared down from 55 citizens to 12, and judge, Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill, was admonishing the jury about not talking about the case. No Twitter notes. No Facebook. Don't spill the days testimony at the family dinner table. Don't read the papers.

Seconds later, a female juror raised her hand. She sheepishly told the judge that, before she was selected to the panel, she had called her husband and said, "You won't believe the case I'm on."

The judge told her not to do it again, and then told the jurors the case they were on would generate publicity. The back two rows were filled with reporters watching jury selection, a tedious process usually skipped by the media.

The case involves Paul Schurick, an aide to former Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., accused of orchestrating a robocall campaign to suppress the the black vote during last year's governor's election won by Democrat Martin O'Malley. Read story here.

Ehrlich is expected to take the witness stand, as is Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, along with a cast of political characters who might open up the world of dirty tricks and political intrigue in Maryland politics.

The judge, appointed by O'Malley but having won an independent election that keeps him on the bench through 2025, admitted to receiving one of the robocalls, telling voters the election was over, O'Malley had won and there was no need to vote even though polls were still open.

Schurick, charged with conspiracy to commit election fraud, is represented by a prominent black defense attorney, who plans on calling the black congressman Cummings to talk about his counter robocalls and whether there was some giant political conspiracy afoot.

Let the political games begin.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A man who authorities say robbed banks from Glen Burnie to Brookings, South Dakota, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Monday. Gary Allen Densmore, 56, who used to live in Anne Arundel County, faces up to 20 years on each of three counts of bank robbery.

Prosecutors say that on Feb. 2, he tried to rob the Carrollton Bank on Crain Highway in Glen Burnie by handing a teller a bag and a demand note. He ran out of the bank when the teller hesitated. The next day, prosecutors said he walked into the Severn Savings Bank on Crain Highway, handed the teller a note and a bag, and fled with $2,300.

The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said Densmore stole a car and left Maryland. They said he hit banks in February and March in Wisconsin, South Dakota and Iowa before being arresrted in Minnesota.

More details from a statement by the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office:

Continue reading "Serial bank robber pleads guilty; hit several states" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

The Sun's Tricia Bishop writes about a man cleared of murder by DNA, and who is now suing the city:

James L. Owens Jr., who spent 20 years behind bars on burglary and murder charges only to be freed in 2008 by a DNA discovery, has filed a $15 million lawsuit claiming Baltimore police and prosecutors intentionally suppressed exculpatory information in his case.

Owens, 46, says investigators pressured a key witness, who was later convicted as an accomplice in the case, into changing stories mid-trial in 1988 and that a jailhouse informant, who claimed Owens confessed, testified in exchange for special favors. The defense team wasn't told of either circumstance, according to the civil suit, which was moved into federal court recently from the city, where it was originally filed.

It's a disturbing case in which the only certainty is that a 24-year-old woman — a phone company employee and community college student — was brutally murdered a quarter century ago, stabbed, strangled and sexually assaulted in her Southeast Baltimore row house.

Read full story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

Anne Arundel County police had been looking for Cornelius Keith Johnson for nearly week in the killing of a man outside a seafood restaurant and Glen Burnie.

Authorities said Johnson unwittingly came to them.

On Nov. 13, the 24-year-old reported to the Baltimore County Detention Center to serve a weekend sentence -- total four days -- for driving on a suspended license. Jail officials discovered there was a warrant out for his arrest.

He was detained and on Monday was taken to Anne Arundel County and charged with first-degree murder in the Nov. 13 killing of Andrew Michael Johnson, 25, outside MO's Seafood on Ritchie Highway.

Police have not released a motive or said what led them to the suspect, who is not related to the victim. The shooting occurred about 10:30 p.m. The suspect lives in the 4200 block of Shamrock Ave. in Northeast Baltimore.

Correction: Police said on Tuesday that the suspect and victim are believed to be half-brothers. Read the full story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

Here is the moving opening of a story by Justin Fenton, The Sun's crime reporter, in January of last year:

"In Lennice Hudson's home, a refuge for foster children, Darius Ray found stability.

He became a track star at his Gaithersburg high school, graduated, flirted with college and ultimately joined the Marines. Between his foster brothers and sisters and Hudson's two biological children, he had a family, one he would join every week for dinner. On Sunday, the family was planning to celebrate his 20th birthday.

"I love you and I want a red velvet cake," he texted Hudson in anticipation.

But Ray would not make it to his own celebration. He was fatally stabbed in Northeast Baltimore the day before at a party thrown by friends."

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge on Thursday sentenced Michael Wiggins to life in prison for killing Ray for asking him to leave the party. He was one of three active or current members of the armed services killed in Baltimore in two months.

Read Justin's story on Darius Ray.

More details from a statement issued by the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office:

Continue reading "Man gets life for killing Marine" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northeast Baltimore
        

A 31-year-old man has been sentenced to four life prison terms for executing a federal witness who fingered a dozen suspected drug dealers in South Baltimore's Westport neighborhood. The victim, Kareem Guest, pleaded for mercy before being shot a dozen times on the street in 2009.

Guest was outed as an informant after an FBI report detailing his cooperation was leaked and posted throughout the neighborhood, where Guest and his killer lived. The shooter, Antonio "Mack" Hall, 30, was found guilty by a jury in U.S. District Court in Baltimore in August.

The Sun's court reporter, Tricia Bishop, recounts the chilling details of the case in her coverage of the trial. Testimony revealed that Hall had a history of retaliating against witnesses and so-called "snitches," and was linked to the killing of a teen-aged drug dealer, shot as he played video games, and to the shooting of a junkie who had helped police arrest one of his friends.

Guest, arrested on heroin distribution charges in 2008, had agreed to cooperate with the FBI to bring down a gang selling heroin branded "Dynasty." His help led to the convictions of eight defendants, including the ring-leader who went away for 22 years.

A defense attorney for one of those suspects was given a copy of Guest's FBI statement so he could prepare his defense. Defense attorneys are allowed to share the information with their clients, but not hand over hard copies. The attorney admitted to giving a copy to his client and to his client's mother.

Once on the street, the document became a virtual wanted poster, prosecutors said, leading to the killing of Guest. The attorney, a former federal prosecutor from Detroit, was not prosecuted, but he was later disbarred for taking on clients and pocketing fees without telling his own law firm.

Lawyers for Hall argued that Guest had many enemies and that their client was the killer, but the jury rejected the arguments. The case highlighted the troubling issue of witness intimidation and showed how dangerous it is to be an informant.

Guest's statement to the FBI was tacked to telephone poles and to a basketball hoop in Westport and a copy was even found in a jail cell in New Jersey. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, South Baltimore, Witness intimidation
        

The Sun's Luke Broadwater and Scott Calvert report today:

"The city's budget office revealed at an investigative hearing Tuesday that it has spent $10.4 million over the past three years — an average of about $3.5 million annually — defending the Baltimore Police Department against lawsuits.

Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke called for the hearing over what she called an "especially troubling" trend of the Police Department paying out millions over brutality claims while other parts of the budget, such as recreation centers, suffer cuts.

"Not only do they siphon off scarce funds that could have been used to address other pressing problems in Baltimore, but each judgment also can represent an instance where citizens were avoidably harmed by the actions of officers whose job it is to protect them," Clarke stated in a resolution that called for the hearing.

Police officials testified Tuesday that they have instituted better training for officers, which has reduced brutality complaints, and City Solicitor George Nilson argued that sometimes the city needs to spend more on legal fees to ensure lower settlements or judgments. About 65 percent of the cases against police allege excessive force, officials said."

Read the complete story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

A man and a woman were each convicted in federal court of wire and mail fraud on Monday for running a complex rental car scheme that defrauded as many as 1,500 people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Erica Brown, 29, of Laurel, and Lamondes Williams, 52, of Baltimore, each face up to 20 years in prison when they scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 16. A jury in U.S. District Court sat through a nine-day trial before convicting the suspects on a combined 23 counts of wire fraud and 16 counts of mail fraud.

Authorities said the suspects advertised on the Internet that people could rent cars for as little as $15.95 a day, drive up to 3,000 miles for free and receive a break on gas. But customers lured by the ads found themselves being sold something else instead.

For more details:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

In 2009, Michael Voorhis used a baseball bat to beat a man attacking his girlfriend as he held up the Fells Point store where she worked.

"I don't regret it at all," Voorhis told me today, after the suspect was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. His girlfriend, Brittany Byers, called the ordeal "absolutely terrifying" but still works at the store, Killer Trash, on Broadway.

Federal prosecutors said the suspect Mark Lomax, 41, was sentenced to prison on Tuesday. He was convicted by a federal jury in June at a trial during which both Byers and Voorhis testified. Lomax committed 14 other holdups in a month during the summer of 2009 at shops in Mount Vernon, Fells Point and downtown.

Lomax held up Killer Trash three times in eight days. On the final time, Voorhis, worried about his girlfriend, was waiting. When Lomax came in, he hit him over the head with a baseball bat, bragging later that he had gotten "three or four clean shots at his head."

The suspect got away, but dropped the $4 he managed to get from the register and his baseball cap. Both items had DNA that matched Lomax, prosecutors said. Police said he used a collapsible wooden yard-stick covered in tape and wrapped in a plastic bag to resemble a firearm.

Byers, who joined her boyfriend in going after Lomax, hitting him with a jewelry bag, said: 

“It was absolutely terrifying. It was intimidating to see him again in the courtroom. But there’s a part of you that says, you have to stick up for yourself. I couldn’t back down out of fear. This store is my livelihood. I’m not going to let somebody bully me out of my life.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, North Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore
        

Barry Murel, even by Baltimore standards, has had his share of trouble. Federal authorities say he's been convicted 11 previous crimes. On Thursday, a judge sent him away again, this time for 16 years for selling drugs and possessing a gun.

His record spans two pages of the Maryland judiciary court website -- convictions mostly for drugs and assault. He's never made his way into the newspapers.

Here is what the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office has to say about the now 12-time convicted criminal:

Continue reading "Convicted 11 times, suspect goes to prison again" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northwest Baltimore
        

It was a busy day on Tuesday's crime front. The picture by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam is from Occupy Baltimore, which is embroiled in security issues (see blurb below).

Catch up on the latest headlines:

Today: Attorneys are scheduled to make closing arguments in the bribery trial of state Sen. Ulysses Currie in federal court. Currie, a Prince George's Democrat, is accused of selling his influence as chairman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee to do political favors for Shoppers Food Warehouse. Read how the state's power brokers are rallying around Currie, and other stories.

* The man convicted of killing a Towson gas station owner for money apologized Tuesday in Harford County Circuit Court to the victim's family and friends, saying "I'm sorry to the last fiber of my being." The apology came shortly before a jury was to begin deliberating whether Walter P. Bishop Jr. will be sentenced to death or life in prison.

* The Occupy Baltimore protest is now entrenched at the Inner Harbor, but its members are questioning whether they can sustain the movement amid a dwindling number of core leaders and allegations of crime and drug use. Reports that a woman was sexually assaulted in a tent, deemed unfounded by city police, have nevertheless put public safety at the forefront.

* A 52-year-old man died after being shot during a robbery at a carryout restaurant in Better Waverly on Monday night, renewing concerns in the community about the crime connected to the beleaguered business. The Yau Brothers carryout, in the 2900 block of Greenmount Ave., was closed Tuesday, as it was after similar shooting incidents in the past two years: In 2010, 72-year-old security guard Charles Bowman was fatally shot in a robbery there, a year after three men were shot following a fight that broke out inside.

* A former professional basketball player pleaded guilty Tuesday in the pistol whipping of his girlfriend's brother after a dispute at a cookout in Arnold.

* Towson University students and employees were briefly alerted to stay inside Tuesday afternoon, because police were looking for a man with a gun on campus. But the man turned out to be carrying a prop gun for an acting class, said Towson spokeswoman Gay Pinder.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Downtown, North Baltimore
        

A man charged with adopting cats and then killing one and mutilating another pleaded guilty in Baltimore court today.

Prosecutors said Ethan Phillip Weibman faces up to three years in prison when he is sentenced in February and was ordered to not have any contact with animals. Police and prosecutors said he brought the injured and dead cats back to a store and a vet and asked to adopt more.

The suspect is a well-to-do young man who grew up in a million-dollar home in affluent Westchester County, N.Y., and attended Hampshire College. He listed David Foster Wallace and Hunter S. Thompson among his favorite writers on his Facebook page.

His mother, Carol Weibman, professed his innocence when Sun reporter Jill Rosen reached her this summer, even while expressing frustration in her son's lawyer's warning for her not to talk. "It's hard, especially when you want to shout out your innocence to the world," she said. "I wish I could say more, but my lips, unfortunately, are sealed."

Here is a statement from the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office:

Continue reading "Man pleads guilty to mutilating cats" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore City Police Detective Antonio Green is in hot water this week after being charged with filing false insurance disability claims. But three years ago he had been previously under investigation after testifying in federal court on behalf of a convicted drug dealer who he said he had known since he was 11.

Antonio Green, a member of the Violent Crimes Impact Section, contradicted the testimony of a fellow officer when he appeared at an evidentiary hearing for defendant Richard Morris, who had been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and was appealing the conviction.

Green had arrived at the scene on April 12, 2007 as backup, and testified that the two bags of cocaine found in the silver BMW were hidden under a seat, and not in plain view as the arresting officers had reported. He also contradicted the officers' assertion that Morris had claimed ownership of the drugs recovered from the car.

Experts said it was extraordinarily rare that an officer would contradict another officer in court, or testify for the defense at a suppression hearing. Police said at the time that they were opening an internal investigation file on the incident. 

It was not immediately clear what came of that case, but Green continued to do drug investigations, making some 30 arrests this year and as recently as Oct. 18; Morris, meanwhile, lost his appeal in 2009. The Court of Appeals didn't appear to take Green's testimony into account in affirming his conviction, instead finding that the officers who pulled over Morris had a reasonable suspicion that he was involved in a drug transaction.

Now, Green is charged with a felony count of filing false claims worth more than $300, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. There's also a misdemeanor charge, stemming from the same claim. 

Green was charged through criminal information, and is first court hearing is scheduled for late next month.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A 19-year-old man convicted of shooting a neighborhood acquaintance, leaving him paralyzed, was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The shooting occurred Halloween night two years ago as the two men passed each other on Ramblewood Road in Loch Raven in Northeast Baltimore.

A jury found the suspect, Antwane Brown, guilty of attempted second-degree murder and handgun violations in July. The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office said that as Brown and the victim, Craig Pearson, passed each other, Brown called out and Pearson turned and was shot in the back.

"There is no known motive for the shooting," prosecutors said in a statement. "Brown and Pearson knew each other from the neighborhood but they had no history of animosity or conflict." 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northeast Baltimore
        

This just in from The Sun's Arthur Hirsch:

A jury has found a Baltimore County man guilty of first-degree murder in the murder-for-hire slaying of a Towson gas station owner in March 2010.

The case will next go to the penalty phase, which is scheduled to begin Thursday morning. Walter P. Bishop Jr., 29, now faces the possibility of being sentenced to death. He could be the first person to receive the death penalty since a new law took effect that requires DNA or video evidence or a video taped confession in such cases.

Bishop was accused of shooting William "Ray" Porter in a Hess station on East Joppa Road on the morning of March 1, 2010. Five others have also been implicated in the crime, including Porter's wife, Karla, her sister, brother and nephew.

Watch video of police interview with Bishop.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Breaking news, Courts and the justice system, Harford County
        

City prosecutors have for the second time won the first conviction under the state's gang statute.

Dajuan Marshall, 29, was convicted in August 2010 of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and participation in a criminal gang - a statute enacted in Maryland in 2007 - in the 2008 killing of Kenneth "Cash" Jones, a leader in the Pasadena Denver Lanes Blood set abducted near The Block and later found dead in the trunk of a car. But that conviction was overturned due to juror misconduct, after a juror did an Internet search for Marshall's prior criminal record. Circuit Court Judge L. George Russell said the evidence was overwhelming against Marshall, but said he had no option but to declare a mistrial.

Prosecutors gave it another try this month, and once again convicted Marshall, this time of conspiracy to commit murder and participation in a gang.

Witnesses identified Marshall, a leader in the Spyda Bloods set, as the person who ordered Jones' murder and one of two men who forced Jones into the trunk. 

Marshall will be sentenced on Dec. 20 and faces a maximum sentence of life plus 20 years in prison.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gangs
        

Erick Lee Spencer walked into a Baltimore County Jiffy Lube on the day after Christmas 2006, confronted a clerk and said, "Don't say nothing."

Tyrone Stinnette promptly handed the man money from the till. He testified in court that no weapon was revealed, and nothing else was said. But he concluded, "We got robbed."

The prosecutor asked if he believed the man had a weapon.

"I wasn't taking no chances," Stinnette replied.

Spencer was convicted of robbery, theft and assault and sentenced to 25 years in prison, without the possibility of parole, because he had two prior felony robbery convictions.

The suspect appealed, arguing that evidence was insufficient to support a robbery conviction. Today, the Maryland Court of Appeals agreed, and sent the case back to Baltimore County Circuit Court.

Read the Court of Appeals decision.

For more details:

Continue reading "When a robbery is not a robbery" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

The teenager from Ellicott City who is charged with using the Internet to solicit money for a convicted terrorist who called herself "Jihad Jane" pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. The hearing was brief; a trial date was set for December.

Attorneys for the Mount Hebron High School graduate, in interviews outside the courtroom, portrayed their client, Mohammad Massan Khalid as a stellar student with a family described as the "true American immigrant story."

They said federal prosecutors misconstrued the emails they intercepted on Internet chat boards but noted their client's life has been destroyed. He withdrew from Johns Hopkins University, where he had a full scholarship this fall. He was arrested in secret when he was 17 years old; the charges were unsealed last week, after he had turned 18.

Federal prosecutors have outlined an indictment that alleges Khalid tried to raise money to help fund a holy war in Europe. More on the prosecution's case in today's story. He is being detained in federal custody until his trial, one of the country's youngest terror suspects.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Howard County
        

A 37-year-old man was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday for helping rob a bank in Harbor East and stealing $157,000. Federal authorities said that the man's accomplice has already been sent to prison for 15 years.

Bank robberies in Baltimore typically net only a few thousand dollars -- the so-called "bait money" that tellers set aside. The typical bank robber is armed with a note more often than a gun. But this case was far more brazen.

Prosecutors with the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said the gunmen hit the Harbor Bank branch in the 1000 block of Lancaster St. on March 11, 2010. The man sentenced Thursday, Jenerette Dixon, 35, jumped over the counter and forced tellers at gunpoint to open the vault.

Police said the Dixon and his accomplice used a fake bomb to slow police response.

More details from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office below:

Continue reading "Bank robber sent away for 20 years for stealing $157,000" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown
        

City prosecutors secured a guilty verdict from a jury in the torture and drug-related killing of a college student, while a former pastor who pleaded guilty to taking out life insurance policies and arranging the death of a blind, disabled man in his care was sentenced to life in prison.

Neither was publicized by the State's Attorney's Office, which hasn't publicized a case on its website or Facebook since Sept. 28.

Kevin Pushia, 35, pleaded guilty last year to orchestrating the 2009 murder of Lemuel Wallace, who was found shot in the head in Leakin Park, and on Monday Pushia was sentenced by Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams to life plus 45 years for the murder and related fraud charges, Reuters reported.

Pushia worked with the group home where Wallace lived, and said he obtained life insurance policies in Wallace's name and then conspired with brothers James and Kareem Clea to murder him. The Clea brothers were acquitted by a jury at trial, despite Pushia's testimony against them.

In another high profile case, prosecutors secured a conviction last week against Johnny Butler in the killing of Sintia Mesa, a college student who police said was killed over debts owed by her drug dealing boyfriend. Here's an account from opening statements and the first day of trial.

Prosecutors showed the jury that DNA was found on Mesa's body; she had been raped and tortured before being found in the trunk of her vehicle. 

After the verdict, Khalilah Harris, a friend of Mesa who attended the testimony, tweeted this thanks to the detectives: "Det. Boris was honorable and professional the entire time. We thank him and his unit 4 their work."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The South Side Brims, the Bloods gang taken down by the feds on Thursday, worked from one end of the state to the other. Authorities allege a broad scheme that stretched from the Eastern Shore to Western Maryland.

As The Sun's Justin Fenton wrote today, court documents describe a virtual modern-day tutorial in gangs. Along with the allegations of murder, revenge killings, drug running and gun use, federal prosecutors say members used YouTube, Facebook and text messaging to communicate and to boast.

It's a colorful rendition.

They kept meticulous notes and lists of members, including phone numbers, broken down by geographic region. Those who were locked up were called "G-Wall Homies." Those on the street were "G-World Homies."

Alleged gang members threw dues into a kitty to pay expenses, such as bail, firearms and legal bills. They had the Brim Association Blood Application, a list of signs and signals, and the Brim's Concept of War. Many had multiple nicknames -- Squeaky, Redrum, Platinum, Diamond,
Trigger, Ransom, Blaze, Breezy Brim.

Targets were "on the menu." Members went on Facebook, openly talking about their affiliation and posting pictures of meetings.

Leaders, called "hats," had "round table" discussions, once the feds say, to plan on how to gently recruit two members from a rival gang without inciting a war.

They had First Lady's," one of whom kept the books in Salisbury.

The feds said one text message from a First Lady: "Bang Bang Brim Gang Hat Til I Die."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Howard County
        

Coming off revelations by The Sun's Justin Fenton on the lavish lifestyle of a reputed drug dealer, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office gives us another example today.

A federal judge sentenced Eric Hellams, 40, to more than 10 years in prison for drug dealing and money laundering. Prosecutors said he distributed heroin in the Baltimore area from 2003 through 2009.

Prosecutors said he hid his drug proceeds by laundering up to $1 million, some of it by refinancing a home in Upper Marlboro, listing an annual income of $178,764. Authorities said that when they searched his home, they found $98,875 hidden in an attic crawl space, a bullet-proof vest, jewelry -- including Rolex, Gucci and Cartier watches -- necklaces and Tiffany bracelets.

The feds also said he had a 2008 Mercedes-Benz coupe -- monthly payments $2,200 -- and a Toyota Truck. Prosecutors said they found $1,220 in an apron pocket. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

The Sun's Luke Broadwater writes:

The bleach and Pine-Sol fight that temporarily shut down a Baltimore County Walmart over the weekend was the latest dispute in a heated love triangle, according to court documents, witnesses and attorneys involved in the case.

A Baltimore County judge on Tuesday ordered Theresa Monique Jefferson, 33, of Lansdowne held on $350,000 bond on charges that she attacked another woman with bleach at a Lansdowne Walmart on Saturday. The fumes from chemicals caused 19 people to be taken to area hospitals, police said.

Baltimore County Assistant State's Attorney John P. Cox argued that Jefferson is a danger to her former boyfriend, Calvin Pannell, and his current fiance, Ebony Odoms, whom she's accused of attacking.

"We have grave concerns for the safety of the two victims if she should be let out on the streets," Cox said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

What do millions of dollars in heroin proceeds buy? According to federal prosecutors, for Joy Edison, the wife of a reputed drug kingpin, it brought lavish island trips, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of luxury accessories, and a spacious house in the suburbs. And she was still receiving public assistance.

Edison was sentenced last month to 70 months in federal prison for her role in laundering anywhere from $400,000 to $1 million in drug proceeds for Steven Blackwell, who is pending trial on heroin conspiracy charges. Federal prosecutors say Blackwell made millions, an operation that came crashing down after his drug organization was linked by police to a spate of retaliatory shootings that left several people dead.

"Her involvement was not just as a money launderer," Assistant U.S. Attorney James Warwick wrote in court papers. "Edison profited handsomely from her relationship with Blackwell," spending "hundreds of thousands of dollars generated from heroin sales on luxury items for her personal benefit."

To drive home the point, prosecutors included images, some posted at right, of some of Edison's $130,000 in Louis Vuitton and Gucci accessories, as well as vacation photos from trips to the Dominican Republic, the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, the Bahamas, and Las Vegas, where they rode around in a stretch limo.

And yet, Edison had also applied for government assistance, stating that she earned $13 an hour working at a communications business and was enrolled in school. "Representing that she resided on West Lexington Street and misrepresenting her financial condition, Edison was granted the requested public assistance," authorities wrote in court papers. In fact, the couple lived in a $760,000 home in Elkton, Md.

Edison's attorney, Gary Ticknor, said Edison was not motivated by greed. "She was in love with her husband, and that was a motivating factor. I'm not sure the money was all that important - obviously, some people disagree," Ticknor said.

Ticknor said he presented to the judge 50 letters of support for Edison from family, friends and neighbors, who said she was a "good and generous person" who helped people in her old neighborhood. "The question that the court had of them, and I think this was a major problem, was whether they knew all of the details of the crimes for which she had pled guilty, which most of them did not," Ticknor said.

In order to conceal Blackwell's earnings, Edison admitted in her guilty plea that she helped launder the money by purchasing "winning Maryland Lottery tickets" in the amount of $138,000, and that they gambled the money and reported their "cash-outs," exceeding $184,000.

Edison and another co-conspirator, Tahirah Carter, have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced (though Carter has filed an intent to appeal her sentence). Blackwell is tentatively scheduled to go to trial in early December.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

It was 2 in the morning, and Craig Bouie and his wife were feeding their month-old son in an upstairs room of their Milford Mill home. Their 11-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were sleeping. That's when police say Kelly Shird, 28, broke into the home on Western Woods Circle, on Aug. 5, 2010.

Authorities say Bouie confronted Shird, who had gotten in through a rear basement window, and was shot three times. Prosecutors say Shird accidentally shot himself as well. Bouie died at a hospital.

Police captured Shird, of the 800 block of McHenry St. in Baltimore, a week later in Virginia. On Thursday, Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger said a jury convicted Shird of first-degree murder, burglary and using a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence.

Shird is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 20.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

After 30 years of drug dealing, Walter Horton realized in early 2010 that he was in over his head. A friend was dead, and he believed he could be next.

He wrote a letter to his family, placed it underneath a television, and told them to read it if anything ever happened to him. "Please forgive me God," it began.

In it, Horton explained how a drug associate, Calvin "Turkey" Wright, had visited him and asked for help moving a vehicle. Days later, the nude body of 25-year-old Sintia Mesa would be found in the trunk.

Horton testified about that letter in Baltimore Circuit Court Thursday as a witness in the murder trial of Johnny Butler. Wright, 39, has already pleaded guilty in the case, and state prosecutors are trying to convince a jury that Butler, who turns 36 next week, should be convicted too.

The case is the last step in an investigation that has spanned several years and already resulted in a life prison term for Butler, who was convicted in federal court last year for running a major heroin and cocaine trafficking organization. Detectives Gregory Boris and Arthur Brummer worked the Mesa case for years, resulting in a wiretap investigation that took down Butler's organization.

Among those convicted in the drug case was Horton, whose testimony defense attorneys say should not be believed. Horton's letter to his family doesn't mention Butler as having any involvement in Mesa's killing, though he now testifies that Butler was there. And defense attorney Natalie Finegar said in opening statements Thursday that they will bring forward a DNA expert to discredit forensic evidence that links Butler to the killing.

Finegar said the prosecution took Horton's testimony "and laid out their foundation, and then took the evidence and tried to fit a square peg into a round hole."

At the center of the case is Mesa, a graduate of Morgan State University who homicide detectives have said was an innocent victim. She was dating a drug dealer and aspiring music mogul named Jemarl Jones, who had ties to Wright and Butler. When Butler fell out of favor with his Dominican drug suppliers, he had to find a way to come up with cash and turned to Mesa to get to Jones' money, the detectives said.

Continue reading "Trial begins in torture, killing of 25-year-old woman" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Remember Gerard Mungo Jr.?

He's the 7-year-old who was arrested four years ago while sitting on an idling dirt bike in front of his East Baltimore rowhouse. Police cuffed the child, took him to a station and shackled him to a bench before taking him to juvenile detention.

The case attracted national attention, was debated in the media, earned a rebuke and an apology to the family from the mayor and a hefty lawsuit by the boy's family. A jury last year awarded the parents nothing, even though the judge found two officers had illegally arrested the boy because they didn't witness the incident.

Gerard is at left with his mother in this picture taken by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam.

The family appealed arguing a Baltimore judge improperly moved the trial out of the city, citing negative publicity against the police officers, and that they couldn't get a fair trial in Howard County because the racial mix is far lower than in the city.

Maryland's second-highest court, the Court of Special Appeals, rejected both arguments in an opinion issued Friday. The court ruled that moving the proceedings to Howard was proper, and that the family got a fair trial.

Read the court's full opinion here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Howard County
        

He got $13 in the robbery. Now he could go to prison for life for shooting a bystander.

The Sun's Luke Broadwater reports today: The second of two men charged in the shooting and killing of a 72-year-οld security guard who worked fοr the Afro-American newspaper was convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday evening.

After deliberating for two days, a Baltimore City Circuit Court jury found Michael Hunter, 20, guilty of murder, armed robbery and handgun violations in connection with the murder of Charles Bowman during the April 8, 2010, robbery οf a Chinese food carryout in Waverly.

This killing, and one that followed two days later on Greenmount Avenue, shook the corridor last year. The area near Greenmount in 33rd is sort of transitional, with businesses and restaurants trying to overcome crime and grime. Police flooded the area with officers in the aftermath, and parked a police car at a corner gas station.

The photo above, by The Sun's Karl Merton Ferron, shows the crime scene after the second killing in April last year.

Here's more about the security guard and victim, Charles Bowman.

Read about the second killing in Waverly.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

A former Prince George's County police officer, who lives in Odenton, has pleaded guilty in federal court in connection with an extortion scheme involving untaxed cigarettes. The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office says he faces up to life in prison because one of the charges involves illegal firearms.

This is the latest in a series of corruption cases in Prince George's County that has embroiled the former county executive and his wife, who had been on the county council. The Washington Post has linked the corruption cases through an association of one central figure.

Prosecutors said the officer, while in uniform, armed and driving a marked cruiser, helped transport the cigarettes to a storage facility. Authorities said the scheme cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Federal prosecutors in Baltimore outline the details of the case in a statement:

Continue reading "Ex-Prince George's officer pleads guilty in extortion" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A city jury has convicted a man in a September 2009 daylight killing in Northwest Baltimore, and in another case, a judge sentenced a man to 90 years in prison in a double shooting in East Baltimore in 2008 that left one victim dead.

In the first case, prosecutors said Charles Thomas was found guilty of first-degree murder for approaching Alvin Terry Alston, 45, from behind and shooting him in the head. The attack occurred about noon on a Sunday at the busy intersection of Cold Spring Lane and Reisterstown Road. Thomas, 47, faces life in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 8.

In the second case, Baltimore Circuit Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon sentenced James Fortune to nearly a century behind bars for shooting Sidney Millner and Natavien Henry at the D&N Liquor Store on North Stricker St. in January 2008. Millner died from his injuries; prosecutors said Henry was paralyzed from the neck down. Fortune, 36, was convicted of second degree murder. 

The Sun's Justin Fenton wrote more about Fortune and of his previous murder conviction:

Continue reading "Man convicted of murder; another sentenced to 90 years in killing" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore
        

The attorney for a man charged with driving a car that hit and killed two Baltimore teenagers in June says his client denies being behind the wheel. James Rhodes, the lawyer, said Reuben Dunn's companion has told police a lie.

Dunn (seen in police mugshot) surrendered to police earlier today, indicted on charges that include two counts of auto manslaughter, two counts of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and driving under the influence. Police say he drove through a red light on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, at Pratt Street, and hit Emerald Smith, 17, and her friend, Courtney Angeles, 16, who were in a crosswalk.

Police found the car about 30 minutes later near BWI, but said a woman was driving and told the officer she had been in an accident in the city. Dunn told the officer he had been sleeping. Prosecutors said they believe Dunn switched places with the woman after the accident and before he had been stopped.

But Rhodes said the  case relies only on the woman's changed story. "The police are going to have a big problem" at trial, the attorney told me. The woman, Dunn's former girlfriend and mother of their two children, was charged with being an accessory after the fact. Her attorney would not comment on details of the case. Prosecutors would not comment on Rhodes' allegations.

Read the full story here.

To read the police report:

Continue reading "Attorney says driver charged in fatal hit and run wasn't at wheel" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Southwest Baltimore
        

The suspect arrested in the killing of a 91-year-old woman during a burglary in Northeast Baltimore had been out on $25,000 bail at the time of the slaying, according to court records.

The records show that a judge upped the bail from $10,000 to $25,000, but that Anthony Robinson, 45, posted it anyway, on July 7. Irene Logan was stabbed, strangled and beaten in her home on Moravia Road less than a month later.

In the July burglary, a police report shows that officers responded to a house on Frankford Avenue for an alarm. They saw a man inside, who ran and hid in an attic. Police said the attic ceiling collapsed and the suspect fell into a bedroom, where he was Tased and arrested.

His trial on that case is scheduled for Oct. 25.  A police report says a gold bracelet, a gold pin and a gold watch were taken. Robinson now faces first-degree murder charges and is being held without bail.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northeast Baltimore
        

On Sept. 14 of last year, a federal judge received a one-page letter that read, in part, “BOOM see how easy this was, next time you wont be so lucky ERM Family ANTHRAX!!"

According to the indictment, the letter also said: "I just hope Allah grants me the opportunity to be the one who chops off your head," and the words "die die die!!!" followed by the sentence "If I ever ever get out I promise you I'm coming after you."

The letter wasn't signed but the FBI quickly found Willie Ray Bryant's prints on it. The 41-year-old was in prison in Cumberland; the judge had presided over one of his previous trials in state court. According to on-line records, the judge had overseen a case in which Bryant pleaded guilty to a handgun charge in 2001 and sentenced him to five years in prison.

The FBI also said they found "the letter also bore imprints of letters and numbers appearing to partially match Bryant's mother’s name and phone number," according to federal prosecutors.

The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement:

"After the FBI determined the sender’s identity from Bryant’s fingerprints, a message was sent to Maryland Corrections officials to monitor Bryant's use of the mail.  Shortly thereafter, corrections officials intercepted a letter Bryant had addressed to President Obama excoriating the President for turning his back on Islam and threatening to kill the President. Bryant signed the letter and included his state prisoner number."

He faces 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 9.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

One of my favorite appellate judges -- based solely on his prose -- has opined on a  burglary case out of Harford County.

The suspect, convicted of breaking into a friend's home in 2009 as they vacationed in New York, wanted the Court of Special Appeals to throw out the case based on several factors, such a whether the judge erred in allowing the jury to hear certain evidence, and whether the facts presented were legally sufficient for a guilty finding.

The defendant didn't dispute his conviction of theft, but said first-degree burglary conviction, which landed him 20 years in prison, was out of line. The judge, Charles E. Moylan Jr., ruled in the state's favor, upholding the conviction of Brett  Russell Molter.

The key was whether a logical inference could be made that because Molter was found in possession of the stolen goods, that he had been the one who stole them. He was a friend of the victims, had been inside their home in the past and knew they would be out of town.

Moylan, who has a penchant for flowery writing, opened his 31-page opinion this way:

"Suppose that Scotland Yard, in late 1888, could have established that an otherwise innocuous denizen of London's Whitechapel neighborhood had been in the unexplained possession of a locket worn no more than two or three days earlier by one of the  victims of Jack the Ripper. How far might the Crown have gone with the resulting inference? It is just such an inference, and the reach of its inferential potency,  that is the primary focus of this appeal."

For a full dose of Moylan, read his opinion in this case here. Here a section that sums up some of the case:

Continue reading ""Jack the Ripper" and a Harford County burglary" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Harford County
        

He called police to report a burglary, and ended up convicted of armed drug trafficking. Maybe he should've moved the drugs from his toilet before dialing 911.

The Howard County State's Attorney Office says a jury convicted a Laurel man on Thursday. He had called the cops to his apartment in January and told them he returned from a week away to find his place burglarized.

Police, while conducting their investigation, found a bag of marijuana residue in his the bathroom toilet. Police said the man gave consent for officers to search further, and they found a scale. That led them to a search warrant and the seizure of a loaded Ruger handgun, ammunition and bottles of ecstasy.

For more details, here is a statement from prosecutors:

Continue reading "Lesson: lose the drugs before you call the cops" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Howard County
        

Howard Scott Kalin, the Baltimore County magician who was arrested in Florida on a charge of seeking sex from a child, has signed a plea agreement with prosecutors.

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

A Baltimore balloon entertainer faces up to 10 years in prison after signing a plea agreement in which he admitted traveling to Lake County for sex with a 14-year-old boy he found through an Internet personal ad.

Here is some background from our story in May:

Continue reading "Local Magician signs plea agreement in child sex case" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

Quote of the day from federal prosecutor Leo J. Wise, at Tuesday's sentencing of a man who duped law enforcement agencies into thinking they were hiring a retired special ops commander instead got a fraud (read full story here):

“They thought they were getting Black Hawk Down,” Wise said during the hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. “Instead, they got Rambo. They got fiction.”

William G. Hillar, a 66-year-old Millersville man, was sentenced today to 21 months in prison for perpetuating the fraud, which includes lying about his educational background, lying about being in the Army Special Forces and lying about his daughter being kidnapped, enslaved in a sex ring and killed. He claimed his experience to be the basis for the 2008 movie “Taken” starring Liam Neeson.

Here are some more quotes from today's hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore:

Continue reading "Man who faked Black Ops credentials sentenced to 21 months" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

Four years for pushing a man into the Inner Harbor, killing him, is not enough time for the victim's family. The Sun's Justin Fenton writes:

Dissatisfied with the punishment expected to be handed down Tuesday by a city judge, the family of a 22-year-old man who drowned after being pushed into the Inner Harbor in 2008 said it has filed a $5 million wrongful-death lawsuit against the man convicted for his death.

Wayne Black, a 21-year-old from Pasadena, is scheduled to be sentenced to a four-year prison term as part of his plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to shoving Ankush Gupta, a University of Maryland engineering student, into the harbor three years ago. The circumstances of Gupta's death had been a mystery until police received a tip that he had been pushed by Black, who later confessed.

Black was initially charged with first-degree murder, which prosecutors later downgraded to second-degree murder. He pleaded guilty on July 28 to involuntary manslaughter It carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.

Read full story here.

Read about the suspect's guilty plea.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown
        

It seems forever since last week when a Ravens player broke up a fight at an Inner Harbor restaurant. But now that Irene has blown through, we can return to our other all-consuming interest, and catch up with some crime we may have missed while battling winds and rain.

It didn't take long for the hurricane to pass before the gunmen came out: A 25-year-old man was in critical condition after he was shot in the chest Sunday afternoon by a masked assailant in northwest Baltimore, police said.

Here are some other headlines from the weekend:

* With a tap on his smartphone, University of Maryland student Shiv Krishnamoorthy can instantly alert police as he walks through the dimly lit corners of the College Park campus — and share with them his precise location, plus live video and audio.

* While concern about the economy has grown since the last mayoral election, crime remains the top worry among likely voters in Baltimore's Democratic primary next month. Thirty-nine percent of respondents to The Sun Poll rated crime, criminal justice or drugs as the most important challenge facing the city. That is down from 68 percent four years ago. Twenty-eight percent of the respondents ranked the economy, jobs or high taxes as the biggest challenge.

* A 15-year-old high school honors student in Ellicott City was secretly arrested when federal prosecutors say he went online to solicit money for a woman who called herself "Jihad Jane" and "Fatima LaRose." Authorities say that in Web postings two years ago, the youth "appealed for urgent funds" for the woman suspected of being a terrorist, whose real name is Colleen R. LaRose, 47, of Philadelphia. "I know the sister and by Allah, all money will be transferred to her," he allegedly wrote in a posting.

(Note: The Philadelphia Inquirer broke this story. Here is their first report, and a follow-up that details more of what federal authorities allege the boy had been plotting.)

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Howard County, Northwest Baltimore
        

In the past week, the leader of the Black Guerrilla Family gang received 15 years in federal prison for racketeering and a city police officer convicted of fatally shooting a man outside of a bar while off duty got 15 years. Today brings an example of how wildly sentences can vary, as a man named Bradrick Green was handed 11 life terms plus another 118 years for shooting at police officers. From the city state's attorney's office:

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon sentenced Bradrick Green today to 11 life terms in prison plus 118 years for shooting at 11 police officers following a traffic stop in November 2009.

At roughly 7 p.m. on November 21, 2009, Baltimore County Police contacted Baltimore City Police to request assistance with a traffic stop in the southwestern district of the city. When the officers were in position, they pulled the vehicle over in the 200 block of S. Athol Avenue. As soon as the car came to a stop, Green exited the passenger door and began shooting at police. He continued to fire as he fled on foot. Police pursued and ultimately shot Green, causing him to drop his .45 caliber handgun, which was recovered with no ammunition remaining in the magazine. Green was then arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment. No officers were injured by gunfire, but one officer suffered a shoulder injury that required medical treatment.

The car that Green was in at the time of the incident was driven by a hack. The driver was questioned and released.

After less than four hours of deliberation, a Baltimore jury convicted Green on April 28, 201l, of 11 counts of attempted first degree murder, 12 counts of using a handgun in a crime of violence, and other handgun violations. Describing the crime as one of the most brazen attacks that he has ever encountered, Judge Hargadon sentenced Green to five consecutive life terms and six concurrent life terms, plus 80 years consecutive and 38 years concurrent — the first 65 years without the possibility of parole.

Assistant State's Attorney David M. Grzechowiak prosecuted the case.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

In case you missed it:

John Wagner was found guilty of murder in last year's killing of Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn, stabbed in Charles Village as he walked home from Penn Station. His killing jolted a campaign for state's attorney and once again cast focus on violent repeat offenders who so often escape justice. Read Tricia Bishop's story on the verdict.

The Sun's Justin Fenton writes about Maryland crime rate has hit a record low:

Maryland's crime rate decreased 6.3 percent last year, reaching a new low in the state's per-capita incidence of violent and property offenses and mirroring a national trend.

The figures released by state officials Wednesday and reported to the FBI are the lowest since modern crime tracking began in 1975. That continues a pattern of the state notching record lows for most of the past 14 years, though as crime rates dropped more sharply in other states, Maryland has remained one of the most violent.

The numbers run counter to the public's perception about crime and safety and even surprise some experts who expected the rates to rise amid a recession — a pattern that's been borne out in previous economic downturns, according to criminologists. Some experts said they are hard pressed to pinpoint an explanation for the declines.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, North Baltimore
        

In this time of fiscal frugality, here comes a financial advisor who federal authorities say bilked "vulnerable clients" out of more than $838,000. An indictment says the suspect stole from a trust for a child with birth defects and from an 85-year-old with dementia.

Ralph Edward Thomas Jr., 52, was charged with mail fraud. The licensed insurer, between 2000 and 2004, was vice president of Harbor Financial, a subsidiary of Harbor Bank that did financial planning and sold insurance. He worked for Well Fargo Advisors from 2004 through 2010, authorities say.

The details are below from a statement from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office:

Continue reading "Financial advisor accused of bilking clients, including trust for child and elderly man" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner went on the Marc Steiner show on Morgan State University's WEAA-Radio and confronted his critics. Listen to show here.

On police protecting their own: "One of things I've tried to do is avoid all these blanket indictments and over-generalizations. We should be constantly testing and challenging ourselves in the community. What kind of service do we provide or don't we provide? What kind of professionalism do we have?"

He noted the arrests of officers in a towing scandal and reminded people that the department lured them to the training academy under a ruse that their guns needed to be checked and then busted them. He said that despite rumors the arrest plan had been compromised, all but two officers showed, proving to him that the rumors were false. The other two had been out of town.

But he said he felt there were legitimate concerns about what sergeants and lieutenants were doing while officers were directing unsuspecting motorists to a towing company not approved by the city, but one that was paying off cops for the extra business. "If they were really paying attention to their people, why wouldn't they know?" he asked.

Continue reading "Bealefeld defends department on Steiner" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Neighborhoods, Police shootings, Top brass
        

For those of you who like to dissect opinions from judges, here's one for you. A federal judge in Maryland, Susan K. Gauvey, refused to issue a warrant to allow the feds to use GPS to locate a suspect charged with a crime.

Her reason: warrants are usually given out to help authorities find evidence of a crime. In this case, all the feds wanted was to find a man they had charged with a crime. There was, Gauvey wrote, no proven crime. The judge said the suspect has a right to privacy not only "in his location," but also "in his movement." But she did add that had prosecutors shown that the suspect might flee attempts to arrest him, the issuance of a warrant would have been "routine."

You can read the full story here on the balancing act between cops and courts are playing on how to best use new technology that allows people to be tracked in real time. Part of the issue is that traditionally, warrants let police find evidence that already exists. With tracking devices, it allows police to ask for permission to snoop in places unforeseen.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to take up the debate on whether police can place a tracking device under a vehicle without a warrant. Lower courts throughout the country are split. Gauvey found a whole new issue to explore.

Here is the full story. What follows are some selected quotes from people involved in the issue:

Continue reading "Federal judge won't allow police to track wanted suspect using GPS" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports:

A federal court judge on Thursday ruled that Baltimore Police Officer Daniel Redd, who was indicted last month on drug conspiracy and firearms charges, can be released from detention pending trial despite having confessed to investigators.

He will be released as soon as Friday to his mother's custody under electronic home monitoring and can't leave the house except for doctor's appointments and court-related meetings.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Wallner asked that the order be stayed so he can seek an appeal, calling the evidence against Redd "overwhelming" and saying that his alleged crimes — which include conducting and overseeing heroin transactions while he was in uniform and carrying his service weapon — "brazen and bold."

Read more details of the indictment here. This case also raised questions about the Baltimore Police Department's Internal Affairs Office, after its commander was removed when his close ties to Redd were revealed

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports breaking news from the federal courthouse:

After five hours of deliberation, a federal jury on Thursday convicted Antonio "Mack" Hall in the retaliation killing of an FBI informant, who told investigators that Hall liked to "bang the gun" and was connected to several drug-related murders in the city.

He was also found guilty of weapons violations and participating in a seven-year conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine in the tiny South Baltimore community of Westport, where both he and his victim lived. Hall, 30, shot Kareem Kelly Guest a half dozen times in September 2009 as the man pleaded for mercy.

This is the case in which the victim's written statement to the FBI, which helped put numerous South Baltimore drug dealers in federal prison, was leaked by a defense attorney and posted around the neighborhood.

Read full story here.

Read background story.

Here is a statement from the Maryland U.S.  Attorney's Office:

Continue reading "Man guilty in killing police informant in Westport" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, South Baltimore
        

The girlfriend of the main suspect in the killing of Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn testified this morning at the murder trial.

The Sun's Andrea F. Siegel reports:

The girlfriend of the man accused of fatally stabbing a Johns Hopkins researcher told a jury this morning that she initially lied and blamed her cousin for the killing to protect the defendant.

"I didn't want Ya to go to jail for the rest of his life," Levelva Merritt testified, using the nickname of defendant John A. Wagner.

On the witness stand for more than an hour, she described a robbery that she said she and Wagner, 38, committed that had gone bad.

Merritt testified that Wagner had a knife with him when the couple attacked Stephen Pitcairn on St. Paul Street in July 2010. Pitcairn, a cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins, was walking home from Penn Station while talking on a cellphone with his mother, who was in Florida.

Read full story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

In case you missed out on today's paper, here are some police stories to ponder:

Video of Select Lounge shooting released. This is the January shooting where police officers mistook a colleague for a suspect and fatally shot him outside a nightclub. Watch the shooting.

Roommate testifies that the suspect in the killing of Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn confessed to robbing him in Charles Village.

Annapolis teenager pleads guilty to killing toddler.

Nathan Krasnopoler, the Johns Hopkins University student who was struck and critically injured by a car while riding his bicycle along University Parkway in February, died Wednesday morning. A lawyer for the family said the 83-year-old driver who struck Krasnopoler has agreed to forfeit her license. Read Michael Dresser's Getting There blog.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating this morning in the case of a man charged with killing an informant in a federal drug case. The victim's statement to the FBI was leaked and posted around his Westport neighborhood.

A series of mall robberies in the city, Anne Arundel and Howard Counties are linked, and also connected to a murder in Baltimore.

A Baltimore drug dealer is sentenced to 15 years in prison for his involvement in a fatal hit and run crash.

A Glen Burnie man was fatally stabbed and his female companion is being held in her death.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Howard County, North Baltimore, Police shootings
        

Highlights from today's trial in the killing of Stephen Pitcairn:

A roommate of a man charged with killing a Johns Hopkins researcher in Charles Village last summer testified Wednesday that moments after the attack the suspect said he “had robbed someone and that he had hurt him real bad.”

Tyrine Williams told jurors that she and her boyfriend, Kevin Cosby, then tried to use the victim’s stolen credit card at a nearby gas station on Howard Street, and that they planned to use the proceeds to buy drugs to continue their 15-hour cocaine and heroin binge.

Her testimony came on the second day of John Wagner’s murder trial in the death of Stephen Pitcairn, who was stabbed on St. Paul Street in July last year as he walked home from Penn Station while talking on a cellphone with his mother, who was in Florida.

Continue reading "Roommate implicates supect in killing Pitcairn" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

The Orioles may be sinking fast, but their brand is still a valuable commodity, right along with North Face, Puma and Red Bull. Or maybe it was just a local federal agent having fun with his home team.

Court documents show that an undercover Homeland Security agent investigating fraudulent name-brand merchandise being sold on the Internet made some purchases to help prove his case. He bought a North Face fleece and designer Dolce & Gabbana glasses. Then he purchased a pair of UGG boots.

The items were counterfeit, he alleges in a search warrant application filed in Baltimore's federal court, seeking to "seize" the Internet domain names of the companies he was buying from. You'd expect knock-offs of those items.

But when the agent needed more stuff for his investigation, he bought a "large Red Bull hat," and two baseball caps -- The Washington Senators and the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles cap cost $34.80, from a company in China.

The baseball caps, the agent wrote, "were of poor quality, material, and craftsmanship. The identification labels and packaging material were also of poor quality and uncharacteristic of genuine products."

I'm not sure what other baseball caps were available, or if the agent, Michael T. McFarland II, was having a bit of fun with his home teams (he's assigned to the cyber crimes division in Baltimore). Either way, it was nice to see the Orioles in such prestigious company.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Sun courts reporter Tricia Bishop describes a powerful scene in a Baltimore city courtroom as the mother of slain Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn described hearing his last moments over the phone:

Stephen Pitcairn got off the Bolt bus in Baltimore around 11 p.m. on July 25 last year, two days shy of his 24th birthday, and called his mother in Florida as he walked home from Penn Station, traveling north on St. Paul Street.

"I always feel so safe when you're on the phone with me," she remembers him saying that Sunday night.

They talked about the weekend, which he spent in New York City with his two sisters, and his plans to add a Saturday shift to his busy schedule as a Johns Hopkins cancer researcher. Then, "all of a sudden," his mother told a Baltimore jury Tuesday, "I heard him gasp."

The attorney for defendant John Wagner says police have the wrong man. Read more of the trial's first day here. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

The 14-year-old boy accused of beating his grandmother with a hammer in April will be tried as a juvenile, court records show.

Hassanhii Garrett was charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder after police said he confessed to beating his 66-year-old grandmother with a hammer in their Waverly home as he was getting ready for school. The woman suffered serious injuries but survived.

Court records show a city judge on Aug. 1 remanded the case to juvenile court for further proceedings, granting a defense petition for a waiver to the juvenile system.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

In case you missed it, Snoop pleads guilty. The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports:

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, who overcame a troubled childhood and a murder conviction to launch an acting career as a drug-gang assassin on HBO's "The Wire," pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to sell heroin.

She was sentenced to seven years in prison, with all of the time suspended except for the five months she has already served while awaiting trial, most of it spent at home, under electronic monitoring. She could be sent back to finish the term if she violates probation over the next three years.

"While I'm delighted to have you here, I don't want to see you again," Baltimore Circuit Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill told the actress, expressing a sentiment shared by her fans, many of whom were crushed by the news of her March arrest in an early-morning sting operation.

(In the photo, by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor, Pearson stands outside the courthouse with her attorney, Benjamin Sutley).

After the hearing, Sutley, acknowledged that his client was "picking at the edges of a conspiracy," which carries a maximum 20-year prison term, but he stopped short of saying she was directly involved.

"I have things to do, I have to move on with my life," said Pearson, 31, explaining her decision to take a deal. She repeatedly said she would have been found "not guilty" at trial, but that she couldn't wait for the proceeding, which could have been years in coming.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

From the Associated Press via The Daily Record: 

A woman who played a Baltimore drug gang assassin in HBO’s “The Wire” is expected to enter a guilty plea in a drug conspiracy case.

Felicia “Snoop” Pearson’s attorney says the 31-year-old actress is scheduled to plead guilty Monday to conspiracy to distribute heroin, a misdemeanor. Her trial was set to begin Tuesday.

Pearson is one of 64 people charged in March in “Operation Usual Suspects,” a joint state-federal prosecution of an alleged east Baltimore drug gang.

Attorney Benjamin Sutley says Pearson wanted closure in the matter. Sutley expects Pearson to receive probation and says he will ask the judge to allow her to travel out of the state to pursue her acting career.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein is to announce this afternoon a decision on whether to prosecute anyone in January's Select Lounge shooting, in which city police officers mistakenly shot and killed a colleague during a fight outside a bar.

A separate review by a panel of law enforcement experts are still conducting a separate review into the case to determine whether proper police procedure was followed and whether any changes need to be made. The department has already curtailed the deployment of plainclothes officers.

Officer William H. Torbit Jr., along with 22-year-old Sean Gamble, were killed in the shooting.

Torbit, 33, was on duty and in plainclothes when he was overcome by a crowd leaving Select Lounge on North Paca Street. Police said he fired during the altercation, killing Gamble. Other officers then opened fire on Torbit, unaware that he was a fellow officer.

Bernstein could announce indictments against the officers, or say that the investigation proved the incident to be a tragic mistake. His news conference is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Police shootings
        

Animal abuse cases have gotten a lot of attention in Baltimore lately, starting with the pit bull named Phoenix who was doused with gasoline and badly burned. Reporter Jill Rosen (author of the unleashed pet blog) writes about another horrific case (full story here): 

Ethan Phillip Weibman (mug shot at left from Baltimore Police Department) went to the Maryland SPCA and from the dozens of cats, police say he chose a short-haired one named Lucy to adopt.  He returned to the shelter two days later with the cat — dead, according to authorities. And, they said, he wanted another one.

Shelter officials refused and later, when they determined the cat died from a traumatic blast wound to the chest that left her unable to breathe, and suffered bruising on her head, Weibman was charged in the animal’s death.

The 20-year-old, a short-time Baltimore resident originally from an affluent hamlet in Westchester, N.Y., is  scheduled to go on trial this fall on charges of animal cruelty resulting in death, mutilating an animal and animal cruelty.

Baltimore police also charged him with additional criminal counts related to beating another cat — two weeks after authorities say he had brought Lucy’s body back to the SPCA. Court documents say Weibman is a suspect in the deaths of five more cats and kittens.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

It was a transcript of his interview with the FBI. In it, Kareem Kelly Guest had named named, outed a drug organization in Westport and helped put away a slew of dangerous felons. But one of their defense attorneys, who got the document as part of the discovery process, gave it to his client.

The document ended up posted all over Westport, which federal prosecutors say was akin to a death sentence. Guest was executed, shot twice in the back and four times in the head. And now his suspected killers are on trial in federal court.

The Sun's Tricia Bishop walks us through the openings of this trial, which included an admission by the now disbarred defense attorney about how he gave up the document, a violation of rules set down by prosecutors.

Here is the story.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, South Baltimore, Witness intimidation
        

Barry H. Landau, the well-known collector of presidential memorabilia, was indicted by a federal grand jury today. He had been charged by the state with stealing documents from the Maryland Historical Society. Now, charges include thefts of important documents from several other archives:

* Writings of President Roosevelt and his treasury secretary from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y.

* A letter dated April 1, 1780, from Benjamin Franklin and John Paul Jones, from the New York Historical Society.

* Sixty docuemtns from the F. Furlong Baldwin Libary at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore, including a land grant dated June 1, 1861 to a soldier from the Maryland Militia, War of 1812, signed by Abraham Lincoln. 

“The federal government will provide a firm and swift response to those that steal parts of our nation’s history for their own private benefit," said Special Agent Richard McFeely of Baltimore's FBI office. "Alleged crimes like this rob all Americans of the rich heritage that these museums preserve for present and future generations.” 

Read the indictment:

Continue reading "Suspect in document theft indicted by feds" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

This just in from courts reporter Tricia Bishop:

A 21-year-old Pasadena man pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Thursday for shoving a stranger who couldn't swim into the Inner Harbor in 2008 — an act previously characterized by one Baltimore judge as complete stupidity.

Wayne Black, who was 18 when he pushed 22-year-old Ankush Gupta into the water and ran, will be sentenced to four years in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Aug. 30, per an agreement cut with Baltimore Circuit Court Judge M. Brooke Murdock.

His mother dabbed tears as the deal was done, while Gupta's friends and family sat stone-faced on the other side of the courtroom. "That is not justice," Saneel John Masih said after the hearing. He and Rohit Gupta were longtime friends of Ankush, more like brothers than buddies.

Read complete story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown
        

Remember this story from September 2009?:

Sitting in her car Tuesday night outside the Kennedy Krieger Institute as police investigated a shooting, Ana Matheus held up what may have spared her from serious injury: her Vera Bradley handbag.

She reached in and pulled out her pocketbook. Inside was a checkbook, a credit card and a $20 bill - all pierced by a bullet that narrowly missed striking her as she left work at Kennedy Krieger.

Matheus was not harmed, but a female co-worker was wounded when one of the stray bullets struck her in the hand about 6:30 p.m. Matheus said the woman was walking just a foot in front of her when the shots rang out. With the errant bullet piercing the bag that was slung over her shoulder, Matheus was inches away from being wounded herself.

 "I've always felt pretty safe with the security guards on the corners, but I don't know, it definitely feels less safe now," said Matheus, a 27-year-old social worker in the pediatric hospital at Kennedy Krieger. "It's pretty surreal."

The State's Attorney's Office announced today that the suspect charged in the case, 44-year-old Timothy Gaskins, was sentenced today to 54 years in prison for the shooting after being convicted during a six-day trial in May on two counts of attempted second-degree murder and 18 other charges. Prosecutors say Gaskins fired five shots - in addition to the bullet that traveled through Matheus' bag, one bullet pierced the intended victim's pants but missed his leg, and another struck the hand of Matheus' co-worker.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

Sian James was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for hurling a chunk of concrete that killed an off-duty Baltimore police officer last year during a heated argument over a parking space, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

James, 26, was charged with murder in the death of Det. Brian Stevenson, but a jury in April convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum 10-year prison term.

His attorney said James — who was out on bail during the incident in a separate case charging him with the attempted rape of an ex-girlfriend — acted in self defense, believing the officer was intoxicated and going to shoot him and his friends.

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry G. Williams said the court was "beside itself" over the "senselessness of it all."

"We have a life that is lost," Williams said. "This did not have to happen."

Stevenson's wife was left to ask the court Wednesday: "What man now is responsible for our family? Who do we belong to?"

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

The intriguing story of the presidential memorabilia collector Barry H. Landau and his alleged accomplice gets more interesting by the day.

Not only are they charged with trying to steal documents, including one signed by Abraham Lincoln, from the Maryland Historical Society, but one might have been caught flushing a document down a toilet as police closed in at downtown archives.

Assistant State's Attorney said that Savedoff may have flushed the document down the historical society's toilet. The prosecutor said he was in the bathroom when police arrived, and they knocked on the door repeatedly. When the door opened, two officers and a historical society employee went in. The employee noticed what looked like remnants of an old document in the toilet, Varda said, but was not able to get to it immediately. But before the scraps could be retrieved, someone used and flushed the toilet, Varda said.

And, a prosecutor said at a bail hearing on Tuesday, they're suspected in stealing other documents from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Archives in Hyde Park, N.Y., and from the New York Historical Society.

Read Liz Kay's full account of the hearings.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The Baltimore police officer charged with running his own drug ring was so brazen, federal prosecutors say in court papers backing up an indictment filed Tuesday, that they say he dealt drugs from the parking lot of the Northwestern District station.

It's just one of the details contained in 50-page affidavit that details part of the FBI investigation that included wiretaps on phones and surveillance. Read Justin Fenton's full story here. And here is one part about the stationhouse:

Authorities charge Baltimore Police Officer Daniel Redd with running a suspected heroin organization with Tamim Mamah, also known as Abdul Zakaria. On March 31, at 9:55 a.m., the FBI says it intercepted this telephone conversation:

Mamah: Where you say you want me to meet you at?
Redd: At my building. Not down where, where I work, at but at the building. You know how you meet me on the lot?
Mamah: Yeah
Redd: No, not down, not down at Park Heights. Up at the building.
Mamah: Oh, okay, okay, okay, alright, okay
Redd: Up near the five mile, you know up there at my station.

FBI: "Subsequent law enforcement video surveillance observed Redd leaving the Northwest District Police Station, located at 5271 Reisterstown Road, while in full police uniform, retrieving something fromhis car, the 2004 Acura TL, and placing it in his jacket pokcet. Redd was then observed walking to another part of the parking lot. ... I believe that Redd and Mamah met in the Baltimore City Northwest District Police Station parking lot so that Redd could give Mamah a quantity of heroin."

Here are some of the latest scandals to hit city police:

Continue reading "Officer charged with drug dealing dealt heroin in police parking lot, according to feds" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A Baltimore County doctor disappeared 13 years without a word or a trace. Then, a sudden courtroom confession in Tennessee finally brought closure, though not one the family would've wanted.

Dr. Henry Peter Ackerman was killed, according to the confession, and his body disposed of and never found. The Sun's Tricia Bishop recounts the tale of the missing man, whose story has never been told in full detail.

You can read the full story here. Tricia's opening:

Henry Ackerman had plans — big, cross country, into-the-wild plans.

It was 1998, and he was 48 years old, alone, sad and somewhat peculiar. He lived with three cats and a big, sandy-colored dog in an unkempt Baltimore County apartment and worked as a child psychologist in the city school system.

His beloved wife had died of leukemia four years earlier in Memphis after a long illness, and he had moved immediately afterward, first to Oregon and then to Maryland to be closer to his sister's family, acquaintances said.

But he yearned for Alaska. He reached out to a tiny school system there in the eastern part of the state, in a town called Circle, and was in the process of quietly securing a new job. He planned to live in a camper out there, in the Last Frontier, a former neighbor told police.

He made all the arrangements, and on June 18, 1998, he set out to purchase a used GMC. He never came back.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The 13-year-old case of a missing Baltimore County doctor was solved Tuesday, with a surprise murder confession announced in a federal courtroom nearly a thousand miles away, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

Dr. Henry Peter Ackerman was a 48-year-old widower and recent transplant to the Baltimore area when he went missing in the summer of 1998 during a trip to Memphis, Tenn. He and his wife, Velma, had lived in a suburb there before her death from leukemia in 1994, and Ackerman went back to the area planning to buy a vehicle and drive it to his new home in Maryland, federal prosecutors said.

But he never returned, and more than a decade would pass before anyone looked to Dale Mardis, a gun dealer, for answers.

Mardis, 57, was convicted earlier this year in federal court in Tennessee in the racially motivated killing of an African-American code enforcement officer named Mickey Wright in 2001. Mardis shot Wright, dismembered the body with a Becker BK-1 Brute survival knife, burned it and spread the remains in junk cars that were later crushed, according to court documents and news accounts

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

The second of 17 Baltimore police officers charged with extortion in an alleged kickback scheme involving a towing company pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Officer Jermaine Rice, 28, of Woodstock, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced Sept. 23. His colleague, Officer David Reeping, 41, pleaded guilty to the same charge on June 8.

Continue reading "Second Baltimore officer pleads guilty in towing scandal" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Northeast Baltimore
        

                                                                               There are college classes devoted to The Wire, using the fictional HBO series to explore the impact of drugs, crime, schools and urban renewal crumbling cities. David Simon, a former Sun cop reporter, has won accolades for the vivid, raw series and for his books. Recently, he got a mention from the U.S. Attorney General.

Now, the Maryland Court of Appeals has weighed in (read decision here), quoting from his book recounting a year with the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit, in an opinion on a Miranda case. They use cite a passage from "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets" to explore "street-cred."

At issue was whether it was legitimate for the prosecutor in a murder trial to question the defendant on his desire to remain silent, a fundamental right of anyone under arrest. Typically, prosecutors are not allowed to explore such issues in front of the jury, because his silence cannot be used to impune guilt.

But in this case, the trial judge in Cecil County allowed the prosecutor to raise the question because the defendant at first told police he would cooperate, and then later recanted. The appellate judges overturned the conviction.

At the opening of the decision, the judges quote from Simon's book, citing a passage that recounts how Miranda is viewed on the Baltimore's mean streets:

Continue reading "Court of Appeals quotes David Simon in opinion" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Federal prosecutors are cracking down on people who sell drugs that lead to overdose deaths. For the third time in Maryland, the U.S. Attorney's Office has gone after the sellers and secured prison time.

In the latest case that wrapped up Monday, a federal judge sentenced April Lynn Baker, 30, to three years in prison. A nursing home worker in Western Maryland sold Methadone and morphine and gave it to Baker who then traded it to another man in exchange for marijuana.

On March 1, 2008, that man sold a $40 wafer of Methadone and $20 worth of morphine to Brandon Sgaggero, who was found dead in his apartment five days later. An autopsy concluded that he died of an overdose of the two drugs. Prosecutors said they found two text messages from the seller to Sgaggero asking whether he wanted more "shampoo," described as a code word for morphine.

More details here:

Continue reading "Woman sentenced for supplying drugs that led to overdose" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

Readers had some questions after Friday morning's post on the Court of Appeals overturning the convictions of two men in the gruesome slayings of three children in 2004. My apologies for not updating the blog before I left.

The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office will have to decide whether to retry the two men, who will remain behind bars. As of Friday, no decision has been made. As the article states, it could be difficult becuase one witness is dead and most others left or were deported to Mexico.

If prosecutors do not retry the case, the suspects will likely be deported to Mexico; they are illegal immigrants. In case you missed it, the appeals court overturned the convictions saying the judge had erred by not sharing notes from the jury with the defense team, who argued they would've changed their strategy given what jurors were thinking.

The case involved the 2004 near beheadings of three elementary school children in Northwest Baltimore. An uncle and cousin were charged and convicted after a second trial; it was one of the most gruesome and complex cases in Baltimore in years.

Here is complete coverage of the decision and the case.

Read the Court of Appeals ruling.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northwest Baltimore
        

It was one of the most horrific slayings in Baltimore -- the May 2004 throat-slashing murders of siblings Lucero Espinoza, 8, Ricardo Espinoza, 9, and their cousin Alexis Espejo Quezada, 10.

The dead children's uncle, Policarpio Espinoza, and the victim's cousin, Adan Canela, were convicted of murder after two lengthy and complex trials. Today, the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned the convictions, ruling the jude's failure to turn over juror notes to defense lawyers prevented them from adequately presenting their case. The lawyers argued that they would've changed trial strategies based on the nature of the questions.

The city's new top prosecutor, Gregg Bernstein, now faces a tough decision. Can he retry this case a third time? It's made more difficult given that most of the witnesses were deported to Mexico after the convictions and one witnesses was killed in Mexico in a domestic dispute.

So far, Bernstein's office isn't saying much beyond he'll review the case. Here is complete coverage of this case, along with pictures, timelines and detailed trial coverage. \

Read the Maryland Court of Appeals decision.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Northwest Baltimore
        

A 30-year-old woman was sentenced today in Baltimore Circuit Court to 23 years in prison for attacking three women during altercations at West Baltimore clubs. The attacks left the victims with severe injuries.

The sentence came after Tiffany Williams had pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree assault. Judge Lynn K. Stewart ruled that the defendant’s pleas meant she had violated the probation she was serving for an earlier narcotics conviction.

More details on the case from The Sun's Nick Madigan:

Continue reading "Woman gets 23 years in prison for attacks at clubs" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, West Baltimore
        

He's trading his gun for a Havard Law book.

Adam Braskich wants to become a lawyer. And this three-year veteran of the Baltimore Police force has gotten into one of the nation's most prestigious universities, Harvard Law School. And when he's done, he promises to return to the city's crime fight -- as a prosecutor.

"I realized fairly early on that I'd probably make a better prosecutor than a police officer," he told The Sun's Justin Fenton, who caught up with the 26-year-old guarding a body in a sweltering South Baltmore rowhouse. "I'm better at spotting logical faillacies than guns concealed in waistbands."

Well, he's pretty good spotting guns too.

While on a study break for his law school entrance exam, Braskich took a stroll around Hampden and stumbled on an armed robbery. He shot one of the suspects and chased down the other. He's one of 466 officers, out of 2,947, who hold four-year degrees. He's pictured here in photo by The Sun's Amy Davis.

Read more about Braskich here. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, South Baltimore
        

It seems an odd deal — plead guilty to gun possession, agree to be imprisoned in a federal penitentiary for up to 25 years, and then admit to killing a man on East Pratt Street in Upper Fells Point back in 2009.

But that’s what Antonio “Dollar” Edwards did last week in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. As part of his agreement with federal prosecutors, the 28-year-old will have to plead guilty to first-degree murder in state court. Once he does that, he will get to serve his time for both crimes in the federal system.

The Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office described this unusual plea deal in a statement and in court documents filed Friday. Federal authorities get a conviction on a gun case for a three-time felon, and state officials can avoid a trial in the slaying case.

The benefit for Edwards?

Continue reading "Unusual plea puts killer in prison" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

A corrections officer who was associated with the Black Guerrilla Family gang has been sentenced to 37 months in prison. Alicia Simmons was accused of helping to smuggle heroin and cell phones into the downtown Baltimore prison through the laundry.

Prosecutors also said she allowed gang members to fight and tried to identify police informants. The Sun's Justin Fenton wrote in July that evidence seized from a raid on her Pikesville apartment linked her to a who's who of Baltimore criminals.

That included a letter from a Bloods member with a signature tinted red contact lenses, another man linked to several killings and the producer of the infamouse Stop Snitching videos. She got caught up in a sweeping take-down of the BGF gang.

Here is a statement from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office on the case: 

Continue reading "Corrections officer who doubled as gang member sentenced to prison " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Gangs
        

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon issued a detailed, written ruling explaining his decision to find city Officer Gahiji Tshamba guilty of manslaughter for shooting an unarmed Marine outside a Mount Vernon night club.

It's long, but well worth the read:

This case involves the death of Tyrone Brown on the morning of June 5, 2010. There is no dispute that the Defendant shot Mr. Brown 12 times and that the shooting was the cause of Mr. Brown’s death.

There is also no dispute that the Defendant and three female friends were at the rear door of the Red Maple at Eager & Morton Streets at around 1 AM. Mr. Brown, his sister, Ms. Kangalee and Ms. Dodge were walking south on Morton Street. Ms. Ramsay, one of the Defendant’s friends, was on the ramp outside the Red Maple, when Mr. Brown touched her inappropriately on the buttocks.

From this point forward, the versions of the various witnesses differ. The court has had to grapple with what are seemingly very divergent accounts of what happened. From this standpoint, it is important to determine which witnesses were credible. Credibility is determined not just by whether someone is literally lying, but also by whether the witness had a bias or motive not to be completely straightforward, whether intentionally or subconsciously, whether the witness was able to see or hear things about which they testified, does the witness have an interest in the outcome of the case, did the witness appear to be telling the truth, and what was the witness’ behavior on the stand and manner of testifying.

The rest of the ruling:

Continue reading "Judge explains decision in Tshamba manslaughter decision" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba
        

Those are the words of Gahiji Tshamba, the Baltimore police officer who shot an unarmed Marine a dozen times during a confrontation outside a Mount Vernon nightclub. The officer spoke for the first time during his murder trial.

He said he was being chased, backed into a corner and shot the man as he advaanced on him. An expert witness, a retired city cop who wrote the department's rules of force, testified on behalf of Tshamba, while the judge who is hearing the case without a jury questioned the officer's account.

Read the full story here. The incident started after the Marine, Tyrone Brown, grabbed the buttocks of a woman who was with Tshamba, who'se pictured at left coming out of the courthouse on Wednesday, in a photo by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

The officer testified:

Continue reading ""I was scared, I was in fear" " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office just advised that a Baltimore police officer pleaded guilty today in the scandal involving a kickback scheme in towing vehicles. More than a dozen officers have been charged in the case; he is the first to plead guilty.

Here is a statement from federal prosecutors:

Baltimore Police officer David Reeping, age 41, of Arbutus, Maryland pleaded guilty today to extortion under color of official right in connection with a scheme in which a repair shop owner paid Reeping to arrange for the repair shop, rather than a city-authorized company, to tow vehicles from accident scenes and make repairs.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland  Rod J. Rosenstein, Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.

The Baltimore Police Department requires that when police request vehicle towing services, they only use towing companies that are under contract with the City of Baltimore to provide towing services for the BPD.

According to Reeping’s plea agreement, Reeping was a Baltimore Police Department officer assigned to the Central District. Sometime in 2009, Reeping was introduced to the owner of an auto repair and towing shop in Rosedale, Maryland (the Repair Shop) and told that he could make extra money by having vehicles towed to the Repair Shop.

The Repair Shop is not an authorized tow company with the City of Baltimore. The Repair Shop owner instructed Reeping to tell accident victims that the Repair Shop would pay for the deductible to induce them to have the car towed to the shop.

Continue reading "City police officer pleads guilty in towing scandal" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

The trial of the Baltimore police officer charged with fatally shooting an unarmed Marine continues today. Here is some new information from The Sun's court reporter, Tricia Bishop:

Chantay Kangalee complicated three days of work by prosecutors Tuesday morning when she took the stand as a reluctant witness for her brother’s killer, Baltimore police Officer Gahiji Tshamba, and testified to a scenario that contradicted the state’s carefully built murder case.

Kangalee, the first defense witness called, said Tshamba pulled a gun on her brother, Tyrone Brown, outside a back entrance to Mount Vernon’s Red Maple lounge in the early morning of June 5, 2010, confirming what’s been said in court so far. But she added that Brown pushed the off-duty officer and steadily advanced — hands out — toward Tshamba, who was backing up the entire time with his gun drawn.

The two men were about three feet apart when Tshamba, 37, fired, his back to an alleyway trash container, unloading his service weapon into Brown, who struggled to push the Glock away, Kangalee said.

Continue reading "Victim's sister helps defense in Tshamba case" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba, North Baltimore
        

From The Sun's court reporter Tricia Bishop:

Twelve bullets from an off-duty officer's gun struck Tyrone Brown, but it wasn't until the last one hit that the former Marine dropped.

Seven of them lodged in his 32-year-old body — they were later recovered from his buttocks, back, thighs and pelvis — and three passed clean through, an autopsy shows. Two others grazed him, leaving behind superficial wounds. And one hit him twice, entering and exiting a pinch of skin near his right hip, then driving back into his soft tissue and coming to a rest in his right buttock.

That one, which left a trail of wounds, likely hit Brown while he was bent over, Assistant Medical Examiner Melissa Brassell testified Thursday — the second day of the murder trial of Brown's killer, Baltimore Police Officer Gahiji Tshamba.

Tshamba, 37, got into a row with Brown outside a Baltimore bar on the morning of June 5, 2010, and shot him a dozen times as patrons emptied from the Mount Vernon bars. The officer says it was in self-defense, but prosecutors say Tshamba was the aggressor, drunk with power and alcohol.

Read full details from Tricia's story. The photos by Tricia are of Tshamba right after he shot Brown, and of his gun and the bullets, all of which are now part of his court trial.

In case you missed it, here's a compelling story, also by Tricia, of the opening day in Tshamba's trial, with a riviting account by a witness who acted out the shooting.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings
        

Remember Thomas M. Dibiagio?

He's the Maryland U.S. Attorney who quit in 2004 -- later saying someone threatened him over his pursuit of pubic corruption. He's most famous for being reprimanded by his federal bosses for an internal email in which he "pressed his staff for three 'front-page' corruption indictments before Election Day."

Prosecutors make a living off intercepting the communication of others -- all those fun wiretaps catching criminals and politicians incriminating themselves -- so it should be of no surprise when their own internal communications get leaked.

Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein gets his reminder in today's Baltimore Sun, where Justin Fenton got hold of his internal emails to his staff about a police misconduct case that the city's top prosecutor had tried, getting two convictions on lesser charges than he had sought, and one acquittal.

In the memo, Bernstein criticizes the lead internal police detective (remember how he said during his campaign that unlike his predecessor, he wouldn't blast cops -- publicly at least), takes a swipe at the judge and jokes that one of his assistant's made him look good. 

Here are the highlights of the memo, which can be read in full here:

Continue reading "Bernstein's memo -- remember Thomas DiBiagio?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system