Charles Carroll Acquitted

A Baltimore City Jury acquitted Charles Carroll today of second degree rape, third and fourth degree sex offense, three counts of second degree assault and two counts of sexual child abuse following three days of testimony and approximately one hour of deliberations. The Baltimore City Grand jury indicted Carroll May 19, 2005. Three counts of sexual abuse of a minor under the age of 18 and one count of third degree sexual offense are still pending against Carroll. Court documents allege Carroll sexually assaulted two victims. The alleged assaults occurred between December 2004 and April 2005. Carroll’s first trial ended January 11, 2007 when the court declared a mistrial after hearing witness testimony.

The burning body found over the county line off of Liberty Heights Avenue was id'd as an African-American male between 15 and 25 years old.

RP Rape Suspects Arrested Suspected

From the neighborhood association e-mail list:

Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
Det. Connolly has identified and issued warrants for the arrests of the two suspects for the rape on Colorado Ave.  I cannnot give you any further details.  The Warrant Apprehension Task Force has the warrants and is on the case!  They will be in jail soon!
 
Tell your neighbors to breathe easy.

But Juile Bike-a-wits says,

the neighborhood association is jumping the gun, so to speak. no arrrests have been made. police are simply interviewing these guys right now.

Luke Broadwater says that sources inside the PD say that a "big announcement" is coming soon related to the Roland Park home invasion/assault.

August 27

The attendant at a Texaco station in the 2600 block of Gwynns Falls Parkway was shot and killed early this morning.

On Saturday afternoon, an unidentified man was fatally shot in the 1900 block of Cecil Ave. in East Baltimore Midway.

A burning body was found in a Baltimore County park at about 1:45 this morning.

O' mighty Warren Brown, beloved defender of the Constitution, there's a dead man in your pool named Dwight McDaniel Baker.

Somebody in Carroll County really doesn't want to get with the learnin'.

August 26

JZ: Police say 28-year-old Andre McNaire died after he lost a shootout in the 3500 block of East Baltimore Street around 3 a.m. today. His is the 203rd homicide declared by the Medical Examiner's office so far this year.

Warren Brown's Pool Filled With Victim's Blood!

A man who was shot in a robbery attempt drove through a concrete wall in his SUV and plunged into Warren A. Brown's swimming pool, where the victim bled to death!

The teen who was shot last Thursday in front of his home on Riggs Avenue was id'd as Ishmael Cooper, 15.

Sean Smith, 28, was arrested in the horrid hamlet of Stamford, Conn for the August 11 murder of Samuel Horne in Edgewood.

"Wire" news: As the show is set to finish its last week of shooting ever, brother of "The Wire" actor Ralph Anwan Glover, Tayon Glover, 29, was shot to death in DC. Ralph himself has also been shot 13 times. In better news, Lance Reddick (Col. Cedric Daniels) landed a role on ABC's "Lost."

Roland Park Sex Attack/Robbery Update

Reports from the past 24 hours:
- LB adds that one perp raped her while the other robbed the house.
- Julie B. notes that the victim was 59 and taken to Mercy Medical Center, interviews Dr. Fessenden (famous 10th-grade economics teacher).
- ...And Janis & LB say "crime has left residents of this community of well-manicured lawns and pricey historic homes looking for answers" and reporters looking for new ways to say "rich white neighborhood."
- On WBAL officer Nicole Monroe says that the victim is still hospitalized and suffered a neck injury from being grabbed. There is now a composite sketch of a suspect who looks like Paul Mooney with edema.

Evening Update

Newly released DOJ statistics show that in 2005, 49 percent of the victims of homicide in the United States were "black," ("blacks" are only 13 percent of the population), and 52 percent of people convicted of murder in the United States are also nero. But chill out, white people: "93 percent of black homicide victims and 85 percent of white victims in single-victim and single-offender homicides were murdered by someone of their [own] race."

"A Baltimore attorney and a mortgage broker have pleaded guilty to charges related to a mortgage scheme in which they helped secure loans for two suspected drug dealers, federal prosecutors said today."

Three crack dealers got the business end of the law's Rod.

Baltimore police have charged two women — Janice Jones, 27, and Dakia Frazier, 23 — with witness intimidation. The brazen bullies drove a witness to the police station to get her to recant her testimony, and then waited for her outside.

At Loch Raven Reservoir, a woman had her car broken into and cell phone stolen, then got carjacked when she asked "a pedestrian" for help.

Quote of the day: "That's what I think of TV news." -- some pervert

Neighborhood Alert: Roland Park Sex Attack/Robbery

From an e-mail from Karen DeCamp:

I just got off the phone with a Deputy Major with the Northern District Police - the police are calling community leaders to alert people about a home invasion and rape this evening [8/24] around 8 pm on Colorado Ave [in the Tuxedo Park area] in Roland Park. The suspects appear to have targeted this house, hiding and following the woman into her house when she returned home. The police are searching for suspects - the only description they have is that they are two black males, one taller and thin and one shorter and more heavyset, both wearing summer clothes.

I know that's not much to go on, but the police are asking that if you have any information to please call 911. And of course, it goes without saying that everyone should use extra caution when coming and going.

Note, dear readers, that it is very common for robbers to stake out parking lots of grocery-store shopping centers (the York Road Giant parking lot is perennially popular) looking for single women to follow home; they know if you're getting groceries you're likely going home directly. So watch your rearview as you leave these places, and if you think you're being followed, let the ice cream melt and drive to a police station, fire station, etc!

And solid advice for the ladies from Craigslist: grab a rock!:

"If you feel as if you are about to be a victim, try to do something to make your possible attacker think HE might end up being the victim. Turn and face him, cross the street, take your hands out of your pockets and keep them free for fighting, stare right in his face, suddenly walk slower than him, pick up a weapon from the street (rock, brick, whatever and just hold it). The killers pick up on that and will move on to their next target."

And how about some pepper spray?

Updates: The media rolls it out for Roland Park!
LB adds that one perp raped her while the other robbed the house.
And Julie B. notes that the victim was 59 and taken to Mercy Medical Center, interviews Dr. Fessenden (famous 10th-grade economics teacher).
...And Janis & LB say "crime has left residents of this community of well-manicured lawns and pricey historic homes looking for answers."

... please help spread neighborhood crime alerts by joining your neighborhood listservs and bulletin boards and forwarding them here!

August 24

A teenage boy was shot to death yesterday afternoon in the 1400 block of Riggs Avenue in the Western district.

Police are busy investigating three shootings in three different parts of the city this morning: 1:40 a.m., a man was found shot twice at Sinclair Lane and Frankford Avenue in the Northeast; at 2:30 a.m. a man was shot in the 900 block of N. Rosedale Street in the Southwest; at 5 a.m, a juvenile in the 4100 block of Garrison Blvd.

If we're so worried about all of the juvenile murder victims, why is no one enforcing the Minor Curfew laws?

Waverly Terrorist Attack! Update II:
The firebombing was on McKewin Street, and the "cocktail" actually landed on the wrong porch! The family is now in protective custody (which sounds a lot like jail) and Mary Pat Clarke says "This is the first time I've ever had a firebombing in my district and it will be the last."
Whose district was the McAbier attack in?

City police found that kid who escaped from the Hickey School, Davon Julius. And what's up with this garbled-yet-intriguing piece of a story? "[Troopers] say Julius had not been struck by rounds fired two nights ago by a state trooper police say was being dragged by the Jeep Cherokee Julius was driving. Police found that Jeep Thursday in the 200 block of North Charles Street. They are trying to determine if it was stolen."

Scandalous! A County traffic-ticket quota system in place since May demands that police write at least one traffic citation every day, or they'll be last in line to pick days off, and issuing three or more daily tickets will get a "positive counseling form."
In spite of the straightforward memo, the County police spokesman denies an illegal quota system exists. WBAL's Steve Fermier: Chief James Johnson says "he had no knowledge of it, would not have tolerated it if he had... and it's gone now in any case." He's also stopped beating his wife!

How crazy is crazy Frank Conaway Sr.? He plans to ask Bundley and Carter to drop out of the race to give him a better chance to beat Dixon!

The family of RPEMS mom and fire cadet Racheal Wilson deem her death criminal murder and have hired local windbag Warren Brown to sue. They say Wilson was 'set up' intentionally because she was female.

Terrorist Attack in Waverly! Update: WBAL reports this is actually the second time the house has been firebombed, and the family has now relocated.

You may remember Amara Eden, right, arrested in PGC after her five children were found alone in squalid conditions. She pled guilty to to five counts of leaving a child under the age of 10 unattended (which is odd since the DJS Web site attests that you can leave children alone if they're 8 (!!) or older) and two counts of reckless endangerment and will serve 20 days in jail.

Baltimore's crime on CNN

Here's the CNN "Baltimore" video (baltimore.crime.affl) Cybrarian blogged about yesterday from Hotlanta. Warning: you need Adobe Flash Player 8 (or higher) to view.

(Sorry, embedding doesn't seem to be an option).

Thursday Part Deux

Do you know who Arthur Bremer is? You probably did back in May, 1972 when he shot presidential hopeful George Wallace. "Bremer is to be released under a state program that reduces the prison time for inmates who have a prison job and maintain good behavior."

Maryland drivers and school buses: whaaaatdyamean, I hadda stop? And if you've got kids in Charles County, for god's sake, just drive them yourself.

O'Malley on the Death Penalty: "his administration isn't likely to issue execution procedures until the General Assembly has a chance to consider repealing capital punishment."

Javaughn Adams, whose trial for the Annapolis-mall shooting spree last year is fast approaching, will not be able to "revisit the crime scene to aid in his defense."

See (in the "people are effin' retarded" story), (and this is why I just park far away from wherever I want to go and get myself some exercise walking): "A Silver Spring man is recovering from being stabbed repeatedly with a screwdriver during fight over a parking spot."

A third taser-related death in Baltimore City: "Thomas Campbell, 50, after officers responded to a call on the 1000 block of Payson Street for a man jumping on a utility company truck ... Campbell ran into a nursing home basement and began acting aggressively and resisting arrest."

A juvenile escapee in Baltimore County ... (bullets didn't stop him, maybe a taser would've?)

Homeland InSecurity? Adel Abassi "pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court yesterday to helping immigrants to fraudulently obtain social security cards."

Terrorist Attack in Waverly!

It's Edna McAbier and the Dawsons all over again!
A Waverly family's house was firebombed in retaliation for their complaints about drug dealing on their street.
Mary Pat Clarke: "I talked to the Commissioner, and he says that he will pound down in this area until we clear out this drug disease and this terrible threat to a wonderful neighborhood."
Pounding? How about some security for these people?!

Coincidentally, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals (which I suppose is the next step up from the MD CSA?) upheld sentences for three of the drug dealers who firebombed Edna McAbier's house in 2005. The cons' lawyers argued that the sentences were too long, showing the jury a clip of the defendant denouncing 'snitching' was prejudicial, and the case shouldn't have been federal in the first place because McAbier didn't phone the DEA directly or some crap.

Related: talk on the "Stop Snitchin'" Wikipedia entry.

Poor Us!

Forced viewing on CNN in Atlanta, broadcast on every airport television: a CNN "poor Baltimore" story, featuring a foot-tall number "200" behind a blonde reporter ... "with almost a murder a day in Baltimore, the desperate mayor reaches out to a convicted felon for advice." (or some such.) Of course that felon would be the "disgraced Ed Norris, former commissioner turned actor and radio talk show host" (and after he put on a suit for that bitch!)
Cut to mom of a victim saying she just wants to get out of the city.
Also featured: B-roll of "The Wire," police cars, vials crushed underfoot, and a pouty, piteous lead-out suitable for a story on orphaned crack babies.
Sob!

August 22

The dead man at the Keyser Motel has been ID'd as Robert Donte Hemphill, a 26-year-old who lived at the motel. (Like Eloise! --Ed)

50-year-old Thomas Campbell died after being Tasered twice by the BPD over the weekend.

Candice Page, a woman who was reported missing in Cumberland County in March and was found on E. Madison St. in Baltimore with a bullet wound to the back of her head, has been charged with murdering Edwin Matthews. Matthews was shot to death at the same crime scene.

This week's "Murder Ink" covers Frederick Moore, Karen Kutchey, Ramana Bradley, and Darius Cox. There's also an update on the sentencing of Demetries Sturgis.

In the blotter, some thefts and shootings. Re: the shootings (as in the case of 'A man, 42' it's probably just me, but given the choice about where to be shot, the groin is probably the very last place I'd care to be: no, really, double-tap me in the back of my head, just let me die with my lap intact, por favor).

Orlando Yarborough "faces gun charges": 'City prosecutors said yesterday that they have filed 33 "criminal information" complaints', moving the case 'to Circuit Court much like a grand jury indictment or a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors can obtain a criminal information only in a misdemeanor case.'

Police were chasing escaped Hickey "student" Davon Julius this morning, but there's no word on whether they caught him.

In the department of unimportant news that wasn't really covered anywhere but with 53 words on WJZ's site, a juvenile was stabbed at the Wendy's on Old Court and Liberty Rd.

Looks like Oricl's new tag will be Prisn Btch.

Baltimore won't tolerate dog fighting. No word on how we feel about shootings, stabbings, beatings, intimidation, drug dealing, prostitution, rape, arson, or larceny.

Jesse Bane is "borrowing" some crime-fighting tactics from Baltimore City to combat crime on Brookside Dr. in Edgewood. Let's hope those tactics don't include understaffing the police department and suspending all but 1 month of the sentences handed to violent felons.

A couple of geniuses in the Eastern were charged with witness intimidation after they drove a woman to the station house and forced her to recant her testimony.

Is book burning the hot new pastime in HarCo?

The candidates for City Council president held a debate at the library last night.

A minor league team in St. Paul, MN, is giving away Michael Vick dog chew toys.

August 21

Yesterday's "Homicide 200" actually happened August 13, though this is the first anyone's heard of the incident.
The victim was Ramona Bradley, 40, who WBAL reports had worked in the past as a professional comfort lady. Bradley was reported by police yesterday to have been beaten to death about 11 p.m. Aug. 13 in the 1100 block of Harper Way in Armistead Gardens. However, "Police officials note that the pace of homicides and nonfatal shootings has slowed in the past 30 days."

The pace of the bullets wasn't slow enough to keep them from piercing a guy's chest, arm and a leg in the 1800 block of Druid Hill Ave. about 7 p.m. yesterday (possibly the 7 p.m. 'murder' Jeff Barnes was so peppy about?)

Claim to fame of the third possible "Homicide 200," 17-year-old Darius Cox:

"Cox was highlighted two years ago in an article in The Sun that profiled the Upton School, an alternative school for middle and high school students who had been expelled for serious offenses. His hands were shown in a photograph making brownies for victims of the tsunami in South Asia."

The trial of Charles Carroll is underway. He's the convicted murderer and sex offender who raped a student at the Community Initiatives Academy in 2005.

Rodney Rosenstein's people are handing out the years for identity fraud and bank robbery.

A pervading sense of lawlessness has also infected MD's drunkards: booze-fueled highway fatalities are up.

#200 (or, by our count, #207)

E-mail from Cybrarian in the in-box: "Fox just announced official murder #200 on the news with great fanfare (half expected a light to flash and confetti to come out of the ceiling), but it went by too fast for me to hear who or where it was, though I did catch that it was at about 7 p.m. This evening." And that would be (oddly enough, not on Fox's website, this from WBAL:) "a 40-year-old woman with a record of prostitution who was found beaten last week in northeast Baltimore. She died several days later in a hospital."

Ok, I exaggerate, it wasn't great fanfare, but Jeff Barnes did seem awfully perky about it. -- Ed

Culture Corner

They've scheduled the Real-Deal Live Mayoral debate for Monday August 27, at 7 p.m., featuring all eight candidates AND Jayne Miller on live TV!
Anyone on the internets know of a bar in Baltimore city that has a big screen that's not always tuned to sports, some kind of parking & doesn't smell bad for the Mayoral Debate drinking game?

Tickets are now on sale for "Corpus: Stories about the Body," the premiere Stoop Storytelling Series show at CENTERSTAGE (yes that's how they write it, CENTERSTAGE) on Monday, September 24. Seven storytellers get seven minutes each to tell true, personal tales about the glories, guts, and gross-outs of the human form, and the Storytellers for this episode include Dana Kollmann, forensic scientist and former Baltimore
County Police CSI, Walter Lomax, "wrongfully convicted murderer freed after 39 years,"* and Anna Ditkoff, aka the Best Crime Reporter in Baltimore (according to you guys**).
* This is what the press release says, but the SA's office refutes:

"Despite previous media reports, Lomax was not “wrongfully convicted” his sentence was not “overturned” and he was NOT exonerated of this crime. His guilty conviction stands. On December 13, 2006 Judge Rasin modified the original lawful sentence of life in prison and re-imposed a life sentence and suspended all but time served. Lomax received a guilty verdict for the 1967 murder of Robert Brewer, 56. Judge Rasin MODIFIED the original sentence to time served."

** ...speaking of polls, here's one I made but never got around to posting from a while back, "What Should Matt Jablow Do Next?"

Today, August 20, 2007, Jonathan Brock Everett, 21 of Harlem Avenue was found guilty of 1st degree murder (count 1), use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence (count 2), (conspiracy to commit 1st degree murder count 3), and wear, carry, and transporting a handgun (count 4).

The case number is 106292028; ASA Kevin Wiggins prosecuted the case. The victim in this case was Teon L.D. White age 25 of Braddish Avenue. The trial began on August 13 and ended today with closing arguments and the verdict. Margaret Mead was counsel for the defendant. Sentencing will be held on October 12, 2007. The state was not able to present a motive to the jury because no one with first-hand knowledge of the motive came forward. The facts of the case from the SA's office:

On July 28, 2006 at around approximately 11:30 am the defendant contacted a friend and borrowed his car. The defendant and an unknown co-defendant then drove to Clifton Ave wearing bandannas over their faces and shot and killed Teon White in the back as he ran up Ko Ko Lane striking him five times. The defendant then returned the car and fled to St. Louis where he was apprehended by authorities and brought back to Baltimore. The State was able to track him by way of his cell phone calls. A big part of this case was presented through the cell phone expert who testified about the calls made by the defendant. There was no DNA evidence and no fingerprints.

Today the Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Schvel Mack, 17, of the 200 block of S. Payson Street for first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder on Friday, August 17, 2007. Mack and two other co-defendants were responsible for a double shooting incident on July 15, 2007. The victims were found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The first victim Deandre Salmond was found at the intersection of Smallwood and Christian Streets and the second victim in the 2100 block of Christian Street. Both victims were transported to University of Maryland Shock Trauma Hospital, however Salmond died from his injuries, the second victim survived his injuries. Anthony White and Patrick Wilkes were indicted on the same charges. An arraignment is scheduled for September 14, 2007 before Judge Wanda K. Heard, Room 540, Courthouse East. Matt Fraling will prosecute this case.