Gun-stealing baby

 Sharmell Thomas

Des'Marie Braxton

Sharmell Thomas, now 23, was convicted of killing his girlfriend's 14-month-old child, Des'Marie Braxton, while he was babysitting her. Damn, I've read/written those words a lot of times. Sigh. Thomas was an aspiring actor and model, but he'd also been charged with assaulting a police officer, and at the time of Braxton's death there was a warrant out for his arrest for assaulting the child's mother, who nevertheless left her alone with Thomas for several days. You might recall Thomas has an eerily portentous Myspace page with sayings on it like, "YES I Am A HEADHURTER..lol" "OUR DEEPEST FEAR IS THAT WE ARE POWERFUL BEYOND MEASURE" and "its not how u start its how u finish."

#71: shooting death in the 600 block of Cokesbury Ave.*

"Dominic Matthews, 40, pled guilty this week to shooting his former girlfriend for refusing to marry him."

O'Malley signed that bill abolishing the Death Penalty, making MD the 18th state to do so.

Well, you can't bitch about what you don't know about: journalists were apparently (illegally) locked out of a speed-camera meeting with Brekford Corp.* Concurs an unnamed rep of the Maryland Drivers' Alliance:

The city created meeting minutes 5 months after the original meeting dates in order to respond to the complaint (the state's Open meetings law requires minutes to be kept for public meetings). In the minutes from the one meeting in November 2013 which I personally (only because I was informed of the meeting date by a member of the press and had demanded the opportunity to present evidence of speed camera errors), none of the other speakers were named and none of the details of the testimony and evidence presented by me or anyone else was listed... the document was clearly hastily put together based on someone's foggy recollection that a meeting had taken place that day.

Area dog thefts are on the rise,* and it's not just purebred puppies, neither. (Aiee, warning if you are a Sun subscriber, reading this article will subject you to a very loud advertisement).

Charges were dismissed yesterday against Robin McCoy, accused of randomly attacking a woman with a hammer on E. 25th St.

Six MD veterans are in trouble after allegedly falsely claiming that they were exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam.

A man was arrested for shoplifting 13 bars of soap at Herman's Discount on Greenmount; a man in Better Waverly claims his gun was stolen by a baby; a tuxedo was stolen in Hampden. 

 From Carrie Wells' Twiiter. LULZ!

The Sun's Ian Duncan was on TV last night, discussing the jail situation with horrible human being Bill O'Reilly.

Shake it, don't break it...

Sharmell "Flash" Thomas, 22, left, has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend's 14-month-old daughter, Desmare Braxton. (Note to WJZ, technically, at 14 months, Desmare isn't a "shaken baby," rather, an "abused-to-death toddler.") According to his Facebook and MySpace pages, Thomas is a strapping football player ("YES I Am A HEADHURTER..lol") who was studying business administration at Baltimore City Community College and working at a local catering company, having previously been employed at The Shake Shack in New York. MySpace page quote: ""OUR DEEPEST FEAR IS THAT WE ARE POWERFUL BEYOND MEASURE""

The actor who played Bodie on "The Wire," J.D. Williams, says he's often stopped and frisked by the NYPD who mistake him for an actual drug dealer as he's on his way to auditions. There was a mega-protest in NY yesterday against the NYPD's copious stopping-and- frisking, a highly inefficient and lawsuit-inducing crime-fighting technique that Baltimore employed under the O'Malley administration but has since abandoned. NY hasn't, apparently, taken a lesson from our city's experience, in NY the "increase in street stops has been steady and vast: 600 percent from 2002 to 2011."

Braxton Family Values

Two murders yesterday*: one in the 3600 block of Benson Avenue, one in the 3000 block of Tivoly Avenue. FBHIII teaches a class at Stevenson University, maybe Batts should take it.

What? Remember the guy who was hit by a car fleeing gunfire Sunday on Ashland Avenue? Well, they found a bullet in his head after all.*

Des'Marie Braxton

Former aspiring male model Sharmell Gregory Thomas, 23, got 26 years in prison for killing his girlfriend's 14-month-old daughter, Des'Marie Braxton, who had reportedly been left with Thomas for several days; at the time of Braxton's death Thomas was wanted on charges of assaulting her mother. He must have gotten out on bail while awaiting murder charges, because he was the subject of a peace order in July of last year, charged with assault in September and was sued for child custody by a woman in June.

Thirty years for Todd Marrow, who stabbed one Orville Chamblee to death over a football wager.

A feel-good story turns into a feel-rage story when a guy whose bikes were stolen tracks down one of his bikes, only to have the officers in the Eastern District (shown right) allegedly let the thief go with no charges. Why are the citizens of the southeast victimized over and over and over again? Gee whiz!

"The state's recidivism rate — the percentage of inmates who are returned to prison or put on probation for new crimes within three years of release — has plunged from more than 51.4 percent in 2000 to about 40.5 percent* nearly a decade later, data released Monday show."

New gun law now in effect, y'all. Gun clubs, firearms dealers and three unnamed gun owners and some guy named Shawn J. Tardy are suing, of course, and there'll be a hearing in federal district court to address the plaintiffs' request to halt enforcement of the law until their appeal is heard. Related: New York Times study finds that because of reporting idiosyncrasies, accidental shootings are about twice as common as official numbers show.

Man shot twice, per #scanner RT @BaltimorePolice 300 block of Collins Ave. Man reported to be shot. District Investigators responding
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) September 30, 2013

Rip Lil Dre And Kev Got Dam Shit Get real pic.twitter.com/bnfMlf7ION
— Dj Amazin (@djayamazin) October 1, 2013