October 17

Dismaying Stats from YPR: "Of the 320 adults charged with gun crimes through September 15th, 2007, 120, or 38- percent, were already on probation. Many had suspended sentences, including 24 charged with armed robbery, attempted robbery, or carjacking. Six were charged with attempted murder; 15 more with assault. Of the 50 gun-crime suspects so far this year with the greatest number of prior convictions, more than a quarter would not have been at large the day they were caught with a gun, but for suspended prior sentences."

Galt reports,
"The body found in the trunk of a burning car is now a homicide.
So is Andre Bryant."

"Crystal Nikkita Newby, 21, of the 2900 block of Southland Ave. is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Qasim Kabah at his home in the 2500 block of Terra Firma Road." The two were fighting over the sale of an assault weapon.

More dangerous than Iraq indeed: An 18-year-old Baltimore soldier, Jerrell Hill of the 5600 block of Lothian Road, was detained this week at an Army base in Oklahoma after city detectives accused him in the gang-related shooting of five people in the Barclay neighborhood last month. He's awaiting extradition.

Today the Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Omar McGee, 18, of the 3400 block of Dupont Avenue for first-degree murder and deadly weapon. Court documents allege on August 9, 2007 Omar McGee was identified as the person responsible for a shooting incident in the 3400 block of Dupont Avenue. Troy Richardson, 30, was found in the middle of the unit block suffering from several gunshot wounds. He succumbed to his injuries at Sinai Hospital the same day. An arraignment is scheduled for November 9, 2007 before Judge Martin P. Welch, Room 228 Courthouse East.

Two Towson U. football players were busted for marijuana, and TU sororities are in trouble for posting pictures of underage drinking on Facebook. And worst of all, Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Teri Hall says:

"Ironic that we have all these women doing things that they shouldn't have been doing as part of sorority recruitment and they post them on Facebook for everybody to see."

No lady, that's stupid. You have a doctorate and work in education but don't know the meaning of ironic-- THAT is ironic!

Bogus tickets?! The parking division is more evil than we even knew! Dixon says the inspector general is going to investigate.
QTD from Jaclyn Schwarz: “They’re always blaming the people who live here. My house was broken into, and they said it was my fault for not having the correct lock. It’s a very difficult city.”

Oricil to see Can from Inside

At a hearing yesterday, Judge Barry G. Williams found Kenneth Ellis, 27, of Bowie, MD guilty of violating his probation. Judge Williams sentenced Ellis to three years in prison, consecutive to a seven-year prison term he is currently serving following a Baltimore County assault conviction in August 2007. On June 20, 2006 Ellis, also known as “Oricl,” pled guilty to six counts of malicious destruction of property. Judge Williams sentenced him to a suspended three-year prison term, 18 months probation and 500 hours of community service. Ellis was a prolific “tagger” spray painting the name Oricl on property across the city. As part of his original sentence, he was to work with Department of Public Works Crews to clean up the graffiti. The assault conviction in August and the fact that Ellis completed just 32 of the 500 hours triggered today’s violation of probation hearing in city Circuit Court. Says the SA's office, yesterday's "hearing highlights the continued emphasis on the identification and prosecution of repeat offenders in Baltimore on supervised parole or probation who commit a new offense or technical violation."

Man, Pregnant Woman Shot

A double shooting in the 2600 block of Quantico Avenue killed a man and put a nine-months pregnant woman in serious condition.

Another grade-school boy trucked to the hoosegow! Eight-year-old Eric Turner was arrested after stabbing a classmate with a comb at Woodhome Elementary (near Harford & Taylor Aves). JZ:

"The situation depends largely on one's point of view. Did Turner slip and fall into a classmate while holding a comb, or did he stab the classmate with a comb while fighting in the hall?"

Or, was this the last straw for school officials who'd talked to his family more than once, only to have them excuse and defend his behavior? Mysteries upon mysteries...
(ps. the boy arrested for sitting on the mini-bike, Gerard Mungo Jr., was 7, for what it's worth, and unlike Stabby was just sitting around!)

At a hearing today Charles Brockington, 47, ("rims guy") of the 4000 block of Cedardale Road pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. Under terms of the plea agreement, announced in open court, Brockington faces a maximum of 10 years in prison suspending all but five years without the possibility of parole. Judge John Kaye Allison scheduled sentencing for December 17, 2007. Here's the JZ story. (thanks PP)

Four MDers were sentenced in a scheme to transport hundreds (hundreds?!) of illegal-alien prostitutes to the state.

From SA's office (edited): Today, after one day of deliberation, a jury returned a verdict of guilty on the charges of possession with possession and intent to distribute heroin in the case of Kennard Miles, 22, of the 700 block of Lakewood Drive. Miles was arrested as a result of a Baltimore City Police Department investigation focusing on the 2500 block of Monument Street, the 600 and 700 blocks of N. Rose St., and the 700 block of N. Luzerne Ave. On 6/30/06, Miles was observed receiving a black bag by an officer operating a pole camera focused on the 700 block of N. Luzerne Ave. The officer informed a waiting arrest team of the transaction. Miles fled the arrest team, and during the foot pursuit, Miles threw the black bag into a garage on 900 block of Lakewood Ave. The bag was recovered, and Miles was apprehended. The bag was found to contain 636 gelatin capsules of heroin. The trial, which lasted two days, began on October 10 and concluded on October 12 before Judge David Ross. The case was prosecuted by LaRai Forrest. Sentencing is scheduled for October 22, 2007 at 9:30am.

Fun fact! Odds of being arrested during a drug transaction, according to David Kennedy: less than 1 in 15,000.

The Sun has choice quotes from supersassy Baltimore County District Judge Bruce S. Lamdin. Here are the original stories by Van Smith of the CP from last month and six months ago.

Crime Farther Afield

Sad to hear about the possible murder of Dean Johnson of Dean & the Weenies fame in NY.
Here he is below singing one of the most brilliant songs of all time.



Also in the news... drunk Frednecks steal oversize keys

13th and 14th October

Short on details, but, surprise surprise, there's been another murder: 1700 block of Latrobe Street, shot in the head. Depending on whether or not the guy from the 12th died, this guy is either #245 or #246. I think.

The use of potentially excessive force to protect the well-being of a police cruiser becomes the 28th police-involved shooting in the City this year.

It's been thirty-years since Marvin Mandel's indictment, but, um, don't we have better things to worry about? Guess not.

"[M]iscommunication and possible equipment misuse" is the verdict in the Baltimore City Fire Department's report on the death of firefighter Allan M. Roberts on 10 October of last year. I have to admit, at first, I thought this story was about Racheal Wilson.

Rodney Curtis and Darien Watson, sentenced to hard time for a Joplin Street attack last year -- forty years Curtis, life for Watson. Here's my question: Curtis got "all but fifteen years suspended", Watson "all but five." What. The. Fuck? Seriously.

Ahh, here's a little white-collar-crime for a blue-collar-crime city.

Now that Baltimore's got a police commissioner -- and we've all got our fingers crossed that he's going to be great (but we'll settle for 'good') -- the City's Police Department is formalizing its new command staff. Anthony E. Barksdale is now the deputy commissioner of operations; Deborah A. Owens as deputy commissioner of the department's administrative bureau; John Skinner to chief of patrol, and others.

The trial of the guy who did the 2006 New Year's Day slaying of Ronny Martin is over, and here's hoping his family can try to put this behind them: Anthony Dickson, convicted. His sentencing is scheduled for December 7th, and here's hoping he goes the way of the U.S. Pacific Fleet: torpedoed and sunk. Most likely, he'll get sentenced to five years with all but a week suspended. Because this is Baltimore!

A tale of a pervert attempting to be perverted and the girl not-too-stupid-enough to fall for it, near the high school I graduated from. The article calls it 'Atholton', but anyone who has ever gone there calls it 'Assleton.'

STUPIDEST HEADLINE EVER: "Baltimore Police Search For Murderer." WHAT? Shouldn't it be: "Baltimore Police Search For Many Many Many Murderers." ????!!!!

The headline does say it all: "Failed by the system -- taken by the streets" regarding the life of The Sun's #211* - Davon Qualls.
(*Baltimore Crime's count puts him at #219)

Here's a fuzzy-wuzzy for this late Baltimore Crime entry: hats off to John Itati in his 2:16:24 win of the Baltimore City Marathon. It's nice to know the city's spiking homicide rate isn't scaring everybody away from Bodymore.

October 12

#244 seems to be an as-yet unidentified man shot to death in a barbershop in the 1100 block of West Baltimore Street.

You'd think once we moved away from paper files in favor of computerized shiznits, we'd stop losing people "in the system", but that's exactly what happened, and what allowed Eugene Waller another opportunity to 'slip through the cracks' (a figurative metaphor while also, unfortunately, a far too literal one considering the guy is a twice-convicted rapist).

What's the saying, the Early Bird Gets The Worm? In Baltimore, it should be changed to 'The Early Riser Gets The Bullet.' Ouch. It's unknown whether or not he's going on the body count list (yet).

An anonymous call to "shoot up" a Carroll County school gets schools throughout the area locked-down.

I don't blame the guy for carrying a gun -- after all, he's just as likely to be assaulted by a parent upset his kid didn't get to play as he is to be the victim of a random act of violence -- but the Feds don't share that view: Aaron McCrown, a 31-year old youth football coach, charged with illegally carrying a firearm because he's a convicted felon. Convicted of what? Possession with intent to distribute. How'd he get a job as a youth coach?

Gary Watson's release ... oh, just fucking brilliant.

Spotted!

... New Commissioner Fred Bealefeld III at the David M. Kennedy lecture.
I think he really cares!

October 11

A man was shot in the buttocks on Mosher Street for no apparent reason.

Dixon: our prisons are country clubs!

If you didn't go to the Block earlier this year, you missed hooch-swilling 15-year-olds, back-room "intimate interactions," plenty of drugs and a Foxy Lady named Lot of Bottom.

The Post serves up a TV-news-worthy lede: "The question has vexed us all: Where did I leave my cellphone? Consider the added anxiety, then, of having misplaced it near a murder scene -- a murder scene authorities suspect you created. Allegations made public this week suggest that James F. Swann put himself exactly in that bind. The 32-year-old is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the Oct. 3 shooting in Waldorf of Joseph G. Hickman..."

JZ: Rap and Fling Latest in Long String

"A woman was dragged from a bench and rapped at the Nursery Road Rail Station Tuesday afternoon ... After a few minutes she advised, all of a sudden he just grabbed her and forced her into a wooded area ... [she] managed to break free telling officers she swam to the Patpasco River back to the train station ... Officers say [the suspect] also flung to the Patpasco River where officers finally found him. Police say this is just the latest of a long string of similar arrest."
UPDATE: WJZ fixed all of the entertaining typos! :(
(For more grody details, read the Sun story!)

More on the NE district domestic-violence pilot project from the Wretched's Brendan Kearney and Luke Broadwater at the Examiner. Who wrote it better?

A Baltimore County judge Tuesday sentenced high school teacher Christian Liverman, right, to one year of probation after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a 16-year-old girl in his classroom.

Two gun felons and a thieving NIH employee met their fates in US District Court.

"Police called it one of the county's worst animal cruelty cases of all time.
But veteran District Court Judge Robert C. Wilcox said the investigation of the alleged Severna Park dogfighting ring is one of the worst examples of police work he's seen."
Meow!

The Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Carroll Bell, 56, of Philadelphia on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree rape. Court documents allege on January 25, 1990, a woman, later identified as Beverly Dixon, 31, was found dead and partially nude in an alley in the 2200 block of McCulloh Street. In 2006 evidence was retrieved and tested. On May 15, 2007 the evidence was matched to Carroll Bell. An arraignment is scheduled for April 8, 2008 before Judge Martin P. Welch, Room 228, Courthouse East.

Judge John M. Glynn sentenced Shardae Denise Coles, 21, of the 1300 block of Harlem Avenue, to 20 years in prison. Judge Glynn recommended that Coles be placed in the youthful offender program at Pautuxent Correctional Facility. Coles pled guilty to second-degree murder March 22, 2007. On May 7, 2006 Zion Treyvon Clemmons, 16 months old, was left in the care of Coles while his mother sought drug treatment. While in Coles’ care, Clemmons suffered blunt force trauma which resulted in his death. Coles admitted grabbing Clemmons and hurling him into the edge of a sofa at her apartment at 1305 Harlem Avenue. Assistant State’s Attorney Julie Drake, Chief of the Felony Family Violence Division, prosecuted this case.

October 10

Fed attorney Jason Weinstein explains GUNSTAT, and why some gun cases get The Rod:

"we've asked them [city police?] to track what you'd call 'federally significant convictions,' which are crimes of violence, felony drug crimes, that are the kind of prior offenses which increase your federal time to go above the five-year mandatory in the state court. So, people with two or more 'federally-significant' convictions are people who are looking at more federal time than state time. So, one of the things we do is, every two weeks, we go through and make sure that if there's someone with more than two federal convictions, that we've gotten a referral of that case."

Baltimore's 27th police-involved shooting was some crazy redneck shit! An officer making a traffic stop was dragged by the suspect SUV, until he shot the driver in the neck!

Ink updates include the closing of the cases of Shirley Cooper and Lorado Williams by exception.

Edgewood Grandma to thugs: "I don't give a damn what you think. I'm old-school."

Cops to sex offenders: no hole-in-the-candy-bowl tricks will be tolerated on Halloween!

News of the Weird: Cecil Co. man finds Weasel the Crackhead napping in his bed

October 9

Scandalized headline Du Jour: "Policy calls for shooting victims' arrest"
... but the story goes on to explain, "If the victim was committing a crime when he was shot — such as carrying drugs, possessing a handgun, committing a robbery — parole officials seek a warrant from a judge for his arrest."
Well duh!

The man shot October 5 in the 2300 block of Eutaw Place was identified as 30-year-old Tyrone Blanding.

Joining the populous ranks of Carroll County's sex offenders is Deborah Frock, 38, charged with pimping a teenager to a trucker.

Paul Stella, a 43-year-old Baltimore funeral director, pleaded guilty today to defrauding people who signed up for prepaid funerals out of more than $900,000.

Thomas Walker, age 25, got 20 Rosenstein-years for robbing a van full of clothes with a shotgun (a Mossberg, Model 500A, 12-gauge shotgun, no less, "Intended for use in harsh and dirty conditions, such as waterfowl hunting or combat.")

Events This Week

Tomorrow night C. Love is moderating a "Town Hall Meeting" for "Members of the Hip Hop generation" at the 5 Seasons Restaurant & Lounge at 830 Guilford Avenue from 6-8 p.m.

Wednesday the 10th at 5 p.m., Barack Obama will be at PG Community College with Elijah Cummings and Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler. Guests: $25, Students: $15.

This Thursday the 11th at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium the Friends School Diversity Council is hosting a free chat with David M. Kennedy, Director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control and a professor of anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His talk will be entitled "Race, Culture and Crime: Facing Facts and Finding Common Ground.”

A good & long interview with Bealefeld aired on MPT tonight ... but the only other chance to see it will be Saturday at 5 a.m. He kind of explained the gun registry: we're doing it because NYC is doing it, being extra-hard on gun offenders is going to be our thing, and the people on the list will basically be one gun charge away from being federally Rodified, so building a tidy case against them will be high priority. That's how I heard it anyway.

Indigenous People's Day

Details of Saturday's murders: Damon Coleman, 35, was the victim shot at around 6 a.m. on the east side of the basketball court in a public housing project in the 1400 block of May Court.
The man shot in the back who died Saturday night on Homestead was identified as Darwin Kelly Jr., 20.

A man was pepper-sprayed and carjacked, police have no suspects.

Wow. Of the four robbers who held up Sgt. Christopher Nyberg in Federal Hill, only one will serve any time. Each had faced life sentences.
Nutrageous!

A man turned himself in to police in Parkville after kidnapping and "roughing up" his ex in North Point. No word on what happened to the children.

An inmate was stabbed to death at around noon in the city detention center.

October 7

WJZ's Adam May reported a murder of a teenager on a basketball court, and a man shot to death in the back in the 1700 block of Homestead Avenue.

A Sun article uses killer Corey McMillon, killer of young father-to-be Jamel St. Clair, (right) as a jump-off point to ask some experts from whence cometh the "killer impulse."
If you're interested in neurolaw, the NYT Magazine article from March, "The Brain on the Stand," covers the issue in much greater depth.
There's also a bit in Scientific American about an experiment by Ernst Fehr ("ultimatum game" guy), this one about punishment aversion.

Not as safe as being in prison...

Apparently, it's dramatically safer to be surrounded by murderers in prison than it is to be surrounded by our neighbors.

In 2005, 56 prisoners were murdered. There are roughly 2 million inmates held in state prisons, meaning that the homicide rate per 100,000 prisoners last year was only 2.8. That number is less than half the rate of New York City (6.6 per 100,000) and an order of magnitude lower than Baltimore (42 per 100,000).

October 6

A murder in the Northwest (no word anywhere on who, where, what time) ended a an entire week without a murder.
Is some new method working, or was it happenstance... or was it The Bealefeld Effect?

More good* news, on Orleans Street last night, an officer shot and wounded a suspect who was firing at another man, probably preventing a homicide. (*wounding is good news if death is the only other option, right?)

"A 24-year-old man who was shot last week was shot a second time about 3 a.m. Thursday while walking down a street in West Baltimore."
Plus a date rape in the Blotter.
(Ed: It would be an interesting project to compare the various crimes on the police map vs. the ones in the Blotter to come up with a percentage of what the Blotter covers. I'll bet with robberies it's like, 1/500th)

Vandals broke into Armistead Gardens Elementary School two nights in a row.

Our carjack-victim readers will be happy to hear that one 19-year-old Calvin Williams got more than 12 years for his role in two NW thefts.

Charles Brockington, the guy who shot the guy over car rims, is free.

In the week following Bealefeld's appointment, various leaders voiced their good cheer and fond wishes. Everyone, that is, but "Doc" Cheatham, who made certain to register his regret about the Commissioner's oystery complexion and suspect heritage in the local tabloid before setting his sights upon Carroll County, where his dear friend the Reverend Al Sharpton was planning to attend a rally to demand that criminal civil rights charges be brought against six detention-school employees who had been implicated the death of Isaiah Simmons III, crushed to unconsciousness one chaotic night at the now-closed Taneytown Bowling Brook Preparatory school.

Fun stats:
Ratio of Baltimore City residents to # of sex offenders: 396 to 1.
Ratio in Taneytown: 218 to 1

A source reports four more t-shirt boys arrested in Hampden, cuffed & sitting on the curb on 36th street yesterday afternoon. Book 'em Kramer!

Tidell Harris' Killers get Three Lifetimes

At a sentencing hearing today Judge Robert Kershaw sentenced Elliott McClain, 31, of the 5200 block of St. Charles Ave. to two consecutive life prison terms plus a consecutive 25 years. A City jury convicted him July 27, 2007 of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and handgun counts. Today’s sentence in the maximum amount of prison time Judge Kershaw could have imposed.

On June 1, 2004 at approximately 1:00 a.m. in the 600 block of Hazel Street, McClain and co-defendant Kevin Fletcher approach the victim, Tidell Harris, on the street. They each pulled a gun. Fifteen shots were fired and Harris is hit five times, twice in the chest and three in the face and head and is pronounced dead at the scene.

Fletcher confessed and had a plea deal (life, suspend all but 25 years in prison) in which he was to testify against McClain. However, he refused to testify in January when called to the stand during a pretrial motions hearing, and Judge John M. Glynn sentenced Fletcher to life in prison plus 20 years. Fletcher and his mother had contact with McClain while awaiting trial and Fletcher requested protective custody at the Baltimore City Detention Center. Fletcher did testify in McClain’s trial but his court testimony was inconsistent with his taped police confession, which was played in court. Authorities have not located Fletcher’s mother.

Assistant State’s Attorney Tonya LaPolla of the FIVE Division prosecuted this case.
-- ASA's office

October 5

Is it possible that we'll have had no murders in a whole week?
The last was 24-year-old Jason Fortune.

The Sun has Bealefeld video:
"I haven't signed a contract. I haven't even seen such a document yet. You might find that hard to believe." Not really!
He also discloses his salary ($120,000 + $8 a day), says "I'm not ashamed to say I've taken something from [Commissioner Norris]."
So far so good!
If you can't get enough of that Bealefeld stuff, WBAL has a heckofalotta audio.

QtD: "Incidents are going to happen, but that happens at any bar or tavern." -- bar manager Omar Smith, whose establishment racked up incidents of mice, roaches, underage drinking, violating a health department order, a drug-dealing manager, three murders in two years and a broken-bottle assault before the liquor board revoked the Top Shelf's Liquor license

Wow, today is almost all good news!
I declare Friday October 5 the City's best news day of the whole year!

Even the Blotter is sedate! A carjacking, but it was in Cockeysville!

Aren't you glad you don't live in the county?

In HoCo, a crazy cat lady must pay $10k in restitution.

In Charles County, a 71-year-old man, Joseph Gilford Hickman, was shot dead on the porch of his townhouse.

MoCo's got a widening scandal, officers charged with double-dipping: 10 officers who allegedly took freelance jobs while still on the clock with the county. Four face felony charges, and six have pleaded guilty to misconduct so far.

Teens Trussed in Playground Bust!

Spotted at about 3:30 p.m.: seven white t-shirt teenagers getting busted at the playground in the 3400 block of Elm Avenue in Hampden.