June 15

A federal judge gave DeAndre Whitehead, 20, six years in jail for trying to hire someone to kill a 10-year-old girl and her mother after they testified that they saw him shoot Russell Peterson, 47, their father and husband. DeAndre was acquitted of Peterson's murder in state court last year.

An arraignment for Charles Carroll, 28, is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. tomorrow before Judge Lynn Stewart. The Baltimore City Grand jury indicted Carroll May 19, 2005 for second-degree rape, four counts of sexual abuse of a minor under the age of 18 and two counts of third-degree sexual offense. Sexual abuse of a minor carries a maximum prison term of 25 years, second-degree rape carries a maximum prison term of 20-years and third-degree sexual offense carries a maximum prison term of 10 years. Court documents allege Carroll sexually assaulted three victims. The alleged assaults occurred during the time frame of December 2004 to April 2005.

In Arraignment Court this morning, Michael Johnson (aka Troy Johnson) pled not guilty to first-degree murder in connection with the fatal shooting of Flenall Carter, 18.

There were seven murders last week, bringing the city's toll to 117. All of last week's victims were African-American men between the ages of 19 and 44. Six were shot and one was stabbed. Note Ditkoff reports that the Waverly neighborhood has had three homicides so far this year.

Two of the eight officers fired last week following the violent death of 51-year-old Raymond Smoot are planning to appeal the state's decision, saying they never touched Smoot and could not have prevented his death. Kandis Harlee, 34, said she saw other officers stomping Smoot, and now-former-officer Anthony Pointer, 44, says he was busy trying to move agitated inmates away from the cell where the homicide took place.

The Blotter reports a shooting (Timothy Sims, 25), and the arrest of two attempted murderers.

The Sun has more information on the stabbing of 74-year-old activist A. Robert Kaufman.

Michael George Sadof, a Bethesda contract employee, got two years' probation and a $50k fine for poking around classified IRS files.

From last week: Anne Arundel county's second homicide was the stabbing of Michael Conway, 38, in a Jessup trailer park.

Could this be what's next for Maryland? California's marijuana dispensaries offer pot peanut brittle, truffles and cakes. As Maryland has had a medical marijuana law for almost two years now, (signed by a Republican no less). So where are our chronic brownies?