April 24

Damon Dubose was shot to death on Sunday night in the 3500 block of Woodland Ave.

16-year-old Keonya Christian-Cannon helped 13-year-old shooting victim Angel Burrell. Burrell was a bystander when a fight broke out over West Baltimore gang turf on Friday.

County police are seeking two tall white men in a small maroon pickup truck. On April 14, the men hit another car in White Marsh, stabbed one of the passengers in that car, then rammed the other car repeatedly. Meanwhile, city police are still searching for the man who killed Charles Erdman after a minor traffic accident on March 3. The driver was a black man in a Ford Explorer with stolen plates (link goes to video of accident), and there were 1 or 2 passengers in the SUV.

Early Saturday morning, Anthony Crowder Jr. opened fire in the parking lot of a Baltimore County bar and wounded four people. He faces four attempted first-degree murder charges and four charges of first-degree assault.

Baltimore Bloods member Jamal Winchester pleaded guilty to two charges of murder.

Sunday's fire at a Dundalk office building was arson.

The defense rests for Charles Eugene Burns.

Ballistics fraud Joseph Kopera and a Baltimore County ballistics expert came to essentially the same conclusions in James Kulbicki's case, but reached those conclusions in very different ways.

Hamm remembers viewing the BPD as a model of "how not to police," and wants to changes the department's ways.

Note to criminals: When going to court on charges that you scammed a car dealership, don't drive a stolen car.

March 13

Travis Davon Terry was convicted of first-degree murder today by a Harford County jury in the shooting death of Edwin Lee Potillo. He could get a death sentence.

Police and family members are seeking new information about the murder of Gap Suk Suh, who was murdered on Friday, November 3 after a minor accident with a Buick Rendezvous at the corner W. Mulberry St. and Jasper St. Suh would have turned 60 yesterday.

18-year-old Raymond Zubrowski Jr. has been missing from North Point for 45 days and "seems to have disappeared without a trace."

Good times in the city over the past few days: a shooting, two shootings, a shooting, a shooting, and a bank robbery.

Joseph Kopera's false credentials and make-believe science may lead to the review of hundreds of murder and shooting cases.

Perv of the day: William Wray of Crespatown, who was charged with abusing an 11-year-old girl.

Perv of the day, part II: A transcript from last night's "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" on CNN, where Headline News anchor Thomas Roberts discusses being abused by former Calvert Hall chaplain Father Jerome Toohey from 1987 - 1990.

Michael Dean Jackson Jr. got the maximum sentence -- 10 years -- for voluntary manslaughter for shooting Anthony James Owens-Smith to death in Howard County.

Leeander Blake's confession is admissible in his federal murder trial.

BFD Captain Brian K. Edwards is in trouble for talking to the Sun.

The City Council is considering banning BB guns because they "have the same effect as real guns when they're used by criminals." Uh, yeah, the same effects, except for real bullets' tendencies to tear flesh and shatter bones and destroy organs.

In other City Council news, members unanimously agreed that the death penalty is bad, even if the killer used a BB gun.

March 9

It was a banner week for city prosecutors.

Devon Richardson, 15, of the 5100 block of Belair Road pled guilty today to second-degree murder. Under terms of the plea agreement, announced in open court, Richardson faces a maximum possible prison sentence of 20 years suspend all but a maximum of 10 years when Judge Wanda K. Heard sentences him on May 3. According to court testimony Richardson, who was 14 at the time, was a child in need of assistance (CINA) who was not in school the day of the incident. On September 26, 2006 Richardson shot and killed Janice Letmate, 67, with a .22 caliber rifle while she was walking home in the 4000 block of Biddison Lane. Letmate suffered a single gunshot to the head. One witness described him as aiming the gun and another described him as holding the gun in her direction when the gun fired.

This afternoon a Baltimore jury convicted Erik Stoddard, 26, of the 2500 block of Moore Avenue, of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault and first- and second-degree child abuse resulting in death. Prosecutors proceeded with a new trial after the Court of Appeals vacated Stoddard's 2003 conviction. The jury deliberated for approximately four hours before reaching its verdict following five days of testimony. Judge Allen L. Schwait ordered a pre-sentence investigation and scheduled sentencing for May 9, 2007. Stoddard faces a maximum possible prison term of 60 years. The backstor:

A Baltimore City jury convicted Stoddard March 13, 2003 of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death for the death of Calen Faith Dirubbo, 3, and Stoddard began serving a 60-year prison term. On December 8, 2005 the Maryland Court of Appeals vacated Stoddard's conviction, citing evidentiary issues regarding hearsay testimony. The mother of an 18-month-old child who witnessed the murder testified how a surviving child now acts and that the child asked, "Is Erik going to get me?" These statements were not used by prosecutors in this second trial.

On June 15, 2002 Dirubbo was pronounced dead at her home, where she lived with her mother and Stoddard. Dirubbo died as a result of multiple beatings over a period of at least a month; the fatal blow occurred June 15, 2002 and severed her bowel. The State proved through detailed medical evidence that Stoddard was the only person who had custody of Dirubbo when the fatal blow occurred. Julie Drake, Chief of the Felony Family Violence Division, and Assistant State's Attorney Jeremy Eldridge prosecuted this case.

Robert J. Brown, 46 and a former soldier, had been working as an apartment super until he was arrested for raping and killing a woman 23 years ago near Bad Homburg, Germany.

Joseph Kopera, a ballistics expert for the state police, shot and killed himself last Thursday, a day after leaving his job as a state police ballistics examiner. Officials said his academic credentials were being questioned, they expect a ton of defendants to appeal, and now the backgrounds of all state police lab employees are being audited.

What's old is new again: Baltimore police are walking the streets, and the difference has been "mind-boggling."

The final Tamil Tiger on trial, Haji Subandi, pled guilty to conspiring to ship surface-to-air missles to Sri Lanka.

Jesse Holbrook, 16, allegedly dragged a police officer more than 200 feet during a traffic stop on Route 40 in Elkton. Holbrook was arrested and charged as an adult with multiple traffic violations, resisting arrest and assault ("charged with charges").

A decade later, theories abound, but still no one really knows who killed Biggie.