December 12

"The wife of a Southwest Baltimore man killed last year during their daughter's Sweet 16 party testified yesterday to hearing one of the co-defendants yell, "Show him how we do it," before gunshots rang out, according to trial testimony yesterday."

Harsh in the county! One of the teens charged in the Randallstown school shooting, Mathew McCullough, was sentenced to 100 years.

Police yesterday identified the man shot Monday night in the 6100 block of Boston St. in O'Donnell Heights and who died that night at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center as Artavius Tubman, 24 ... A man, 28, was standing outside a carryout in the 300 block of E. North Ave. about 3 a.m. Sunday when an unknown male shot him several times. Plus robbery, arson, and burglary in your Blotter.

CP: "The Colonel," the recently appointed head of Maryland's Victor Cullen Academy for youth offenders, has a dodgy past.

Thar she blows! "Baltimore City drug dealers are having a harder time finding cocaine to sell, because the U.S. Coast Guard this year seized more than $4.7 billion worth" of booger sugar.

Gregory Kane on the Sowers verdict.
Op Ed: In defense of the prosecutors, 40 years is much more time than what most murderers get in the city, and the state had only circumstantial evidence and the testimony of a teenager trying to save himself from jail to go on (the other two guys were in the car and didn't see the beating). Anna Sowers may have been okay with risking an acquittal to make a point, but prosecutors also have a duty to everyone else who has to live here. Why the defense attorney would accept the deal with sparse evidence we don't know-- it's possible Ramos himself didn't want to risk a trial, especially considering that WBAL reported that "[Judge] Themelis and Ramos' defense attorney [Larry Rosenberg] both agreed that Ramos was a 'bad guy,' citing his criminal history."
ps. how did Doc Cheatham managed to insert himself in this story?

A Baltimore City jury convicted Bobby Hough, 23, of the 2500 block of Ridgely Street of attempted first-degree murder and carrying a deadly weapon with the intent to injure today. Jurors heard one day of testimony and deliberated approximately three hours before reaching their verdict. Judge M. Brooke Murdock scheduled sentencing for March 13, 2008 where Hough faces a maximum prison term of life. Details:

On May 1, 2006 Hough was in the 2000 block of Ellsworth Street when he picked up the victim, Rodney Armstead, 42, turned him upside down and rammed his head into the pavement. He then stomped on Armstead before picking up a bottle and hitting him with it, rendering Armstead a quadriplegic. They had been arguing over the sale of illegal narcotics on the block prior to the incident. Assistant State’s Attorneys Staci Pipkin and Michelle Martin of the General Trial Division prosecuted this case.