Tuesday, April 1, 2008

April 1

Mark Castillo admitted to being a completely worthless human killing his own three kids, and said "I know what I did was bad." Yeah, asshole, it was.

There are lots of stories related to Castillo's triple-murder: The Sun looks at the couple's divorce record, the family legal system, and how custody battles can hurt kids. The Examiner looks at Castillo's history of mental illness. And the Washington Post says the drowner dad could face the death penalty, but prosecutors haven't decided yet if they'll go for it. This being the city, it's more than unlikely.

One man was fatally shot last night in the 2400 block of E. Hoffman St. in East Baltimore. There were two other shootings on the east side around the same time, one of which may have been related to the Hoffman St. shooting.

Another man was fatally shot this morning at a playground in the 800 block of N. Franklintown Rd. in West Baltimore.

A wounded man was found on the southbound shoulder of I-95 in HarCo early this morning. He died about an hour later. Homicide is investigating.

The man who was killed on Billie Holiday court on Sunday has been ID'd as 27-year-old Ronald Joyner.

A 20-year-old MICA student was raped by a man who offered to help her when she was locked out of her Bolton St. apartment. Police are looking for a 30-ish black man who is about 5'6", has a gap between his front teeth, and has a penchant for orange.

A 22-year-old was shot in the head in Edgewood. Police believe it was drug related.

A 6-year-old in Randallstown was packing a loaded Glock and a loaded 9mm in class yesterday.

An 80-year-old man kicked some ass in Pasadena.

Lewis Rich was found guilty for fatally stabbing Ernest Buchanan Jr. at a downtown McDonald's last year, and he got 10 years.

Seventeen people are suing the BPD for unconstitutional behavior.
Seventeen plaintiffs in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Friday claim they were the victims of a special plainclothes unit of the Baltimore Police Department that repeatedly made arrests without good cause, executed illegal searches and seizures of the detainees’ homes and filed charges that did not result in convictions.

The 60-page lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore, alleges members of an East Side Special Enforcement Team, the SET ‘B’ squad, carried out their mission to “respond to emerging violent crime problems” without regard to constitutional constraints and without objection from their superiors.

The suit also accuses the officers of filing false reports to justify unwarranted and fruitless searches.

20 comments:

ppatin said...

How the hell does a fatal stabbing = involuntary manslaughter? It's not like the dude was running with scissors, tripped & stabbed his victim.

gmd said...

Do we have a caes of the now famous Baltimore jury nullification?

John Galt said...

Actually, it's not at all clear why Mr. Rich was on the street and in a position to commit this crime at all. Wasn't he supposed to be in jail at the time ???

Mr. Rich (the III) appears to be the offspring of Mr. Rich, Jr., who also has a long criminal history and at least one open warrant. Was he picked up at the Courthouse ??? Apparently not.


Who are we kidding, people ? We allow crime here. Admit it.

John Galt said...

Let's find a court of law willing to accept fingerprint evidence. Maybe U.S. District Court ??

I have a cool idea. Since Baltimore City Circuit Court juries come pre-nullified, try drawing them instead from the same jury pool used for cases in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Div. of the State of Md.

Maurice Bradbury said...

I see the Examiner uploaded the charging documents from the Castillo case... that's new

Maurice Bradbury said...

... they didn't redact the officer's home address, either, that's a touch irresponsible I'd say

Cham said...

100 Motrins aren't going to kill you. That's just lame. Considering the Marriott is 0.5 miles from several competent and able alfresco perscription drug dealers you would think this Castillo guy would have tried just a little harder.

ppatin said...

"100 Motrins aren't going to kill you. That's just lame. Considering the Marriott is 0.5 miles from several competent and able alfresco perscription drug dealers you would think this Castillo guy would have tried just a little harder."

No kidding. Xanax & Vodka FTW.

Anonymous said...

As I said before, here's where "Lynches for Losers" would be a great thing. Let us allow these losers to voluntarily remove themselves from the gene pool. For that matter, we ought to make it involuntary more often for some of these folk as well....

DurhamSt said...

Jury Nullification? I'm up again. Dressed very "liberal" last time and was picked. Which I am socially, but not for violence. Took some time but convinced the other 3 who cared about it, the rest were like whatever (suck teeth sound here).

*Liberal dressing was a corduroy jacket and a "intellectual" book, and it helped that I didn't tell Judge Previs how bad he is at Karaoke.

Maurice Bradbury said...

50 Tylenol would kill you. Slowly and painfully too.

Hey I got jury duty too, for the first time in my life!
I'll wear my "comfortable" shoes & a sweater that looks like it was knit from dog hair...

Anonymous said...

100 Motrin, especially with alcohol, has the potential to cause acute liver failure, though it is not as toxic as acetaminophen. But there are definitely easier, more surefire ways to off yourself.

ppatin said...

mjb:

Bring a book or two or three. It's going to be a long, boring day at the courthouse.

BTW, did anyone else read about that weird home invasion/kidnapping in Catonsville? That sort of shit isn't supposed to happen out in the county!

Anonymous said...

MJB,

Make sure you're all equipped in your best "Dorito Gear"; it'll do one of two things:

1) Get a state's attorney to ignore you or;
2) Get a criminal defense attorney to want you badly

You get bonus points too if you somehow find time to mutter about "Dem people locking up our babies"...

ppatin said...

Cynic:

How did your day of jury duty go?

ppatin said...

Someone put a Zach Sowers video on YouTube. Sad stuff. Makes me hope that someone pours Drano down Trayvon Ramos's throat.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Now what would "Dorito Gear" consist of (besides a telltale dusting of day-go cheez powder)?

Charles your "worthless human" remark has got me to thinking.
Is there such a thing as pure evil?
Are some people really just flat-out evil?
If so, does this evil serve a purpose? Can good exist without evil?

Cham said...

If you want to get picked for jury duty, wear a pair of dirty jeans, sweatshirt and a baseball cap. Chew gum, look bored. Have the judge tell you to remove your hat several times. Roll your eyes a lot. The defense team will love your look. You'll get picked. Once you are picked you can go back to your old self and raise hell during deliberation and play your own personal version of 12 Angry Men. Great fun.

taotechuck said...

MJB, I actually have a very hard time coming up with words that adequately describe how I feel about Castillo. Is he a "worthless human?" With my spiritual beliefs, I cannot say that he is (even though, technically, I did say those exact words). Is it possible that he was put on the earth to spare those children some horrible thing that would befall them -- or that they would do -- later in life? It's possible. It's also possible that there is no evil and no good and no God and no Devil, and that some people are just shitty.

People say that Hitler loved dogs. Does that prove that he wasn't evil? Does my love for dogs negate whatever darkness lurks within my heart?

Too deep for the comments of a blog. Maybe I'll take up drinking so we can discuss over a Guinness.

Oh, and I've got jury duty coming up, too. Something tells me that "writing on the Baltimore Crime blog" will get us kicked out of the jury pool pretty danged quick.

National Science Archives said...

does anyone have any more news on the young girl who was raped in bolton hill? i used to live on that block and my heart really goes out to that mica student.