Thursday, June 7, 2007

June 7

Interview-room sex! Bleached hair! Flesh-colored lips! Tiffany Weaver goes free!

At a hearing today, Hector Manzueta, 26, of the 1400 block of Anglesea Street in Southeast Baltimore’s Medford neighborhood, pled guilty to second-degree murder and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. Judge Wanda K. Heard sentenced Manzueta to 30 years in prison for the murder count and a concurrent 20 year prison term for the handgun count. On June 19, 2006 Manzueta shot Katiria De La Cruz, 24, once in the face after she tried to end her relationship with him. Manzueta then turned the gun on himself in an attempt to kill himself. Despite shooting himself in the head, Manzueta survived. Police found the two in his apartment after Manzueta called a member of the family and confessed to what he had done. Those family members, in turn, contacted the Baltimore Police Department and lead the officers to Manzueta’s apartment. Police found Mrs. De La Cruz partially disrobed lying in a pool of blood on a mattress. They recovered the murder weapon – a 9 MM semi-automatic handgun – covered in blood just a short distance away on the floor. Assistant State’s Attorney E. Wesley Adams of the Homicide Division prosecuted the case.

The Grand Jury indicted Anthony Monroe, 28, of the 1500 block of E. 29th Street for first-degree murder and other charges; court documents allege on January 20, 2007 Anthony Monroe was identified as the person last seen with Milan Andrew Walker, 30, seated in a vehicle in the 1000 block of E. Baltimore Street and that witnesses heard gunshots and saw Walker falling out of the vehicle onto the pavement and the vehicle leaving the scene. Walker later died that day at Johns Hopkins Hospital. An arraignment is scheduled for July 3.

An ongoing DEA investigation has led to 20 people being charged for drug-related crimes.

What the?! "A Baltimore County police officer was hospitalized this morning after a man walking near an elementary school in Essex tossed paint thinner in his face."

Eagle: "A Dundalk Avenue townhouse that was the site of a shooting three weeks ago was severely damaged in a two-alarm fire Tuesday. Earlier this week, it was unclear whether the two incidents were related."

Somebody found a body in the Patapsco river.

The Hamm on his plan to have the city's 42 homicide detectives schlepping beats "we’re getting some push-back from our detectives and rightly so ... Whenever you do something new or different, you’re going to get push-back. But I worked homicide. I know our detectives, when they want to work a ballgame [while off-duty], they will put that uniform on and work. If they can do it then, they can do it now."
Nice 'tude!

Blotteratta: A man was stabbed in the torso in the 2700 block of Pennsylvania Ave,; a six-year-old Hyundai was carjacked; police recovered 25 capsules of heroin and nearly $4,500 in cash.
mustafa
More details on the road rage killing of cab driver Ghulam Mustafa (left).

Two bank robbers are being sought in AAC.

Prince George's County school board member Nathaniel Thomas resigned the day after a grand jury indicted him over an alleged sexual relationship with a 15-year-old. He's also accused of having inappropriate relationships with two other students.

Keith Ray, the man behind last summer's "one-man crime wave" in the Northern, got 50 years in prison.

Verbena Harris, the mother of a mentally troubled man who died in state custody, has filed a $2 million lawsuit following his overdose on prescription medication given to him at the Baltimore City Detention Center.

The city's plan to make a "superblock" on the West side is being derailed by the owner of New York Fashions, who refuses to move.

Hey, you in the 'burbs... you might get murdered too. But don't let it get you down.

In AAC, Marley Middle School was put on lockdown after a child was seen with a gun.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say thanks for a great blog, and a valuable news source. I am a regular reader, please keep up the good work.

John Galt said...

Generaly, when I describe Baltimore as Number 2, I'm thinking of a steaming pile of it on a sidewalk.

But the FBI is referring to a very different #2.

Caederus said...

Yeah out here in the burbs people get killed as well. After all HoCo is looking at only a 50% clearance rate on homicides this year. 1 accused killer is awaiting trail, and 1 is unknown, that's 50%. I'll try not to get too freaked out.

Dopple said...

FYI Paris Hilton was released from jail and will have home detention for the rest of her sentence. Al Sharpton calls it a double standard...famous white woman can't handle the time and is released everyone else has to deal with it. For once I agree with Al.

burgersub said...

joe, howard county has had 3 homicides this year and they've all been solved (one guy committed 2 of them).

Anonymous said...

Al Sharpton needs to shut the hell up and go smack Tawana a few more times. Funny how he's never apologized for that. Judge not...

John Galt said...

Keiffer Mitchell's crime plan is out: hire 300 sworn officers, focus on gangs & violence, and prevent guns & drugs from entering city limits. Also, he intends to focus on dealers, rather than users.

My thoughts: they're still underestimating how many officers it'll take. Also, while you might decline to aggressively arrest a user for having the stuff, you're still going have to arrest him for stealing my silverware to pay for it. The surveillance burden is more manpower-intensive than locking him up for possession, but I'm OK with it as long as he still goes to jail on the other charges. Again, sounds like you're gonna need to add a lot more cops than 300.

John Galt said...

Forgot the link to WJZ's story on Mitchell. Sorry.

John Galt said...

The Sun's coverage indicates Mitchell also wants to incentivize your patrol officers' living within that post, to encourage greater affinity with the neighbors and familiarity with the offenders.

John Galt said...

The Chief of Johns Hopkins Hospital's Trauma Unit explains just how many near-murders we have a year.

Chalk it up to lousy aim and improved medical care, but understnd than it's far worse than you even think.

John Galt said...

Check this out: we're on track to exceed 1200 nonfatal shootings this year.

Detroit has over 400 murders, which is about 33% higher than our figure. Makes sense; they're about 33% larger in population.

But their nonfatal shootings are about 900-ish in number. They don't exceed us by 33%: we exceed them by that figure. In other words, we have around twice the frequency of gunfire relative to murder as the most murderous (large) city in the nation.

Good shock trauma facilities. Lousy aim. Dangerous place.

'Get In On It.'

Marc said...

Do you ever get the feeling you're living in an occupied country?

As the ghetto bird circles over Brooklyn, I read this story in the Sun:

Annapolis police raid wrong apartment

Couple was handcuffed, husband kicked; department says it regrets mistake

The Associated Press
Originally published June 7, 2007, 6:28 PM EDT
Annapolis police raided the wrong apartment Wednesday night, using flash grenades and kicking a resident in the groin before they realized their mistake, police and the family said.

Police spokesman Hal Dalton said something must have gone amiss in the briefing beforehand. "We don't know how the mistake was made," Dalton said.

Silvia Bernal, 30, told The Capital of Annapolis that about 15 officers burst through the front door of her apartment while she was cooking dinner about 8:20 p.m. She said the officers kicked her husband in the groin while she fled into a bedroom and barred the door with her body.

Then she said both of them were taken to the ground and handcuffed. The Capital said a police officer went outside and realized they had raided the wrong residence.

Dalton said they were supposed to have raided a different apartment and said the incident was regrettable.

Spa Cove apartment manager Latisha Marshall says there is a large dent in the front door. And she said there are two large black stains from the flash-bang grenades police deployed after entering the apartment.

When officers and the city's tactical squad went to the right unit, they said it was empty.


What the hell has gone wrong in this country? Why are we kicking in doors and detonating grenades to try to arrest someone for selling recreational drugs?

At least these poor people didn't end up like Cheryl Lynn Noel.

Gor said...

"Why are we kicking in doors and detonating grenades to try to arrest someone for selling recreational drugs?"

Because dirt-bags who sell illegal drugs usually have no qualms about murdering people and often have weapons more lethal than the police carry.

Now, if you what to complain about the alleged actions to those innocent occupants or the failure to locate the right apartment, I'm be happy to hear critizism about those.

Marc said...

Gor, these raids are often as dangerous for the police as they are for the innocent people involved. Check out this map of botched no-knock raids - all the little blue pins are dead or injured cops. Sometimes they're shot by fellow officers, sometimes by the (mistaken) targets of the raid, who think they are being robbed.

Even if these raids were perfectly safe for the police, there is still no justification for most of them. They are routinely used on non-violent drug offenders (local morons selling weed to their friends), not just heavily armed Tony Montana types.

Caederus said...

burger,

Thanks for the heads up. I missed the 3rd one and the arrest while on vacation. So HoCo is a bit ahead of last year so far, but we are batting 100% on catching people.

ppatin said...

No-knock raids have very little to do with cops fearing a shoot-out. The main reason is to prevent suspects from flushing drugs down the toilet or otherwise disposing of their merchandise. No drug dealer with half a brain is going to shoot it out with the police when he can just dump his goods and hire a smart lawyer.

Gor said...

If they had half a brain they wouldn't be drug dealers, but point taken that the "no-knock" entries may be in need of a little more oversight.

Maurice Bradbury said...

gor, did you see the NY magazine article about drug dealers' profit margins? 82 percent, tax-free! It would be nice if drug dealers only had half a brain, but...

Gor said...

What good is profit margins when there are 5 different people who would gun them down in a heart-beat;

1. the police,
2. rival drug dealers,
3. strung out junkies in need of a free fix,
4. vigilanties,
4. and robbers who know they caring alot of cash.

Sorry, to much risk for the return (and this is from a guy to did two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan)

If you haven't notice, there isn't alot of retired drug dealers enjoying their profit margins.