Weekend

Fox reports that police are investigating a murder in the 2600 Block of East Grogan Street (which doesn't exist).

City police are looking for Belinda Brown, a 34-year-old grandmother (?!) who kidnapped 2-year-old Antonio Brown from Hopkins Hospital.

The price of cocaine has gone up 44 percent and methamphetamine is up 58 percent since January due to an increase in enforcement here and abroad.

MD State police documents: Hispanic men = macho, knife-toting drunks

The Department of Corrections is fighting rumors that murdered Officer David McGuinn had been the target of death threats and had been transferred away from the housing units as a result, but was then returned to the housing-unit assignment, where he was killed.
("Great moogly ooglies"?!)

What the ... ?! Crazed Annapolitan Shannika Douglas allegedly spit at children, chased them with a kitchen knife and then tried to run them down with her car (cue cuckoo-clock sound effect).

The man found in a house in the NW Thursday was identified as Leonard Hunt, 44, of Lumberton, North Carolina.

The family and friends of Ralph "Redz" Simmont, shot October 29 by an officer "took to the streets" this weekend.

Officials: "H. West" wrote as many as 10,000 fake tickets.

A prison guard in Cumberland has pleaded guilty to buttlegging.

PJD: Kent Eugene Turnbaugh, 55, who pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to distributing child pornography and attempting to "entice a minor [a 13-year-old girl from Alabama] to engage in sexual activity."

Post: "Montgomery County appears poised to join the ranks of 13 states and the District this week by passing broad protections for transgender individuals in housing and employment. But when the County Council takes up the issue for a vote Tuesday it will not include a controversial reference to their use of public restrooms, something opponents equated to indecent exposure."
(Wow, they make units that can pee in a urinal now?!)

RIP Norman Mailer! If you haven't read "The Executioner's Song," (the one about Gary Gilmore) you really should.
Update: this bio is better

Sentences

Johnny James Smith pleaded guilty today to first-degree murder and use of a handgun in a crime of violence before the Honorable Albert J. Matricciani. Smith was sentenced to life suspend all but 30 years with five years supervised probation on count 1 and 20 years, the first five years to be served without the possibility of parole on count 2. Details from the SA's office:

On April 2, 2007, at 2:16 AM, the victim, Darrell Smith, age 21, was found lying face down in the 3600 block of St. Margaret Street, with multiple gunshot wounds to the head and upper torso. The victim was transported to the hospital and died at 2:54 AM. An autopsy was performed and the victim’s death was ruled a homicide. The investigation revealed that the victim and his girlfriend’s former boyfriend were having a continuing argument when they entered 3720 St. Margaret Street. The girlfriend of the defendant lived at 3720 St. Margaret Street. When the defendant found out the victim was in the house, he went to the location and confronted the victim as the two walked out of the residence. The defendant pulled out a revolver and shot the victim multiple times at close range.

Jesse “James” Lynch, also known as James Langley, appeared before Judge Sylvester B. Cox and pleaded guilty to retaliation against a witness and was sentenced to 5 years. He was also found to be in violation of his probation and sentenced to 21 years, suspended, and placed on four years supervised probation upon his release from incarceration on the plea and sentence. Details from the SA's office:

Lynch was convicted of 2nd degree murder and handgun violations and was sentenced on February 9, 2006 to 25 years suspend all but 4 years and placed on 4 years probation upon his release. He was released from prison on January 25, 2007. Shortly after his release, on March 28, 2007 he was charged with riding a dirt bike on North Wolfe Street in the wrong direction, doing wheelies, and then fleeing and eluding when the police officer tried to stop him.

On September 20, 2007 Jesse Lynch went to trial on those charges. During a break in the trial Jesse Lynch was walking by the police officer who charged him and threatened him by stating he would get him back. A Baltimore City jury later acquitted the defendant.

While leaving the courthouse Lynch again saw and spoke to the charging officer and shouted to him, “I’ll get out in a week and I am going to shoot … you.” Based on these actions, the State’s Attorney’s Office filed a criminal information charging Jesse James Lynch with retaliation against a witness.

November 9

Horrifying blog post at AngerHangover: "... imagine my surprise when I read that I have been summoned to appear as a witness for the state in a jury trial for a man I’ve never even heard of." (Thanks AG)

Police are looking for 15-year-old Akir'e "Angel" Lane of Hamilton, right, who went missing after attending religious services in Hamilton on Sunday.

One bogus-parking-ticket-writing DOT employee, the mysterious "H. West" will be suspended today.

Blotter:
"A man was shot multiple times in the upper body shortly after 1 p.m. yesterday in the 800 block of Woodington Road and was admitted to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. His condition was not available. The victim was found lying in the street..."
A man in his early 20s was shot in the leg about 6:40 p.m. yesterday in the 500 block of Dolphin St.; Also, a 13-year-old boy was assaulted by "at least four young males," and in Parkville a man was shot in the head by a teenager trying to steal his Xbox.

Is dancing a crime? A teenage boy was arrested for doing the "Crip Walk."

Maryland has joined California's lawsuit against the EPA, claiming that the federal agency has failed to act in a reasonable length of time to force the auto industry to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

RJR has a new boss.

Double Shooting in Park Heights

WBAL tv reports that at about 10:20 a.m. a workman found two men in a house in the 2600 block of Oswego Avenue, one man was shot to death and the other is in critical condition at Sinai hospital.

November 8

Some guy has himself barricaded in a home in West Baltimore this morning. That can't end well...
UPDATE: "Gee, this guy is really stubborn!" It appears that police surrounded the house for seven hours... but there was no one inside!

The police cadet who was on suspension while being investigated for the robbery of a Parkville McDonald's, one Aaron Victor Seivers, has been fired... and is being charged as an accessory to the crime (is that all?).

More on yesterday's juvenile transfer hearing for Eric Price, accused in the robbery and beating of Zach Sowers. Julie and Gus report that the day after the Sowers beating, the four-man team robbed a woman at gunpoint a few blocks east of Patterson Park. And three days after that, they allegedly robbed and assaulted another man.
But they're locking up our babies!

In the County, a 90-year-old woman is being stalked by a crazy man.

Go judge! The video of Judge Ward grabbing Richard Sher's leathery lapels is a hoot!

Robber/ Carjacker Gets 35 Years

Judge Wanda K. Heard sentenced Aaron White, 21, of the 800 block of North Curley Street, to 35 years in prison-- 23 years for armed carjacking and 12 years for armed robbery -- ordered that the sentences run consecutively. A Baltimore City jury convicted White October 22, 2007 of armed carjacking, armed robbery and several other counts. Details from the SA's office:

On July 31, 2006 the victim, Anthony Carpinello, of New York City, was in the 1800 block of Ashburton Street, traveling from one work site to another. Mr. Carpinello is the president of a construction company working on a $22 million city contract to repair/install underground sewer lines near Liberty Heights Blvd. He became involved in minor traffic dispute and offered the other driver $100 to resolve the dispute, which satisfied the driver who then drove off. White witnessed this exchange and approached Mr. Carpinello, displaying a handgun White demanded the money he had seen in Mr. Carpinello’s hand, so Mr. Carpinello handed over in excess of $4,000 cash. As Mr. Carpinello began to close the driver’s side door, White kept the gun pointed at his head and said “no, I’m taking that, too.” White then drove off in the vehicle, a 2006 Range Rover.

Baltimore County officers found the vehicle the next morning at the Regal Motel, located at 8005 Pulaski Highway. Regional Auto Theft Task Force members conducted surveillance on the vehicle for about an hour, at which time White attempted to enter the vehicle and was then arrested. Recovered from White and the vehicle were the victim’s two cell phones, more than $1600 in cash and the victim’s wallet.

Assistant State's Attorney Michael Leedy, of the General Trial Division, prosecuted this case.

Near-Deadly Robberies Update

A juvenile transfer hearing for 16-year-old Eric Price, the final of four co-defendants charged in the beating of Zach Sowers, is scheduled for this afternoon at 2:30 p.m., in Room 215 of the Mitchell Courthouse, before Judge Stewart. Witnesses are expected to give statements. The other three defendants' motions have been denied.
UPDATE: Eric Price's motion was denied also.

Yesterday, a man was robbed, then and shot in the head and face in Owings Mills.

November 7

The Ink reports eight murders from October 29 through Sunday the 4th: the unidentified body in a minivan, Marlon Beckford, Alexander Robertson-El, Naim Muhammad King, Nathaniel Footman, Lawrence Jones, an unidentified man on Elmora Avenue and Norman Smith.
Last week marked a yearly low for the Sun's crime coverage, apparently, with the last three of the murders listed above unreported.

Feel-good story of the week: 80-year-old retired judge Thomas Ward tackled, restrained a robbery suspect preying on the home of George & Jessica Dailey, owners of On the Hill Cafe in Bolton Hill.

Police are looking for a hit-and-run driver in a white vehicle who killed someone in the middle of the afternoon in the 3300 block of Eastern Avenue.

Judge Marvin Garbis began the process of divvying up the assets of Cockeysville fraudster Alan B. Fabian.

The CP asks the very good question, "Hilton Green Is Highly Qualified To Investigate Baltimore's Department Of Housing-- So Why Isn't He?"

The feds gave Jermol Antonyio Chin 15 years for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

PsDJ: Victor William Kunst Jr., 56, of Columbia, who was indicted on one count of receiving child pornography and one count of sending illegal images, and Harold Leroy Rivers, 62, of Pikesville, indicted on six counts of possessing and receiving child pornography images.
Also, an ironic (or horribly un-ironic) pervert: the chief operating officer of the National Children's Museum in Washington.
And just a plain old (allegedly) gross guy, Gregory Trakney of Taneytown, accused of assaulting his kids' babysitter. Euch, I need a shower now.

Myth Debunking Dept.

How accurate is FBI criminal profiling? About as dead-on as your average 1-900 psychic, writes Malcolm Gladwell in this week's NYker

Pot makes teens social? According to a Swiss study, "teenagers who only use cannabis, not tobacco, seem to function better than teens who consume both ... the researchers also found that those who just used cannabis were more socially driven and had no more psychosocial problems than those who had never taken either of the two substances."

November 6

Wait, the 6th, there's something important about today... isn't election day or something? Don't forget to get out there and vote for Elbert Henderson and Maria Allwine!
Unless like most Baltimoreans you're cool with the surging murder rate, the city going without a police commissioner for six weeks, foot-dragging on the probes of the parking-ticket scandal and the fire-department exam scandal, still no explanation of the Marcus Brown pension scandal... and with hardly anyone bothering to vote, your vote counts (almost. Maybe. Well, not really.)

Terrance Regan, 16, was shot to death near Morgan State University.

Blotterata:

• The teenager killed in the NW was identified as Nathaniel Footman, 18. But still no clue as to whom official murders 252 and 253 are.
• Five teenage boys were arrested after going on a robbery spree in Hampden at around 1 a.m. Saturday.
• No good deed goes unpunished: "A man, 31, was driving through Druid Hill Park and was nearing the former reptile house when he stopped to help three men whose car appeared to have a flat tire. When the victim, 31, left his car, one of the men pulled out a handgun and another a knife."

Latar C. Bradshaw and Gregory G. Kulla have pleaded guilty for the attack on aged Sun reporter Carl A. Schoettler. And get this: "Carter was standing at a bus stop with Bradshaw when Schoettler was involved in a minor traffic accident with Kulla. After Schoettler got out of his car to speak with Kulla, Carter attacked him and split Schoettler's money with Bradshaw. Prosecutors said Kulla, who did not know the two men, did nothing to stop the attack, then agreed to drive Bradshaw and Carter away from the scene."

Martin O'Malley may enjoy his first-ever senate veto Thursday, on a law that regulates how government agencies are permitted dispose of guns.

Maybe the roof rack was full?: "According to officers, they stopped the van, with two people inside for unknown reasons."

Police Shoot Armed Man

Police shot a suspect with a gun in the shoulder in the NW, he's expected to live. This is 2007's 31st police-involved shooting.

Horrible things done to children dept.

Lazara Arellano de Hogue was found guilty of vehicular manslaughter and six other counts in Towson this afternoon and is scheduled to be sentenced November 16 for the death of three-year-old Elijah Cozart. Judge John Hennegan deemed it "the most unsatisfying" verdict of his life.

In other bad news about kids, Venable LLC on behalf of Baltimore’s foster children has asked a federal court to hold the city accountable for "failing to reform its foster care system as promised" in 1988.

... the 1984 lawsuit alleged that pervasive abuse existed within the Baltimore foster care system, including improper placement of children, substandard health care and sporadic caseworker visits.

Bummer stat: according to advocates, there are 55% fewer foster homes for children than there were six years ago.
Update: More on MD's foster-care nightmare from the Sun's Lynn Anderson.

Interesting Q raised by this NY Mag piece, "Saving Justin Berry" (remember him?): should it be legal for journalists to download child pornography in the course of reporting a story?

November 5

Broadwater's Examiner monthly murder roundup gripping, informative

Two teenagers were shot this weekend, two men were shot in the Southern and Northwestern Districts.

MVA employee* Candace Nicole Green, got 19 months and car-dealership employee Ana Maria Lorena Creque got 30 months in prison for conspiring to produce and sell Maryland driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.
*I'd assume she's now a former employee... but then again They Say it's really hard to get fired from a state job...

City police arrested an a-hole in HarfCo after he rammed a police cruiser in the Southeast and led them on a chase up 95 to Bel Air.

As women get out of the sex trade, more drugs need housing. And another rehab story. All part of a Sun series on Baltimore's epidemic of hookers and HIVvies.

Carol Ott's got some justified criminal activity

Not Baltimore Crime but whatever dept.
Eww... more beef recalled due to poop germs!

Prosecutors who locked up "American Gangster" heroin dealer Frank Lucas say movie is a "bunch of lies"

November 2

Ten years for a crack-dealing couple; 10 for a gang member's illegal firearm; a guilty plea for cocaine base (is that different from crack?) down at the federal courthouse today.

Francis S. Lee, the alleged drug dealer who allegedly ran over two detectives on 33rd Street October 31 was ordered held without bail this morning.

Julian Collins, who berated judge Handy, got 50 years for a 2000 killing.

Two teenagers, 17 and 13, were shot in the right shoulder at around 9 p.m. last night in the 4000 block of Barrington Road in Gwynn Oak.

QTD= Westboro Baptist organizer Johnathan Phelps on the group's media strategy: "Let me put it to you this way: How much money (do) you think it takes to pay for an ad that says 'God hates fags' in The Baltimore Sun? I've never bought any advertising, but it takes big bucks from what I've heard."
Related: "Reversal likely in protest verdict"

Real Estate:
Did Colliers Pinkard breach their listing agreement when they brokered the sale of the office building at 300 E. Pratt Street?

Should ground rent holders be compensated for changes to the law?

I'll be away this weekend. Please don't burgle my house. Thanks.

November 1

A man was shot to death last night in an alley near Park Heights and Woodland Avenues. (thanks PP)

The man shot in Barclay yesterday has died.

Three shootings last night within less than an hour:

the first shooting occurred at about 9:50 p.m. when a man was shot in the face in the 2900 block of Woodland Avenue in northwest Baltimore. About 10 minutes later, a man was shot in the stomach at the intersection of Monument and Montford Avenue. A third man was shot multiple times about 30 minutes later in northwest Baltimore.

Blotter: A 16-year-old girl was kidnapped on Milford Mill Road about 11 p.m. Monday and released unharmed in the city; on Tuesday a man was shot in the arm during a robbery in Hanlon Park; a man was shot in the 800 block of N. Fulton Ave. about 1 a.m.; Two males, ages 14 and 19, were each stabbed in the stomach about 8 p.m. yesterday in the 1900 block of Etting Street.

The driver of what JZ called the "gold Infinite" that mowed down two officers was arrested yesterday afternoon in Bolton Hill.

It's WTF?! Day! (well, that's every day... but today is extra effed!)
How horrifying is the Elijah Cozart case? Lazara Arellano de Hogue's defense attorney reportedly apologized to the victim's parents. "I’m really sorry ... I just have to do what I have to do."

"A Baltimore City police cadet has been suspended while detectives investigate whether he was involved in the armed robbery of a McDonald’s in Parkville."

And the parking ticket scandal gets worse: contrary to city officials' claims that the bogus tickets were an isolated incident, a parking agent says that she reported habitual fake-ticket writing by an agent in 2005, but the city’s Department of Transportation did nothing about it.

Well, that's a relief: "A Maryland judge’s groundbreaking decision to disallow fingerprint evidence is not spreading like wildfire through the court system — at least according to a Baltimore County ruling Wednesday."

Sisters are doing it for themselves! Dealing drugs, that is.
Meanwhile, local law firm Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll has lost its attempt to halt a gender discrimination claim.

Snacks, a Honda, a Chrysler, an oven, range, dishwasher, washer and dryer & a weed trimmer= crap stolen in the Northern. Plus muggings as gun- and knife-point.

In St. Mary's County, trial is beginning in the case of Cory Ryder, a teen who tried to hire a hitman to kill his mom.

Quote of the Day

"I saw this show on CNN, with Anderson Cooper. Cats were talking about 'Don’t snitch, no matter what happens.' I can't see how a guy can be considered strong if he lets a bunch of assholes walk all over him and he doesn’t respond, just because of some code that a bunch of idiots have cooked up ... the street guidelines are just moron bullshit." -- Original American Gangster Leroy "Nicky" Barnes

October 31

An unidentified man was shot in the head in the 2400 block of Brentwood Ave. in the Barclay neighborhood.

Alexander Robertson-El, 24, was shot to death last night in the 700 block of Bartlett Ave. in the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello ("CHUM") East Baltimore Midway neighborhood* (thanks Burger).

One or perhaps two police officers working undercover were run over during an attempt to arrest a drug suspect in the 900 block of East 33rd Street this afternoon near the YMCA, the driver is still at large.
Reported JZ, "A gold Infinite matching the description of the getaway vehicle plowed into some parked cars ... [police are] in the process of getting a search warrant to see if anything was inside the Infinite that crashed."
Everything's inside the infinite, man!
UPDATE: A suspect has been arrested, and JZ edited their charming typos out of the story. What a shame!

The Ink identifies victim Christopher Burden and has updates on other cases.

Only in Baltimore would a 16-year-old getting shot be relegated to a three-sentence blotter item. Also not worthy of a whole story: a Molotov cocktail in the Southern (my, those are popular!), a man shot in the foot in the SE.

Details of yesterday's shooting in Loch Raven; the body found in the minivan a few days ago has been ruled a homicide.

That's a good question: "How does a 15-year-old find himself in possession of a .44 Magnum?"

Jim Kraft wants the City Council to have the power to pass new gun laws.
You're not getting any new gun laws until you use the ones you have, young man!

Albert Snyder won $10.9 million from the Westboro Baptist Church.

*Neighborhood maps have moved here, in the form of massive PDF files

October 30

A man died of gunshot wounds near the Mt. Pleasant Golf Course in Loch Raven.

The teenager shot by an officer yesterday has died and was identified as 15-year-old Ralph Simmont of the 7900 block of Scotts Level Road in Randallstown.

Did you know? "Hospitals are not required under Maryland law to report domestic violence cases when they don’t involve children or gunshot wounds."

Parking ticket scandal: "“They still have quotas, but they’re not called quotas, they’re called ‘expectations’.”

The case against the Westboro Baptist Church has gone to the jury.

The hit-an-run case against Lazara Arellano de Hogue, currently Towson's most-hated woman, continued with a witness who testified that de Hogue drove from Goucher Boulevard to Loch Raven Boulevard and then to Regester Avenue, got out of her truck and got back in. Yesterday another witness testified that the boy's legs were sticking out from under the truck. WTF?

In Annapolis, Christopher Haarhoff pleaded guilty yesterday to helping his grifter mom murder her boyfriend, Frank Fertitta, and set his body on fire. Wow, that is one messed-up story!

October 29

WMAR is reporting that a body was found in the back of a minivan today at the Garden Village Apartments in the 5900 block of Radecke Road.

Police-involved shooting #30 was a youth who allegedly brandished a handgun when stopped by an officer. He's alive and in hospital. Died at Sinai Hospital.

TDR's Liz Farmer goes "Inside the War Room: Baltimore's plan to keep repeat offenders off the streets: is it working?"
(that headline needs a colonic!)

A 35-year-old man was shot in the right leg near Waverly Elementary school; a 17-year-old was shot in the right leg by a passenger in a red Cadillac in the Southwest.

On Saturday an "uncooperative" 18-year-old was shot in the arm on Hollins Street. And plenty of robbery and burglary in the Blotter.

More on the suicide of murder suspect Damon Smith, who threw himself out of a 10th floor window at Mercy Medical Center.

Senator Verna Jones fighting gangs with Christian rap, acronyms.

In the county at Woodlawn High, a catfight led to a 14-year-old girl being pepper-sprayed, and trips to the hospital for 20 students.

The Sun and the Examiner both cover the "die in" story-- which is better?

Stat from the Children's Defense Fund: "Blacks are five times as likely to be incarcerated as white youth for drug offenses."
(Why do they capitalize "Black"?)

Weekend

Twenty-six year-old Coppin State student Veronica Fludd was stabbed to death Friday morning in West Baltimore, her ex-boyfriend, Damon Smith, has confessed to killing her.
Update: Damon Smith died Sunday morning of self-defenestration.

This just in: Witness intimidation remains a problem. (Wonder if MD, like NJ, won't relocate witnesses with criminal records?)

Federal investigators have seized property belonging to Michael K. Lewis, accused of illegally filing bankruptcies for clients.

What the?! Drunk Dad Runs Over Daughter, Flees the Scene

Feel-good story: A. Robert Kaufman is getting a kidney!