Monday, November 20, 2006

November 20th

Simon Fitzgerald was kind enough to pick up my slack today. For all the stuff he wrote, please check the comments section for the November 18th entry. Actually updating this blog every day is turning out to be a lot tougher than I expected. When does Mrs. Cybrarian come home again?

A couple of things I wanted to add to Simon's stuff:

Two guys have been arrested for an October murder in Annapolis. One thing I noticed is that Hometown Annapolis asserts that "Johnson's death was the seventh homicide in the city this year and the 19th in the county. Since his death, one more person, Jay Steven Fayne, 52, from Severna Park, was killed," even though there has been at least one more homicide, possibly two, in AAC since Fayne (Joel Young, whose killing may or may not considered justified, I haven't read anything about a decision being made on this; and an as-yet unidentified guy killed in Brooklyn Park). PLUS, multiple news sources keep repeated this "seven murders in Annapolis this year" figure. I've only ever read about six, plus one guy killed by Annapolis Police, which we should all know by now is not supposed to count towards the official murder tally.

And, in keeping with my favorite theme ("all the local news outlets around here totally suck"), WUSA's article about the Annapolis mall shooting doesn't add anything to the Sun article that Simon posted, but is entitled "Mall Shooting Started At Nearby High School," which implies that there was actually shooting occurring at Annapolis High, when in fact what started there was the argument which eventually culminated in the shooting, which was wholly confined to the mall. Sigh.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

November 18th

In Metro Digest (after the food bank story), a guy was shot to death in Upton and another guy was shot a bunch of times and may or may not be dead or dying in Ellwood Park.

One of the four people believed to be responsible for the stabbing death of a 17-year-old girl at a light rail stop has been apprehended.

Here are a few more details in the other day's murder-suicide in Sparks.

A woman in Glen Burnie was convicted of shaking her 15 day old baby to death last year.

Kids in Annapolis just can't get enough of fighting in school.

Brian Doyle, the Homeland Security internet pervert, has been sentenced to 5 years in Florida.

Another Maryland pervert has been arrested down south, this one for murder.

Good old ABC7 doesn't realize that there are Caroline Counties in both Maryland and Virginia. This incident obviously took place in Virginia, and even has "Va." in the headline, but when you click on the "Maryland" tab on their front news page, this article is listed in there.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

More November 16th

A fatal shooting in Brooklyn Park last night brings Anne Arundel County's murder total for the year up to 16 (I think). Please note this does not include Annapolis, since they have their own police force that handles its own murder investigations, or any of the prisoners/prison guards that have been killed in Jessup this year, since that's state property.

Also, a double shooting at a business park in Sparks, north of Hunt Valley. WJZ is calling it a "double homicide," but WBAL and The Sun only say "double shooting" and don't know the conditions of the victims. So far, the Baltimore County Police Dept.'s press releases page has nothing about it.

UPDATE: Less than ten minutes after I posted that, WJZ changed their article from "double homicide" to "murder/suicide." Still the same link, though.

Last night during a robbery in West Baltimore, a cab driver was shot in the balls.

I always forget to check the Examiner. Galt brought this article about the undetermined deaths thing to my attention. It's not very in-depth or anything, but it's at least interesting for the breakdown of the causes of death in these cases.

November 16th

Donta Allen surprised everybody yesterday by pleading guilty to the murder of Linda Trinh.

The owner of Club Malibu is sick of the cops and the liquor board constantly harassing him over trivial matters like having too much dried blood on the dancefloor and his patrons engaging in 200-person brawls, and he hilariously suggests that some rival bar is behind it. Matt Jablow: "I don't even want to dignify that remark."

Crime is up in the County.

OK, everybody, now you can start running stories about the fourth body found in Harford County being ID'd.

Our oldest murder suspect this year has died in jail before ever coming close to making it to trial.

Today's rather bare-boned police blotter details the closing of two of this year's other murder cases.

Resident reaction to Tuesday's murder in Salisbury. I'm pretty much only including this because it very briefly mentions Baltimore, and I found it interesting that this year Salisbury has tied its previous record for most murders in a year ever.

In Calvert County, crime consists of drunk driving, smoking weed, stealing beer, and throwing pumpkins at mailboxes.

Good news, homeless sex offenders! You don't have to register!

Why wasn't it like this when I was a kid?

Once again, this is DC news, not Maryland news, but when I read it, I thought I was losing my mind.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

November 15th

So, The Sun's murder count was (sort of) right, there was another murder that was never reported until today, even though it happened a week and a half ago. The catch is that it wasn't until more recently that anybody realized that the victim was wanted for a shooting in Columbia. Nobody cares if another person dies in Baltimore, but everyone cares about Howard County!

Other than that one, according to Murder Ink the Sun got all the other ones. Anna Ditkoff points out that her records indicate that there have been 240 official murders this year, but the police (and The Sun) say 238. For a minute I thought she was counting the two people killed by police that are listed this week, but I just checked my own spreadsheet and she's right. Hmm.

UPDATE: Wait, I take it back, she's wrong. Two of the murders in my spreadsheet that I was counting were people getting shivved at the City Detention Center, meaning they were wards of the state at the time of death, so it's not within the city police's jurisdiction. And, I just noticed that she had the right number last week, so she DID count the two people shot by cops (one incident it wasn't even a city cop, it was an MTA cop). Doesn't she know, after 2+ years of doing Murder Ink, that isn't how it works? Why isn't she including the other four people that have been killed by police in the city this year?

In today's blotter, a weird burglary in Roland Park and a shooting in CHM, among other things. Yesterday's blotter has the identity of Saturday's murder in Mount Holly (you say Walbrook, the Baltimore Dept. of Planning says "to-mah-to"), shootings in Poppleton and Milton-Montford and a lot of robberies and stuff.

Salisbury had its sixth murder of the year last night. They had one last year.

That's all for now. I'm definitely going to do at least one more update today, I just thought I should throw something up here real quick since I didn't post anything yesterday.

Monday, November 13, 2006

WTF was that?

So I was on Coldspring Lane going east a few minutes ago, coming off of 83, waiting at the light on Falls Road with Grandma Cybrarian on the passenger side, and the lady in the car next to me, which was a gold Chevy of some kind started leaning on the horn. I was like, "Mom! No! Don't roll down the window!" but she's from Georgia so she did, and the lady driving held out (what looked like but who knows, from 15 feet away in the dark) a police badge and motioned for us to pull over. I was like, "sorry, no, I'll follow you to the Northern back there, but I'm not going to pull over." And she said, "okay, well, you need to slow it down on the driving," and I said okay, and she sped off.

So was it really an undercover cop in an unmarked car, or did we almost get jacked?!
I don't know, but either way ... know where your local police stations are and don't pull over for anyone in the city if you're not sure who they are!

November 13th, evening edition

Mrs. Cybrarian forwarded me some press releases today from the State's Attorney's Office:

Baltimore, MD - November 13, 2006 - The murder trial of Donta Maurice Allen, 28, of the 3000 block of Matthews Street, is scheduled for 9:30 AM tomorrow before Judge Roger W. Brown, 406 Mitchell Courthouse East, 110 North Calvert Street. Jury selection is expected to begin at that time followed by pre trial motions. Opening statements are expected to begin 2:00PM Wednesday.

The Baltimore Grand Jury indicted Allen on April 15, 2005 for first-degree murder and first-degree burglary.

The indictment charges Allen with the murder of Linda Trinh, 21. Trinh, a Johns Hopkins University student, was found dead in her off campus apartment, 3333 North Charles Street, January 23, 2005.

Allen remains held at the Baltimore City Detention Center without bail. Assistant State's Attorney Matthew B. Fraling, III will prosecute this case.


[There have been several articles in the past few days about how this is almost definitely going to be postponed for a third time.]

Baltimore, MD - November 13, 2006 - Patricia C. Jessamy announced that the Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Renato Cawthorne, 38, unknown address, for first-degree murder and other counts.

Court documents allege on December 16, 2005 a witness identified Cawthorne as the person responsible for the death of Jonathan Dwight Coles, 24. Mr. Coles was robbed at gunpoint and fatally shot in the 1700 block of E. Preston Street. He succumbed to his injuries the following day at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

An arraignment is scheduled for December 5, 2006, Judge John P. Miller, Room 428 Mitchell Courthouse. Assistant State's Attorney Don Giblin will prosecute this case.

Baltimore, MD - November 13, 2006 - At a hearing today, Judge Althea Handy sentenced Malik Vandiver, 18, of the 2900 block of Parkwood Avenue, to 30 years in prison for second-degree murder and 20 years in prison, consecutive, for a handgun count.

A Baltimore City jury convicted Vandiver August 29, 2006 of second-degree murder and use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or crime of violence.

On January 8, 2005 Vandiver shot to death of Bayonna Cox, 29, of the 2500 block of Francis Street. Testimony at trial proved that witnesses heard gunfire early that morning and saw Vandiver leaving the Francis Street residence with a gun. The murder weapon was found later that morning at the home of the defendant's friend in the 4600 block of Homer Avenue.

Assistant State's Attorney Mary-Ann Burkhart prosecuted this case.


And lastly, I just want to call attention to the story about that body being identified in Harford County. Now WBAL suddenly has it as their top story, as if it's breaking news or something. And when I was watching the local news at 4 on WJZ they said something like "coming up: a body found in a Harford County field in September has been identified. Could the person responsible already be in custody?" YES! They're already in custody! We've known that since September! I was pissed off a few days ago when a cat stuck in a tree and a deer with a plastic jack-o-lantern stuck on its face were big stories, but this might be worse. Don't shove some old-ass news in my face and act like you've got a big scoop! Argh!

(Sorry, you said "no partisan rants," not "no rants of any kind.")

2008- You Heard it Here First!

Got an info tidbit y'all might be interested to know:
The 2008 democratic ticket will be Al Gore with Barack Obama as VP.
Thought Al was happy sporting the Paul Bunyan beard and harshing everyone's mellow with the global warming thing, but no-- he's going to make another go of it. It's supposed to be kind of a secret, but looks like someone forgot to tell his web desiger ... if you want to keep it quiet, dude, you might want to change the page title and icon!

Anyway off to catch a plane ... and I'm NOT taking the computer!
Toodles!

November 13th

People murdered this weekend:

-Donald Samuels (links to police blotter which also details three non-fatal shootings), shot to death Friday in Curtis Bay (Baltimore City #235, or #236 if you believe the Sun's last published count which would indicate that they failed to ever print anything about #234, which is totally believable)

-Shaun Tiller and an unidentified male, shot to death Saturday in Berea and Mount Holly, respectively (#'s 236 and 237 or 237 and 238)

-Muhammad Rafique Chaudhary, shot to death Sunday in a convenience store robbery in Parkville

-Reina Natosha Lynch, shot to death Saturday while on guard duty in Beltsville

-Devon Harold Jackson, shot to death Sunday in a robbery in Cheverly

-Donald Harrison, beaten to death Sunday by his son during an argument in Seat Pleasant

If anyone is counting, that makes it six murders in four days in Prince George's County. This includes last Thursday's double murder in Hillcrest Heights, the victims of which have finally been identified, and the shooting in Clinton that I never actually posted an article about (until now!).

Also, Abby Karoma was killed Saturday in Lanham in a hit-and-run involving a "silver, 1990's four-door sedan, possibly a Honda Accord or similar foreign make." Was there a woman in the trunk?

Lastly for PGC, cops shot two suspects after the car they were in pinned an officer against another car. Neither of them died, but if you're keeping track, PGCPD has killed 5 people this year. In this respect they are tied for #1 in the state with Baltimore PD.

A guy was arrested for stealing 40 (!) vans in MD, PA, and DE.

An unidentified male robbery suspect was shot to death Saturday by an MTA officer at the Reisterstown Plaza metro station.

Misleading Headlines Department:

-Yesterday's Sun article about the above-mentioned incident is titled "MTA officer kills robbery suspect in Reisterstown." Just because the metro station is called "Reisterstown Plaza" does not mean it's in Reisterstown. Ever heard of "Belair Road," "Harford Road," "York Road," or "Frederick Avenue?"

-"Fourth Woman Found Dead, Identified In Harford Co." (No, there haven't been any more IDs made since Friday, and there haven't been any more bodies discovered since September. One body is still unidentified.)

-Yes, this happened in DC and not MD, but the headline is so misleading I couldn't help but post it: "Youth Drives Metrobus after Driver Flees" makes it sound like this kid did something heroic, whereas "Youth Detained After Commandeering Metrobus Saturday Night" is way more accurate

Friday, November 10, 2006

November 10th

I kind of wish I didn't post so much stuff yesterday, because a lot of those stories have been recycled by the news outlets today with nearly no added content. There are several unique stories today though...

A scizophrenic guy that was shot in his Southwest Baltimore home (not far from where 14-year-old Kevin Cooper was killed earlier this year) back in February by a police officer has died as a result of his injuries.

Today's police blotter has some robberies, some guns and drug arrests, two shootings, and a female MICA student being attacked in the vestibule of her Bolton Hill home.

All charges in Baltimore County are being dropped against one of the men accused of dumping a flaming corpse on I-83 last Christmas because authorities believe the actual murder took place in Harrisburg, PA.

One of the bodies found in September as part of the Harford County serial killings has been positively identified as that of a woman that had been missing since June.

A 12-year-old boy is under arrest for setting fire to a vacant house in Mt. Airy.

Another kid is under arrest for setting a bunch of cars on fire in the parking lot of Gaithersburg High School this morning.

A series of bank robberies in PG County have been pulled off with military-style precision. Also in PGC, two chess buddies were found shot to death in a home in Temple Hills, four murder cases this year have been dismissed due to problems with witnesses or evidence, and a mugging-gone-awry turned deadly in Clinton last night, but the Washington Post seems to have temporarily lost its article about that one.

A judge has decided that there is enough evidence to proceed with the prosecution of a guy in Carroll County for sexual abuse dating back to the '70's. You'll need a login and password to read this article.

Thursday, November 9, 2006

November 9th, evening edition

Wow, this has turned out to be a pretty busy news day...

New DNA evidence has led to the indictment of a Baltimore man in a 1992 rape.

The "I-team" has gotten a hold of the police report from O'Malley's old DUI and it says he refused to take a breathalyzer, whereas he says he didn't.

The Sun now has more details about the nabbed fugitive in Harford County. This guy is a drug dealer, and the "attempted murder" part comes from when he tried to run over some cops the last time he was getting arrested. He even got shot in the meantime, and he still didn't bother showing up for his court date! It's always nice to see someone challenging our stereotypes, keep it up, Aaron Khamraj Singh!

There is now a set date (June 4th) and place (Ellicott City) for the trial of the prison inmate (from Baltimore, of course) who shot a corrections officer to death with his own gun out in Hagerstown.

If you live in Annapolis you'd better spend all your fake money quick because the cops are on to you.

A guy in Silver Spring has been arrested for buying a Lex on his employer's dime.

A volunteer firefighter in Accokeek is under arrest after threatening to set a building on fire.


From the Department of "We don't actually know shit about this incident but we're gonna slap a really sensational headline on it:"

A person in Carroll County was "injured" when some sort of "projectile" was fired through their window. That's it. That's all we got. For all we know it could have been a potato, but apparently now this is enough to constitute a "shooting."

November 9th, creepdawg edition

Because I'm a bored weirdo, here is the Myspace page for Alexander Longfellow, one of the two guys found dead in a car from probable drug overdoses near Salisbury on Monday.

November 9th, afternoon edition

An East Baltimore drug kingpin got 27 years and threw a temper tantrum.

A fugitive wanted for attempted murder was apprehended during a traffic stop in Bel Air. Way to not say who the guy attempted to murder, where, when or how, WBAL.

An MS-13 member pled guilty to accidentally shooting someone, and got life for intentionally shooting someone else in Rockville.

MoCoPD arrested a stalker on Oct. 25th (don't ask me why the press release just came out today) in Wheaton, and are looking for a guy who beat the crap out of a woman at a bus stop in Rockville.

PGCPD have a lot of acronyms and make a bunch of arrests on weapons, other charges. They also got a truck from U-Haul to haul around graffiti removal equipment.

I really wish the Baltimore Police Dept. had a nice press release page on their website. I just noticed that the Anne Arundel County Police Dept. has one now. I'm going to assume that you have me to thank for that because I sent them an email a while back telling them they should get one, and sent them links to the ones for Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George's Counties and Washington DC as examples to follow.

November 9th

In the city, Angela Davis got 13 years for stabbing her boyfriend to death back in June, and there's a couple shootings and robberies in the police blotter today.

The Hampden Community Council has rejected the proposed site for the city's needle exchange program. Also in the Messenger, the North Balto. Crime Log is a huge collection of burglaries and robberies, plus a shooting on Greenmount.

Some car vandals are terrorizing Dundalk.

A guy was stabbed to death yesterday in Elkridge. This is the fifth murder this year in Howard County, if you want to count Anber Gumercindo Juarez-Sanchez, who was actually killed last year and only found this year, and may have even been killed somewhere else, and Antonio Orozco Martinez, who also may have been killed somewhere else.

There is way more crime news for Anne Arundel County than for Baltimore:
-An insurance claims adjuster admitted to stealing over $100,000 from Nationwide Insurance

-Here's a more in-depth article on yesterday's attempted bath-tub murder in Laurel.

-Burglary, burglary, robbery, drug arrest, assault, assault, etc in Annapolis.

-A Pasadena man is being honored for thwarting a jewelry store robbery back in October.

-And for some weird reason, pretty much every local news outlet decided to talk about Anne Arundel County Police shooting and killing a suspect with a rifle in Lothian, even though it happend, and was extensively reported on, a whole week ago. As far as I can tell there aren't really any new developments in the case, but here's a random article about it.

The Harford County Sheriff's Dept. really likes their stun guns. Baltimore County cops still want to "gain a full understanding of the practical positives and negatives" before using them.

Here's a much more in-depth article on Lee Boyd Malvo's sentencing.

There might be a serial kidnapper/sexual assaulter on the loose in PG County and DC. Also, if you see a silver Honda with a woman in the trunk, please call PGCPD.

From the "there's crime in the boonies too" dept:
-A couple of assaults in Cumberland.

-DUIs, sexual assault, drugs, etc in Garrett County (I find it mildly amusing that the newspaper out there is called "The Republican").

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

November 8th

Hi, my name's burgersub and I'm temporarily taking over for the Cybrarian. Sorry for the late update but I just woke up...

Today's Murder Ink recounts murder #'s 230-233 (all of which The Sun got), as well as a homicide ruling in a Sept. 12th death of a toddler in Curtis Bay (#192 I think?) that The Sun failed to report.

The City Paper also now has their own article about the Park Heights Serial Killer Rumor, in which they make fun of The Examiner.

A 17-year-old girl was stabbed to death (#235? who was #234?) while getting off the light rail at the North Avenue stop early yesterday.

The body they hauled out of the harbor in Canton on Sunday has been identified and they are now saying that they don't think foul play was involved. No cause of death yet, though.

Typical stuff in the police blotter today, including the arrests of the police impersonators, and an arrest made in an April 29th murder in Northwest.

In Anne Arundel, police have identified the guy killed in Crofton on Sunday. Turns out he was himself a murder suspect in Prince George's (the article doesn't say which murder he committed), and from the events recounted it sounds like he may have been killed in self-defense, but the article doesn't really address that aspect.

In Annapolis, some helpful bystanders helped to catch a couple of car thieves.

In Laurel, somebody was found stabbed multiple times in a hotel bathtub with his hands and feet bound.

In PGC there was a fatal shooting and a quick arrest on Monday in Forestville, and another fatal shooting Tuesday in Landover.

Maryland State Troopers shot some drunk guy out in Allegany County somewhere after he threatened them with a gun.

Lee Boyd Malvo has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Maryland portion of the 2002 sniper shootings.

Hopefully the Cybrarian won't mind if I plug my website real quick. This will be the only time I do so. Burgersub.org has all of this year's (and most of last year's) murders in the whole state of Maryland and Washington, DC mapped out. It's cool, you should check it out.

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Imagine that

Twelve percenct in and they already say O'Malley's the winner.
But Diebold could have told us that yesterday.
Do you believe the results are legitimate?
And if it matters, which it doesn't ... what are we going to do about our city?

November 7

The man stabbed in the middle of the day downtown, Gap Suk Suh, 59, was apparently killed after being involved in a fender-bender.

Fake officer to victim: It's against the law to carry that much money ... but I'll help you!

Frank M. Conaway, Senior: "The mayor can ask people to 'believe' that violent crime is down, but in the end the body count tells the truth." (Except for those 341 bodies from 2004).

AAC Circuit Court: TS if you didn't get your absentee ballot.

Monday, November 6, 2006

David Shimony Guilty Plea


Reports the DOJ:
November 6, 2006, David Shimony, age 53, of Baltimore, pleaded guilty yesterday to making false statements on income tax returns, in addition to pleading guilty to a one-count Criminal Information filed in the District of New Jersey, in which he is charged with possessing counterfeit currency, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

In a statement of facts provided to the court as part of the plea agreement, Shimony admitted that he failed to claim $2,036,205 in taxable income for 1999 and 2000 on his personal tax returns, resulting in unpaid taxes, or tax losses, of $796,337.

Also according to the statement of facts, on April 30, 2004, Shimony arrived in Newark International Airport from Israel and provided a customs form claiming that he was carrying no more than $1,000 in cash. An inspection of numerous individually wrapped packages lining the inner wall of Shimony’s carry-on bag revealed $200,000 in counterfeit $100 bills and an additional $1,400 in counterfeit $100 bills in his wallet. On two previous occasions beginning in March 2003, Shimony had traveled to Israel and obtained packages of counterfeit $100 notes. On each occasion, he purchased counterfeit notes with a face value of approximately $100,000, then brought the counterfeit notes into the United States to pass some of the notes himself, and sell the remainder to various individuals in the Baltimore area. The total amount of counterfeit currency possessed by Shimony was between $350,000 and $400,000.

Court documents here, here, here and here, via InsideTheGate.com

November 6

Today, Judge Glynn sentenced Payton Brown, 22, to 20 years in prison. Brown pled guilty to second-degree murder before Glynn in July. The facts...
On October 12, 2005, Brown and an unidentified suspect known only as Gary or "G" attempted to rob Brandon Cherry, 21. During the robbery, Cherry resisted and was shot and killed. This murder occurred in the Northwood Shopping Center near the Morgan State University campus.
A man was found shot and floating under a pier in Canton.

Cash, some cell phones, a snow blower, a coin collection and three microwaves stolen in the blotter... and one Bruce Weidner really needs to get on with his life (after he gets out of jail).

"This is a White Man's City": Antero Pietila recounts the tumultuous election of 1895.
(ps. the ad at the top of the page makes really annoying noise, so turn down your volume!)

In College Park PGC, police shot and killed an armed-robbery suspect.
Also, there's a perv on Marcy Avenue in Oxon Hill.

A fatal shooting at 1709 Leisure Way in Crofton, AAC.

MoCo: Three suspects were arrested for armed robbery.

Sunday, November 5, 2006

Don't mess with Bill!

President Clinton will be appearing on behalf of the Dems tonight at Camelot of Upper Marlboro (whatever that is), 13901 Central Avenue, 20774. Admission and parking are free, but you must RSVP to Ashley Peddicord at 410-366-1900 or clinton@mddems.org to get in the door.