Tuesday, February 5, 2008

February 5

An unidentified man was found at about 9 a.m. Saturday morning, lying on his back shot to death in the 1600 block of W. Lafayette Avenue.

An 18-year-old was shot in the upper body after getting off of a (what else?) MTA bus in Windsor Mill.

WTF?! "Steven Vernarelli claims he was walking to Johns Hopkins Hospital in October, when he was stopped for no reason and sodomized with his own paper money by a Baltimore City police officer."

El Jizz: "Undercover Maryland Troopers Pose As Hitmen & Prevent Hundreds Of Murders!"

Judge Kaye Allison sentenced Davon Pearson, 20, of the 800 block of Vine Street today to life in prison for conspiracy to commit murder, 30 years in prison, concurrent, for second-degree murder and 20 years, consecutive, for use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. A Baltimore City jury convicted Pearson December 10, 2007. Details:
Late in the evening on August 2, 2006 Pearson met up with an associate only identified as “Bobby” in the area of the 400 block of East Lynn Avenue. Witnesses testified that “Bobby” asked Pearson to “take care of a problem for him” in exchange for an ounce of cocaine. Just past midnight, “Bobby” provided Pearson with a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun. Pearson then followed the Victim, Howard Jones, onto the 2600 block and shot him in the back of the head. Mr. Jones died on the street. Multiple eye-witnesses identified him as Mr. Jones’ killer.

At the trial, Pearson, his fiancĂ© and mother testified that he had been at a neighborhood candlelight vigil protesting violence among young men and then later at his fiancĂ©’s house in Baltimore County at the time of the murder. The jury rejected Pearson’s alibi. Assistant State’s Attorney E. Wesley Adams of the Homicide Division prosecuted this case.
Prosecutors in Carroll County are appealing the dismissal of charges against the Bowling Brook counselors who were charged with reckless endangerment in last year's death of Isaiah Simmons.
Bowzer
Bowzer from Sha Na Na wants to ban imposter bands.

The GM of WYPR went on-air this morning to explain the station's recent deSteinering. Meanwhile, listeners are puh-issed.
("I've got WAMU on, right now. It's FREAKING RINGING THROUGH MY WHOLE HOUSE. THE WINDOWS ARE RATTLING. I CAN'T MAKE IT FREAKING LOUD ENOUGH. Hello, Kojo!")

9 comments:

buzoncrime said...

The firing of Marc Steiner reminds me of the firing a number of years ago of Davey Johnson, one of the strongest managers the Orioles ever had. He was one of the few who would get in the face of these spoiled, childish, superstar athletes and make them perform in a team-like way. However, the owner of the team, Peter Angelos, and Johnson clashed and Davey was shown the door.

I don't think the Orioles have had a winning season since.

Same thing happened in New York when Giuliani's Police Commissioner, William Bratton, became more popular than him.

Buz believes that Steiner was a truly outstanding jounalist who knew a lot of the players in the city; I'm sure that the right-wing fire-breathers on the other talk shows hated him. But he really had some great shows: his five-part series on Vietnam was very moving and enlightening, and his interview with Felicia Pearson, Snoop, was thought-provoking.

I think WYPR will go the way of the Orioles. Their big mistake, in my most humble opinion was expanding to 50, 000 watts and buying stations on the Eastern Shore and Frederick. People, listen, ain't nobody in Ocean City or Frederick gonna care about what happens in Baltimore--which they all hate and fear. People interested in listening to public radion in YPR's format don't really care what's going on in Frederick or OC, either. Management just drove up their fixed costs to satisfy the mantra that bigger is better, and missed their niche of the sophisticated urban, urbane listener. There are plenty of suburban oriented stations to cater to those audiences.

Oh, I'm sure Marc could have been a difficult fellow to handle, but he was your main, maybe only big product.

By the way, the introduction of this show the Signal, on Fridays in Marc's time slot, was the beginning of the end. This poor dumb retired guy could never figure out what they were talking about: I guess one had to be one of the Creative Alliance types to really get into it. I dunno.

By the way of crime tip: don't go walking too far north of the Creative Alliance at the Patterson at night. It's bandit country.

Posted by buzoncrime

Gail said...

Buz, I agree with your comments, except maybe for the 'Creative Alliance' part. We love Mr. Steiner, The Signal, the Creative Alliance, and all those positive things about the city which make us forget--if only until the next Baltimore Crime blog posting--that Baltimore is a very troubled city. Mr. Steiner was always willing to engage in constructive discourse, and in my mind his focus on local issues (which, in case anyone hasn't noticed, don't necessarily stop at the Baltimore City line). I'm sure that he will land on his feet. Mr. Steiner, the moment I hear that you are back on the air, on whatever station, you can be assured that I'll be tuning in. If it weren't for The Signal, there would be no reason left to choose WYPR over WAMU.

taotechuck said...

Hey mjb (that's gonna take some getting used to. maybe i'll change mine to ttc), the body in the 1600 block of W. Lafayette was found on Saturday, not today.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Thanks Charles.
You know on the Internets, TTC= Trying to Conceive!

Anonymous said...

Apparently there was a tragedy on the bridge.

http://wbal.com/stories/templates/news.aspx?articleid=1670&zoneid=2

ppatin said...

The Federales have indicted four men on charges related to the murder of Carl Lackl. All four of them could potentially face the death penalty.

ppatin said...

Rod Rosenstein's statement about the case:

“This case demonstrates our relentless commitment to prosecute anyone who harms a witness. One of the best ways to protect witnesses is to make it crystal clear that authorities will act swiftly and effectively against anyone who tries to harm a witness. With this prosecution and the indictments on October 23, 2007 for the murder of David Lee and November 13, 2007 for the murder of John Dowery, we intend to send a powerful message. Everyone who committed those crimes should expect to spend their lives in a small concrete cell in a federal prison far from Maryland, with no probation and no parole."

Good man. Now they should just make it their stated policy to seek the death penalty whenever possible in cases that involve the killing of a witness. Witness intimidation is probably the biggest problem that our judicial system faces, and IMO is deserving of the harshest punishment available.

ppatin said...

Update on the Key Bridge murder:

"Maryland Transportation Authority Police are preparing murder charges against a West Baltimore man who police believe threw his 3-year-old son off the Key Bridge into the Patapsco River on Sunday.

After more than two days of searching, police had not recovered the boy's body. But police said phone calls from relatives and statements from witnesses on the bridge Sunday night led them to believe that Turner Jordon Nelson had been thrown into the water.

The boy's father, Stephen Todd Nelson, 37, of the 2900 block of Walbrook Ave., was in critical condition in an induced coma at University of Maryland Medical Center after ingesting household cleansers Sunday night in an apparent suicide attempt at his home, police said."

It's been a bad week for crazy people in MD. First the kid in Cockeysville shoots up his family, then this guy tosses his kid into the harbor and chugs bleach.

John Galt said...

Wasn't the Algebra Project purportedly seeking additional school funding to keep kids in school and out of jail ?