December 15

A Baltimore City jury convicted Brent Ross, 22, for the first-degree murder of Gwendolyn Boykins, 45. The jury also convicted Ross of attempted robbery with a deadly weapon, first-degree assault and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. Judge Paul E. Alpert scheduled sentencing for January 25, 2006. Shortly after midnight on July 11, 2004, Ross and Antonio Smith entered the home of Ms. Boykins, in the 100 block of North Ellwood Avenue, to rob her. Ross and Smith searched the home for money. When they did not find any money, Smith fled the scene and Ross forced Ms. Boykins into the basement of her home, where he shot her once in the back of the head. Ms. Boykins' three children were home at the time. Antonio Smith pled guilty on September 19 to second-degree murder. ED's note: if this was 50's Kansas, this story would be national news, followed by a true-crime novel, then a movie with Robert Blake and some other guys, and then 48 years later a tedious movie-about-a-book. But this story has appeared nowhere but here and the "Murder Ink." Why? Reporters from every network have so much spare time they can spend all day in front of the Royal Farm Store to inform the public it's snowing. Why is there not 15 seconds for such a tragic, horrible story as this?

In the blotter, Oman Hernandez of Honduras was arrested in Houston on a warrant charging him with first-degree murder in the stabbing of Blanca Dubon, 15, who was found with her throat slashed in a car on Loch Raven Boulevard September 12. Also an attempted murder arrest, a rape in the Southeastern, and plenty of robbery and burglary.

A shortish smallish black man has robbed and raped at least eight women in the Western and Central districts.

The murder conviction of Frederick Moore was upheld by the Court of Appeals. Moore was convicted of stabbing and strangling 14-year-old Ashley Mason behind a Pizza Hut in Columbia in 2000.

In Denton, two people have been arrested for the murder of Glenn Killen, 26, of Goldboro. Also on the Eastern shore, investigators believe that Jose Tellez, the 15-year-old stabbed in Crisfield, was armed and trying to break in to a house.

The gun incident on Saturday at Towson Town Center apparently began with a fight over a parking place.

Quote du jour: "Police officers should not be in the business of groping citizens." The Court of Appeals disagreed, as do I-- that would make a great fundraiser, especially if some of the younger, more strapping officers were involved.

Speaking of inappropriate touching, a second religious leader at the Redemption Christian Fellowship in Woodlawn has been charged with sexually abusing a teenager. Even weirder, the congregation raised the $600k for bail for the first groper, Gerald Griffith, who was arrested while attempting to flee to England.