October 21

Hakim Jordan-El, 20, and Christopher Giles have been arrested for the murders of Howard Thacker and Dante Rodney Thacker in Owings Mills.

The narcotics and murder trial of Asmar Rashad Holland, 17, is scheduled to begin 9:30 Monday morning before Judge John M. Glynn. A Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Holland February 26, 2004 for first-degree murder. Court documents allege that on December 1, 2003 Holland shot and killed Earl Ross, 39, at his home in the 600 block of Bartlett Street. A Baltimore City Grand Jury also indicted Holland March 15, 2004 on possession with intent to distribute, unlawful possession, possession with intent to manufacture heroin.

The trial of criminal genius Gregory A. Alston, 20, is scheduled for 9:30 Monday morning before Judge Wanda K. Heard. A Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Alston June 16 with two counts of carjacking, two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of second-degree assault, one count of theft under $500, one count of theft over $500, one count of car theft and one count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. If convicted on all counts, Alston could receive a maximum prison sentence of 144 years. From the AP archive:

A suspect takes a car at gunpoint and drives it around for two weeks before the owner spots the car and has it towed. The thief then calls police to report "his" car stolen.

Those events seemed so improbable that Baltimore police detective Gregory Jenkins felt compelled to end his report of the incident with the admonition, "Again, this really happened."

"Another detective told me, 'Greg, you had to make this up,'" the detective told The (Baltimore) Sun.

Police charged Gregory Alston, 20, Tuesday with armed robbery, possession of a stolen car and a handgun violation.

Police say the carjacking occurred about 10:30 p.m. on April 20 when two women reported that a man armed with a silver handgun and wearing a black bandanna approached them while they were parked on a street in northeast Baltimore. The women said the gunman ordered them out of their car and sped off.

Tuesday, one of the women spotted the stolen car in front of an apartment building about a half-mile from where it had been taken.

She called police who towed it to the department's Northeast District station.

Two hours later, a man called police and reported the car stolen.

Officers brought the man back to the station for questioning. At first, police said, he insisted he had bought the car for $1,700 on March 11. Eventually, he confessed to the robbery.

Why did he report it stolen?

The suspect told police he had left his wallet in the car.

A man changing clothes in the back seat of his Buick was shot in the arm by assailants. Also in the blotter, car thieves with remarkably bad taste.

In Howard County, the medical examiner has ruled the death of Juan Miguel Gonzales, 50, a homicide, and Wayne Holder, 32, got life for shooting Bruce Solomon, 34, over drug money.

In PG County, a teacher who was attacked by a baseball-bat wielding student is back in the classroom.

Yvette Cade's family is asking for the dismissal of Judge Richard Palumbo (left). But really now, would that be fair? After all, Judge Robert E. Cahill gave a guy a year and half for shooting his wife to death, and has more than 15 complaints against him, yet was appointed to the Circuit Court by Ehrlich. And then there's notorious old Bollinger, right, still around in spite of giving a guy probation for rape and calling sex with a passed-out teenager "the dream of a lot of males."