The Waste of Your Pants

Sixteen months ago Tammy Brown, director of O'Malley's office of Crime Control and Prevention, told me there was no DNA backlog.* Now apparently the backlog is a year long.

Jason Bulmer, one of a pair who allegedly killed HoCo blogger Dennis Lane, has pleaded guilty.*

The Daily Mail of the UK explored Baltimore's "people of the woods."

Ugh, these twits. Starve-a-me Galling-Flake is "appalled" by the "disproportionate high" arrest rates for black pot possessors, but refuses to offer an explanation for why police are arresting so many people, a plan or support for decriminalization or lower penalties.
     Meanwhile Anthony Brown has clawed back his announced support for decriminalization.  "He said he is advocating a 'slow-as-we-go" approach.' 'I'm at the red light checking the intersection.'" Could that man have any less personality or backbone?
   And Bernstein has been focusing on diversion,* so good on him for that. But how do we arrest fewer people?
    Can you imagine how much we'd make if it was a $100 ticket? Well, you don't have to, 1,800 people arrested a year = $18,000. Hellz, make it a $1,000 ticket. But it would still pale in how much we'd get from the feds for treatment centers, for the extra inmates at the jail ($40,000 an inmate), not to mention all the lobbying $ the house and senate get from defense attorneys and the like, I guess.

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/02/21/3490655/brown-discusses-measures-on-marijuana.html#storylink=cpy

disproportionate high

Read More at: http://foxbaltimore.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/baltimore-mayor-appalled-at-disproportionate-marijuana-arrest-rates-african-americans-25690.shtml#.Uwf0BV7UVAJ arrest rate   

No good, very bad and horrible: The Tribune Company vis a vis the Baltimore Sun Media Group has bought the City Paper, the city's last non-niche independent newspaper and the last indie to be unloaded by Times-Shamrock of Scranton, PA. Everyone will be fired and the re-hires will be decamped to Calvert Street, and if they don't rehire Van Smith I will cut a bitch. Forecast calls for layoffs, shrinkage and lame attempts as being BuzzFeed.

@CTAssaaf

Wow, we haven't had a shooting in a week! Oh wait, here's a police-involved shooting. And, wait,

Shooting: 400 block E. Patterson Park Avenue. Man reported to be shot. Homicide Detectives called to the scene. PIO responding.
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) February 21, 2014

Bystanders say victim is a homeless man known as "CJ." (The shelter is right here) They say 4-6 shots were fired
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) February 21, 2014

Another update; Victim from N Patterson Park Ave shooting has died; no name, age provided yet
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) February 21, 2014

A Digital Harbor nee Southern High School student was pistol-whipped, robbed by classmates.

Anthony Hopkins convicted in August 2012 Light Rail shooting of an unidentified "target." A witness said: "it appeared Hopkins had a handgun tucked into the waste of his pants"

Schmokin

SRB just says no to legal pot. "I'm not going to be waving the Schmoke flag."
   Funny, Schmoke presided over all kinds of steaming hot messes as mayor: privatizing public schools with shiteous results and 90 city schools taken over by the state due to excessive crapulence, all while simultaneously emblazoning the "City that Reads" slogan on bus benches, misusing and losing federal housing funds, crony hires with plush salaries ... but all of his epic missteps have been long forgotten in favor of mocking his one brave, bold, good idea. But it was an idea before its time, and the vituperative knee-jerk backlash from conservatives has obvz spooked mayors for decades to come, including ours, and probably set the NORML cause back 20+ years. History will vindicate Kurt Schmoke on the pot issue, but in the present the spanking continues.

And vindication for Jason Weinstein, former assistant U.S. Attorney in Baltimore responsible for high-profile busts like Itchy Man, Ed Norris and the guy who burned the Dawson family to death. In 2012 he "resigned" from the DOJ to take the fall for Operation Fast and Furious* after Republicans blamed him for the Bush-era program. Now it's come to light that the DEA had been working with the Sinaloa drug cartel since the late 1990s, a decade before Weinstein came on the scene. But a "happy" ending, since the WaPo story was published, Weinstein landed a job with Steptoe & Johnson LLP, sacrificing his populist morals for big $$ white-collar criminal defen$$$e.

In other potlitical news, Van Smith interviewed rising gubernatorial candidate Heather Mizeur.

Corrections officer Taryn "Mrs. Loney" Kirkland got 3 1/2 years for her part in jailhouse drug-smuggling,* her inmate lover Steven Loney got 9 years.

Gregg Bernstein has raised $340k for the State's Attorney's race,* 20 times more than his closest competitor. His contributors include the Orioles and Harbor Point's Michael Beatty.

Six middle-schoolers-- three boys and three girls between the ages of 13 and 14-- were arrested for assaulting a woman on the light rail near the Westport stop.

A man was beaten with a brick, robbed and carjacked in Canton.

Overnight Shooting: 1300 Blk of E. Fayette St. Adult male shot in the left leg. District Detectives Investigating. Dispatched time 12:07 AM
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) January 15, 2014

Shooting: 500 block Loneys Lane. Man reported to be shot. Southeast District detectives investigating.
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) January 15, 2014

Chad Kinney, head of the CitiStat program, was fired after a mere 17 months on the job for reasons undisclosed. And the city has agreed to pay a New York company $286,000 to redesign the city's web site,* because there are no web companies in Baltimore.

"What if I smack the shit out of you?" "What if I pull this pistol out?," a dog owner lured onto the baseball fields and robbed in Patterson Park and a rape thwarted per the victim's request in the Baltimore Guide east side crime blotter.

A man threatening to shoot his mother, a guy robbed for his coat and lots of American cars stolen in the North Baltimore blotter.*

12 years for crack dealer Donte Cox

A 13-year-old boy was awarded a $50k settlement* in a wrongful-arrest case.

.@mayorsrb says her confidence in Police Commissioner Anthony Batts has not wavered, despite dramatic spike in homicides
— Luke Broadwater (@lukebroadwater) January 15, 2014

Statistics corner: there were 761 drug overdose deaths in Maryland in 2012, of those 378 were from hairron. H ODs in 2011 = 245.

19 is the new 35

Extra-special Robert G. Moore, an accused drug kingpin and murderer who allegedly threatened the lives of two prosecutors,* went on trial today but didn't show up in the courtroom after a Judge deemed him too dangerous to be there,* an unusual move that is apparently not against the law.

Tumaina Bakani

Frank Harper, via Facebook

Frank Harper, 55, died after getting into a fight with an armed security guard* at a Subway/Citgo station at 5516 Reisterstown Road. Said security guard, Tumaina Bakani, age 33, is now being charged with murder. WBAL reports the whole exchange was filmed by the store's security cameras.

Two men were shot in the parking lot of a Citgo* -- a different parking lot of a different Citgo, this one at 2801 Edmonson Avenue (intriguingly titled on Apple maps as the "Princess Olaza Citgo")

A man was shot in the groin* near Morgan State University in the 1600 block of Northgate Road

A man was shot in the 200 block of Monastery Avenue

Down at Central Booking, officials were found to have accepted bail for an inmate who had been dead for two days* ... and still haven't issued his family a refund.

Doop de doo--- an inmate walked away from a work detail on Wednesday and was tracked down near the Westfield Annapolis mall.*

Yacoub

Eeww... coked-up Towson gynecologist Dr. John Yacoub was suspended on drug charges and was found to have pictures of patients' privates on his phone. And an air marshal from Maryland was arrested in Tennessee and accused of taking upskirt photos on a Southwest Airlines flight.

A 19-year-old was served a beer at Birrotecca and The Admiral's Cup, their defense? She was "dressed up very attractively that evening! ... 35 doesn't look the way it used to." 

"Prude Pleads Guilty to 2001 Rape" .. and he stole her purse, too.

The State's Attorney's office released a baffling array of pie charts and graphs, one showing a 15% uptick in felony convictions over the past month.

The dead body of 29-year-old Kevin Wheelan was found on a light rail train in Cunt Valley,* cause of death TBD.

In Bethesda, a three-year-old boy was kidnapped, then rescued after his abductor crashed into a tree.

And that kid who chewed a toaster pastry into the shape of a gun, attracting a laudatory lifetime membership from the NRA, has had his school record cleared.

Crazy, fraudy, beaty and stealy

Back from vacation, what did I miss?

Man shot in the chest in the 2100 block of N Charles St.*

Another child murder by mom's boyfriend: Damond Stansbury, 27 (any relation to June?), was charged with the murder of Marlo McFadden,* 2.

Officer James W. Smith pleaded not guilty to killing his fiancee,* Kendra Diggs. Infidelity or PTSD, which is it? Maybe he hallucinated she was banging a Kurdish insurgent before he sniped her.

18 months for Veronica Alford, who helped two little homiciders hide Monae Turnage's body.

Sisters are doing it for themselves! And by "it" I mean honeytrap home-invasion robberies.

Jennifer Carlson

Glad to hear BPD caught "suicidal and homicidal" Jennifer Carlson, who was allegedly in route from the crazy house to Mt. Vernon to do someone in. Oh wait, Jeff Herman of the deuce says they deleted that Tweet and that 17 hours ago she was spotted in the Loyola Area and she's still on the loose! Yikes.

Unbeweavable thieves* target human hair.

Yay, 7/8 Light Rail robbers caught. Boo, $600 laptop sold for $20.

Where was the mayor the weekend after 16-month-old Carter Scott was shot? Sleeping in a lobbyist's bed* (literally).

33rd St. 7-11 robbed at knifepoint, employee stuffed in freezer.

Man beaten, robbed in 400 block of E. Biddle, taken to Hopkins. #scanner
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) June 14, 2013

Dumbass trying to sell cellphone via Craigslist in Homeland robbed of cellphone.

Cane Mwihava

Six mortgage fraudsters (with Tanzanian names, FWIW) indicted in a $3.5 million scam that involved properties in Baltimore and elsewhere.

Trevor Lee Testaman

The Yankees fan punched over a concrete railing at Camden Yards, Matt Fortese, is doing better.* Meanwhile the 1st court date for the alleged assailants was set for July 17.

Speaking of drunk rednecks, Trevor Lee Testaman went to OC, allegedly stabbed 3 @119th & Assawoman.

 Fat kid, hot girl

Oh, AAC teens, stealing a credit card to take goofy pictures. Of themselves with the stolen credit card. What do you want to bet the hot girl put the fat kid up to it?

Slumlord of the flies

A 30-year-old man was shot to death in the 700 block of Cator Avenue is homicide #90. He was shot in the back of the head but kept on driving.

How about slumlord Tom Karle Jr. of Summerfield Investment Group, who is allegedly harassing the holy heck out of a couple of Patterson Park residents with the gall to complain about him letting criminals live in his Section 8 properties. The cojones on this guy. Here's hoping this story will finally introduce him and his Section 8 vouchers to some consequences.

"Police review board called irrelevant, ineffective." Let's also call it futile, time-wasting window dressing, considering the board has no power whatsoever to enforce its findings.* What I wonder-- why do these members bother to serve, considering how much time it must take and that there's zero chance of affecting change? Related: "Mayor tries to suppress damning animal abuse report she commissioned." (Warning: graphic abused-dog photo.)

Armed robbery on the Light Rail at 3 in the afternoon, if Reddit is to be believed.

Good for you, city council members who are making disapproving noises at that Exelon $107 million nonsense.* But bet you a night at the city-owned Hilton it passes anyway.

@baltimorepolice just tweeted arrest in 4/25 murder, 3100 Pelham. Sources had told me victim in police databases as a verified BGF member
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) May 31, 2013

Overnight non-fatal shooting: 12:18am, 700 block of Cator Ave. Adult male reported to be shot. District detectives are investigating.
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) June 1, 2013

Shooting Update 5/26: 2800 N. Dukeland St. The victim has succumbed to his injuries. Homicide detectives are investigating.
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) June 1, 2013

Big Bradley Manning protest down at Ft Meade on Saturday.

How much would you pee if you woke up and saw this burglar staring you in the face?

Robbed, beaten, stabbed, raped, shot

A city officer shot and killed a man in the 500 block of N. Madeira St.* (in soon-to-be-redeveloped E. Baltimore) (non-Sun link)

A man was shot at the Lutherville Light Rail station and a suspect is still at large. You may recall in 2008 two teens were abducted from the same light rail station and one was raped, 22-year-old Kiheem Malik Taylor and 18-year-old Brian Scott were found/pleaded guilty in that case. Actually, a lot of stuff has gone down at and on the Light Rail. 

Opening statements in the Michael Johnson trial* told a tale of a feckless older sister, videotaped nude frolicking, a jailhouse snitch who Johnson alleged to have asked for help disposing of Phylicia Barnes' body (opines Fenton on Twitter, "My interpretation/analysis of the new witness is that prosecution isnt putting too much stock in him.... on its face, what he is saying is enormously crucial. But he was almost an afterthought in opening statements.") and the doomed teen being targeted by the 28-year-old's lust and text messages. ... Barnes' cause of death is still unknown.

One Daren Ruffin allegedly stabbed his wife Melissa to death, less than a week after being released after wife-beating charges*

A man was robbed and beaten on University Parkway (almost two weeks ago)

Somewhere Judge Prevas is toasting to this-- former Catholic-school teacher and convicted child rapist John Merzbacher will stay in jail.

The Hyatt Regency of Baltimore has paid to settle Federal charges of unfair labor practices.

Activist Kim Trueheart was released from Central Booking at 3:45 a.m. on Thursday.

'I don’t think there’s anything about whichI will ever be more grateful'

Have you seen these two, wanted for attempted armed robbery on the Light Rail? (Left, via WBAL)

Robberies galore in the southeast and coats for the homeless stolen in the southern, reports the Baltimore Guide

Last week's four murders recapped in the Ink. Says O'Malley of the drop in the murder toll this year, "I don’t think there’s anything about which I will ever be more grateful in public service."

The WaPo follows up on the case following the killing of U of MD student Justin DeSha-Overcash

Police backtrack on the whole "prosecutors are stalling and hindering our cases" thing

Two "doctors" (can you call them doctors if they lost their licenses to practice?) are facing murder charges under Maryland's "viable fetus" law after two botched abortions. The women lived.

Nathan A. Chapman Jr., once a prominent man about town, is now a man about a halfway house*

Hellz yes, tax giveaways need more scrutiny

The FBI says gun sales are up

The Tribune Co. bankruptcy case will lurch on until at least this summer with hearings not starting until May. In better news, the judge has reversed himself, deciding that Zell won't be in line for a bankruptcy payout after all.

'I think he had braids'

Jeezum crow, a 17-year-old high school student killed Monday night , Devearl Singletary, was the second kid from his school to be murdered this month. And two more murders: in Broadway East (a rare picture of a victim's feet sticking out of a sheet) and 20-year-old Kevin Pierre was shot to death in the 200 block of Belnord Ave.

The Ink covers last week's two murders, Anton Ingram and Marcius Perkins, plus case updates.

Two guys shot last night in the 6200 block of Carbore Way in the SE.

14 years for a guy who robbed Baltimore banks with a fake bomb

The woman who tossed Pine-Sol and bleach at her romantic rival at a Walmart has an unlikely ally: her babydaddy's daddy. "I’m not going to defend my son when he’s wrong. He’s wrong," Fred Culp told the jz.

Jury selection begins today in the civil suit brought by the parents of Philip Parker Jr., an inmate strangled on a prison bus; meanwhile Judge Sylvester Cox is considering letting jurors tour the bus in a darkened garage.

A writer's house was shot at in Woodberry, and he and the wife are thoroughly annoyed that took a half-hour for police to get to the scene.

A $490k fine for a MD telemarketer who broke Mississippi's no-call laws

Oops! Lawyer for St. Joe's stent patients loses their medical records on the Light Rail

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear arguments in a case in which a UMBC pro-life student group claims its free speech was inhibited by having to relocate a graphic anti-abortion display. Meanwhile, Congress is preparing to debate the "Embryos Before Hos" bill.

Stabbings Galore... and More

Yet another fatal stabbing downtown yesterday. as well as the revelation of a previously undisclosed murder victim.

Two separate shootings leave one man dead and a woman injured.

A city officer was shot, and apparently not injured much at all, while responding to a domestic disturbance.

16-year-old Keymo Tubias Martin Jr. has been charged with attempted murder in the near-fatal shooting of two security guards.
Interesting to note; Mr.Keymo Martin Sr. was stabbed and killed by his then girlfriend Erin Monk (who was not Jr's mother) back in 1995.

Judge to review history in of Officer Gahiji Tshamba in order to help decide a proper sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for August 16.

Federal press release offers more information regarding Ofc.Daniel Reed's drug trafficking conspiracy.

Teen being sought for a double stabbing at the Patapsco light rail stop.

Denation Kent, 37, who was into his 16th year of a 60 year attempted-murder conviction is wanted for walking away from his work release job. As to why after only 16 years of a 60 year sentence he was ut on work release is an entirely different question.

Murder trial of the then 14-year-old girl who shot a man for laughing at her during an attempted robbery isdelayed.

37-year-old WCI inmate and former Baltimore resident Michael Boyer, who was serving a 50 year sentence, has beencharged for the murder of his cellmate; 37-year-old former Baltimore resident Timothy Davis who was serving a 50 year sentence as well.

Speaking of murders at the Western Correctional Institute, 28-year-old Kim Hargett has been charged with the February killing of Blas Ramon Mata Aguilar.

A skull that showed up on a Kent county beachshows signs of a homicide.

Man who was shot in the 900 block of Herndon Ct. is in grave condition.

Police are investigating a triple stabbing that took place Tuesday night.

Recognition isn't always great... 5 city schools make list of most dangerous in the nation.

Padonia swim club owner Ira "Fred" Rigger, 56, has plead guilty and will receive an 18 month sentence.

Harford County police are searching for clues as to whether a string of armed-robberies are related.

A German rape suspect is extradited to Maryland after 10 years. Klaus Von Mahr, 51, has plead guilty and will face up to 25 years at sentencing.

Guilty plea by city landlord Cephus Murrell, 68, relating to his involvement in an ongoing series of lead paint violations

"Professional criminal/believed serial killer Jason Thomas Scott,, 27, has been convicted of a gluttony of charges, facesat least 97 years. Scott is also believed to have been responsible for the home invasion of MMA fighter Lloyd Irvin before a partner in crime was disarmed by the veteran MMA fighter.

Lawyers gone bad

Attorney Stanley Needleman has been charged with stealing a law textbook from a judicial clerk.

The trial of Gahiji Tshamba starts today. Two other police officers are prepared to testify that Tshamba appeared drunk when he put a dozen bullets into Tyrone Brown.

A shooting on E. Eager Street and a burnt body in Northeast Baltimore.

83 murders so far this year, and it looks like Lois Smyth has the dubious honor of being the second white Baltimore murder victim of 2011.

Police arrest two brothers in Pikesville double homicide.

First-degree murder conviction for the 2009 death of Kenneth Johnson at a family cookout. This looks like a rare case where city prosecutors are seeking life w/o parole.

Another burned kitten. Stories like that are really too depressing to comment on.

Looks like it is legal to take pictures of the Light Rail after all.

Yet another depressing story. Darian Kess was a promising wrestler in high school but then screwed up and started breaking the law. He cleaned up his act, got cancer and beat it, and then was stabbed to death in a home invasion.

Drunkards and snowbirds

A man beaten at the Westport Light Rail station has died; other homicide victims from this past week named as Jerry Harden, 21, (the man found inside a burning apartment on McClean Blvd. Fenton notes, "Harden is the second person killed this year at the apartment complex") Kevin Anderson, 30, and Malcolm Hill, 53.

Three more suspects arrested for robbery/ beatdown of drunkards by the Intercontinental hotel

Have you been injured in an accident? "A Baltimore City jury has awarded $4.1 million to a woman and her 8-year-old son who alleged that the negligence of University of Maryland Medical Center doctors caused his cerebral palsy."

Postal inspectors fighting uphill battle against drugs in the mail

The MD state police is still fighting the release of vehicle-stop documents related to the NAACP's "driving while black" lawsuit, one that in some form has been dragging on since 1992(!)

Brendan Kearney: years-in-the-making $600k courthouse report is "justice decayed", har har har

Judge denies tax cheat Jack Stollof's plea to winter in Palm Beach

Tonight!

.. is the BCrime Happy Hour with special guest Gregg Bernstein, starting at 6 at the Falls in Mt. Washington.
... note if you can't find a parking place on Kelly Ave, there is also parking at the Light Rail Station at the end of Newbury St.
Hope to see you there!

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Unidentified man, white Chrysler, 3200 block of W. Lexington St.

Rodricks: "Why do they keep killing each other? Baltimore's most enduring question"

The Post has more on MD's Death Penalty limbo, and other states' methods

"Baltimore County Police are confirming the death of a man found inside his home in the 10200-block of Harrison Grant Drive"

Uptick in North Baltimore home burglaries/ robberies. (A detective told me that in the Northern they are up more than 20%)

2nd convict in the light rail rape & kidnapping case gets 40 years

We still haven't seen the last of lead-paint lawsuits

Labor dept. wins 11 unemployment-fraud lawsuits

On a LOLZ-ier note, how did "Doc" Cheatham get the idea that if Dixon's convicted, the governor "could appoint a white mayor" (or any mayor)? .. drum roll...
"... he heard an attorney on a radio program."

Smote!

Three shootings in six hours last night

Guilty plea from second suspect in the Timonium Light Rail kidnapping case

Hermann rides with animal control to visit a(n alleged) drug dealer and dog owner in need of leashes, manzierre

Hopkins Bayview agrees to $2.75 million settlement, denies stealing from government

Another church smote!? Bethel AME is the third church burned down by a lightning strike in three years! There was the Baptist church of the Holy Bentley in July of '07, the Methodist church in Hampden last August. There was also a Baptist church struck by lightning, but not burned down, in May.
Coincidence?

Man "pummeled" and robbed at Mt. Washington Light Rail station and other violations in the Messenger crime log

Random Attacks

Victims of random attacks by packs of juveniles include an off-duty NJ police officer. Reader "Tom" writes about a man punched in the face by teens on the Light Rail.

QTD: "The harbor should not be a de facto day care center for people"
- FHB III

Police say last week's raids caught a big fish, Emiliano "Blikk" Aguas, "identified as the leader of the local Pasadena Denver Lanes Bloods set" and now being held without bail.

Public Transportation = Dangerous

A mother and daughter were attacked by teenagers on the metro Monday while on the way to Hopkins for treatment for daughter's neurological condition. Three teens were arrested and charged as juveniles; the MTA won't release video of the attack.

"Baltimore police said a man is in critical condition after his throat was slashed Wednesday during an argument at a bus stop near Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
The incident occurred around 11:30 a.m. in the 4900 block of Eastern Ave."

Guilty verdict in Timonium light-rail assault, Kiheem Malik Taylor, 22, faces a maximum of two life sentences plus 140 years in jail.

BPD: 84-year-old homeless Lucio Solorzano beaten to death with his own walking stick

"Gov. Martin O’Malley signed legislation on Tuesday requiring a judge to confiscate firearms from people who have final protective orders filed against them."

BBC's world news programme features a segment narrated by "Baltimore's Crime Scene Reporter" Peter Hermann with a cameo by Gus Sentementes

Tuesday morning cheer

• They were two college-bound 17-year-olds from Baltimore County in the back seat of a car at the Timonium light rail station.

But their “make out” session quickly turned into a traumatic attack when two men kidnapped them at gunpoint, forced the boy into the trunk and sexually assaulted the girl before dumping them both in Baltimore City’s Cherry Hill neighborhood, the victims testified Monday in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

• Baltimore police found an unidentified body Tuesday morning in the Inner Harbor near the Maryland Science Center. 

• A federal grand jury indicted a Reisterstown couple on four counts of child sex trafficking, alleging that the pair recruited, housed and prostituted three minor teenage girls, in part by advertising sexual services on Craigslist.

• Two of the five men accused of kidnapping two teenagers from a bus stop and torturing them in an attempt to elicit information about a stolen PlayStation game console pleaded guilty to second-degree assault Monday and were sentenced to two years in prison.

• One Carroll County man has been arrested and another is awaiting extradition from Florida on charges related to recent burglaries in Manchester, according to Maryland State Police.

195, 196, 197?

"Teen, man shot to death"

"City police probe death of toddler who had methadone in body"

Mystery of the vanishing VW solved!

A man mugged at the Cold Spring light rail and stolen jewelry, cash and other goods in the Messenger blotter.

From the SAO:

Late yesterday a Baltimore City jury convicted Issac Smith, 23, of the 5600 block of Carter Ave. of second-degree murder. Judge Charles G. Bernstein sentenced Smith to 30 years in prison.

The jury heard evidence over the course of a four day trial and deliberated over two days.

The Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Smith December 8, 2003 for first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon counts. A Baltimore City jury convicted Smith December 10, 2004 of first-degree murder and Smith was sentenced to life in prison.

On July 12, 2007 the Maryland Court of Special Appeals vacated Smith’s first-degree murder conviction, citing an omission of a jury question during voir dire by the trial judge.

On October 27, 2003 Smith fatally stabbed Jamall Hill, 23, in the 5500 block of Harford Rd. Witnesses testified that Smith chased the victim approximately three blocks before stabbing him one time in the heart. Testimony revealed that Smith believed Hill had stolen $1,000 from a mutual friend. The State successfully prosecuted the retrial after searching and finally locating two witnesses from the first trial; one local and one out of state.

Assistant State’s Attorneys Paul O’Connor and Timothy Lake prosecuted this case.

Another guy, one Kiheem Malik Taylor, age 22, was arrested in the Timonium light rail rape/kidnapping case.