December 17

Matthew "Little Troy" Johnson, now 15, was acquitted for the December 2004 murder of 19-year-old Flenall Carter III.

Murder charges were dropped against Rodney Addison after he spent seven years in prison for the 1996 shooting of Lewis Jackson.

The Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence of drug kingpin Anthony Grandison, left. Grandison and Vernon L. Evans Jr. were convicted and sentenced to death for the April 1983 killing of David Scott Piechowicz and Susan Kennedy, who were witnesses in the drug case against him.

Nineteen-year-old David Ernesto Maradiaga was shot to death in Bladensburg, PG County.

It seemed like charges were dropped against everyone in that Owl's Nest poker raid, but turns out gambling-related changes were filed against co-managers Joseph A. Cary and Gerald C. Dickens, and 13 other suspects. All 15 defendants were summoned to appear at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 27 at the District Court at 700 E. Patapsco Ave.

Assistant Princeton U. lax coach Greg P. Raymond, 23, right, is charged with drunken driving after an accident on the Guilford exit of 83 that killed his passenger, Matthew Stoffel, left. I don't even want to think about what "massive puncture injury to [the] head" means, or why he was not charged with vehicular homicide a la Maricela Knight.

Wasn't that a John Cusak movie? The owner of a Baltimore County assisted living facility is charged with stealing $4,000 from a resident.

Sixth time's a charm?

Drug dealer, convicted double-murderer and amateur lawyer Anthony Grandison is headed to the Court of Appeals* for the sixth time. Grandison is currently on death row for hiring Vernon Evans to kill David Piechowicz and Susan Kennedy in April of 1983.

No new trial for you!

Death row inmate Anthony Grandison's sixth trip to the Court of Appeals has resulted in his conviction and sentence being upheld yet again.

On the ball

Long festering, well documented: "Maryland officials on Wednesday approved a $40,000 settlement with a former inmate who alleged that he was repeatedly assaulted after trying to back out of a smuggling operation with a prison gang that included a corrections officer." Wonder if said officer is still working there? Last week the Daily Beast interviewed Gary Maynard. "His golf partner rang at one point, too, wondering, Maynard guessed, if their golf game was still on. It was. 'I will be hitting the ball with great intensity,' he says."

 Sgt. William Hawkins

Well, at least one corrections officer is on leave: Sgt. William Hawkins, who met a man online for sex and then pointed a gun at him when the man asked him to pay for it. Surely despicable, but what kind of gigolo doesn't ask for the money first?

A Mt. Vernon man was pepper-sprayed and mugged by cross-dressing teenagers, and local property-management company says there have been four similar attacks.

WJZ's got a video of a man getting the living shit beat out of him at the Windsor Inn in Windsor Mill last Saturday.

O'Malley is expected to sign the bill repealing the death penalty today. The fate of the five men currently on death row-- Jody Lee Miles, John Booth-El, Anthony Grandison, Vernon Lee Evans Jr., and Heath William Burch--  is not clear.

Speaking of O'Malley, here's a relief! A national poll shows support for his presidential candidacy at one percent. Hillary's in first, of course, and in second place? "DK/NA."

The Ink recaps murders 64-67

Retired city cop Mark Heygood soothes his nerves by building robots.

January 9

The two men who were found dead near a school in Arbutus have been identified as 29-year-old Youani Alvares and 27-year-old Joel Gonzales, both of the 2600 block of Virginia Ave. in Baltimore. The men both died from multiple stab wounds.

The northbound lanes of I-95 were closed for seven hours today due to "a great scattering of the body parts over a wide range of area of the interstate." At about 4:30am, a person was either pushed from a car or walked onto the highway and was hit by multiple cars, none of which stopped.

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge John G. Turnbill II signed a death warrant that states Vernon Evans will be executed within a five-day period beginning Feb. 6. Evans was paid $9,000 to kill Scott Piechowicz and his sister-in-law Susan Kennedy in 1983 to prevent them from testifying against drug dealer Anthony Grandison. Kennedy was mistakenly killed in place of Piechowicz' wife.

25-year-old Howard County resident Fallah Johnson has been charged with second-degree rape and "various sex offense and assault charges" for raping a 12-year-old girl in the laundry room of her apartment complex. (Sorry for the editorial comment, but second-degree rape for going after a 12-year-old? WTF?)

WJZ reports on attorney Warren Brown's statement that there's a lack of substance to the rape charges against three Baltimore City police officers. At one point, Brown asked, "What is it--the State's Attorney's Office trying to make the Mayor and the Police Department look bad?"

Dan Rodricks asks men to step up and be mentors to men who are trying to break the cycle of "drugs-crime-incarceration-unemployment."

An implied armed robbery, a real armed robbery (of a 14-year-old boy), and a couple of shootings make up the city's contributions to the Blotter; all the county has to offer is a stolen bench, 2 stolen rocking chairs, and a broken window. (But for what it's worth, there have been at least four killings in the county since the last one was reported in the city.)

Those stragglers who haven't been rounded up under loitering and public nuisance laws had better be careful where they park.

I do Believe that The Greatest City In America's search for a new slogan warranted a nice, long article in the Christian Science Monitor.