Murder Indictment, Robbery Sentencing

The Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Michael Blackwell, 28, of the 1700 Abbotston Avenue for first-degree murder. Court documents allege Michael Blackwell is responsible for a shooting incident on September 4, 2007 in the 2500 block of Garrett Avenue. Davon Qualls, 17, was found in the unit block suffering from gunshot wounds to the head. Qualls died from his injuries at Johns Hopkins Hospital the same day. An arraignment is scheduled for November 13, 2007 before Judge Martin P. Welch, Room 228, Courthouse East.

Today Judge M. Brooke Murdock sentenced Jerome Holloway, 36, of the 2500 block of W. Fayette St. to 25 years in prison for possession of a handgun and attempted robbery, the first five years served without the possibility of parole (if she hadn't specified that, when would he have been eligible?!). A city jury convicted Holloway August 20, 2007 of attempted robbery with a deadly weapon and possession of a handgun by a prohibited person. Details:

On November 1, 2006 at approximately 2:19 a.m. the victim had been at Greenmount and Preston Streets in his car. Holloway appeared at the driver’s side window and asked if the victim was hacking and then pulled out a silver and black handgun, got in the car and said, “You know what time it is. Give me your money.” The victim gave up his money, but took off with Holloway in the car at a high rate of speed, eventually crashing. The victim escaped, called police and gave a description of Holloway. Police caught Holloway a short time later and the victim positively identified him as the person who committed the robbery. Assistant State’s Attorney Kristen Hitchner of the General Felony Division prosecuted this case.

October 23

Witness intimidation is alive and well in the Northwestern.

Judge Souder's ruling that partial fingerprints were inadmissable in the murder trial against Bryan Keith Rose "virtually overturns 100 years of jurisprudence with respect to the admissibility of latent fingerprint evidence," and led to the trial being postponed. Rose is charged in the 2006 murder of Warren T. Fleming, a merchant at Security Square mall.

There was a cutting at Woodlawn High School yesterday morning, and not the good ol' "cutting class" kind, either.

Paul Stephen Riggins didn't kill his wife, but he somehow knew where her body was.

If you don't want to get hit with an attempted murder charge, don't try to run down a HarCo cop.

Huh. An unscrupulous attorney. Who'd'a thunk it?

The trial against alleged Westfield Annapolis Mall shooter Javaughn Norman Adams began today.

Gary Watson, the alleged Blood who walked out of the courthouse a few weeks ago, was re-arrested last week.

Cameras may be coming to the county.

Huh. An unscrupulous city meter maid. Who'd'a thunk it.

October 22

"Honey, do you know this guy?" Police officer Andre Robinson hooked up with a married woman while on duty in the NW, then shot her husband in the legs after he came after them with a crowbar. Jayne Miller reports that it's not clear if Robinson knew the woman was married.

The Blotter's back!
A man was assaulted on Woodbourne Avenue, a grocery store burgled, a handicapped person's Plymouth Voyager purloined, a man stabbed in the back in Essex, more than two dozen firearms stolen in White Marsh.

Last week's legal news, courtesy of TDR: Microsoft antitrust claims can proceed, lyin' lawyer Jerold K. Nussbaum was disbarred, the CSA decided that a rape defendant’s rights were violated when the state put a mentally disabled alleged victim on the stand but did not allow the accused to cross-examine her, parents who withdrew their child from a private school have to pay tuition, interest and fees, even if the school incurred no loss.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church go on trial today in an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit filed by Albert Snyder, the father of a Marine killed in Iraq. Meanwhile, church members spent their Sunday picketing the Baltimore Basilica.

The Guardian Angels are back and saying they're planning to patrol the Eastern District. Wait, haven't we seen this story before?

PDJ: Daniel Cuneo, who got 5 years 5 months in jail for arranging sex for clients with underage girls in the Philippines.

Weekend

Big Ideas:
One you may have heard before: the crime decline of the '90s was related to the elimination of lead in gas in the 70s.
One you probably haven't: avoiding criminals by disguising yourself as a vending machine.

Killadelphia's crime-fighting volunteers are about to get training to patrol the streets for 90 days, and Bodymore waits to see what will happen.

(Alleged) PDJ = Nicholas J. Arminio.

Arminio surrendered his New Jersey teaching license in 1994 after two female students separately accused him of inappropriate touching. The state of Maryland didn't know that when he applied for teaching credentials and took a job at [Eastern Technical High School,] in Baltimore County. He eventually resigned and lost that license, too. Even so, until this month, he was coaching football at another Baltimore County high school [Perry Hall High] in a job that does not require a teaching license. After the AP started asking questions, he was fired.

Arminio claims the Toms River, NJ allegations were made up by teenagers seeking attention.

Sure, smoking kills more Baltimoreans than violence or drugs... but gunshot wounds don't have that cool, smooth flavor.

HoCo is offering 5,000 clams to whomever can find gas station robber Terrence Edward Boone, 24, and his 14-year-old accomplice Shawn Timothy Crockett (they're from Baltimore of course).

Most of the hijacked diesel fuel stolen on Friday was recovered from an underground tank in Washington.

Sad: A MD state trooper, Sgt. Pride T. Rivers, shot and killed himself Saturday morning on the corner of West South and South Bentz streets in Frederick.

News of the Weird: Money magazine "just ranked Mount Vernon as one of the top 35 best places to retire."

Thought-provoking headline: "Methodists Meet to Evaluate Transgenderism, Starting With Baltimore Pastor"

October 19

At about 2 a.m. an officer in the Southern found a man shot to death in the driver's seat of a Ford Explorer in the 4200 block of Audrey Ave., and
The shooting reported here yesterday on Walbrook Avenue turned out to be a fatal one, and two suspects were apprehended after a car chase.
(But if the shootee is dead, how can we know they didn't consent to the shooting? After all, sadomasochists sometimes like that kind of thing... Thanks Galt)

A man walked into Lowell Liquors in the 3200 block of Woodland Ave. (near Park Heights Avenue) last night and shot three men ages 19, 20 and 29. The 19-year-old was treated and released, conditions of the other three are unknown.

Police are still looking for Emory Lewis, left, wanted for the September 8 murder of Felicia Spratley.

Nationwide, "the Supreme Court’s decision to review the constitutionality of lethal injection procedures has slowed the annual number of executions to the lowest level in a decade."

Dwayne Price, 18, was charged yesterday in connection with the rapes of an 88-year-old cancer patient and a 73-year-old woman in South Baltimore in September of 2005.

Four federal child pornography cases have led to the indictments of Larry Cordell of Frederick and Stephen Michael Gayer of Baltimore, a guilty plea from John Ray Manning of McHenry and a 30-year sentence for Fabrice Snowden of Edgewood.

Parking tickets are big business for the city! Says Janis, "In current fiscal year 2008, the city expects to write $12 million worth of tickets and collect $8 million in fines."

Speaking of big business... OC ho's busted
(wow all these online ho's could keep a department busy! <-don't open that link at work)

Lt. Col. William H. Steele of AAC was found not guilty of aiding the enemy by loaning an unmonitored cell phone to an inmate in Iraq, but was found guilty of unauthorized possession of classified documents, behavior unbecoming an officer and failing to obey an order. More details here.

Remember MoCo cracker-hater Quinton Thomas, whose "REAL TALK" to a wrong address got him convicted of the fatal shooting of Stephen W. Kelley? He was sentenced to life without parole.

Quote of the Day

Anne Arundel judge Paul Harris dropped domestic violence charges against a man who punched a woman in the face in front of an officer because, he said, he couldn't be sure that she didn't consent to the beating. "'You have very rare cases. Sadomasichists sometimes like to be beat up,' he said."
(Thanks JB)
UPDATE: More details in the Sun story.

There was a shooting at Walbrook & McKean Avenues on the West Side.

October 18

Baltimore soldier Jerrell Hill, charged with shooting five people in a gang-related dispute last month, could be freed from an Oklahoma jail today, as Baltimore city prosecutors intend drop the case.

e first Kopera-related appeal (or the first one we know about) has come up and was denied.

In the county, sentencing was postponed for John A. Miller IV, convicted of killing 17-year-old Shen Poehlman. Miller withdrew his guilty plea, "effectively firing the public defenders who have represented him."

"For the second time in six days, a convicted sex offender was found to be accidentally left off the state's public registry Web site after his release from jail." But the Capitol won't say who he is "to protect the victims." Meanwhile Baltimore police say "Anne Arundel County is on the hook" for omitting rapist Eugene Waller, AAC says they notified the city that he lived here, but the city was unable to locate him.

Hey "Wire" fans, a nice long article on David Simon in this week's New Yorker. Spoilers: The fifth season is definitely the last, and "will be about 'perception versus reality'—in particular, what kind of reality newspapers can capture and what they can’t."
(More interesting David Simon-related reading: "Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?" the tale of Simon and Charles Dutton's experience on The Corner, from the NYT's "Race in America" series)

Boy Trouble

A 17-year-old boy was shot in Edgewood.

County police are looking for Daniel Joseph Tasker, a disabled 13-year-old boy who ran away from home.

A carjacker, an identity thief, a "Silver Spring Stabber" and a tax protester met their fates at the Garmatz courthouse.

Unsurprisingly, the Justice Department is prosecuting fewer organized crime, environmental and bankruptcy fraud cases and is going for terrorism and perverts instead.

October 17

Dismaying Stats from YPR: "Of the 320 adults charged with gun crimes through September 15th, 2007, 120, or 38- percent, were already on probation. Many had suspended sentences, including 24 charged with armed robbery, attempted robbery, or carjacking. Six were charged with attempted murder; 15 more with assault. Of the 50 gun-crime suspects so far this year with the greatest number of prior convictions, more than a quarter would not have been at large the day they were caught with a gun, but for suspended prior sentences."

Galt reports,
"The body found in the trunk of a burning car is now a homicide.
So is Andre Bryant."

"Crystal Nikkita Newby, 21, of the 2900 block of Southland Ave. is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Qasim Kabah at his home in the 2500 block of Terra Firma Road." The two were fighting over the sale of an assault weapon.

More dangerous than Iraq indeed: An 18-year-old Baltimore soldier, Jerrell Hill of the 5600 block of Lothian Road, was detained this week at an Army base in Oklahoma after city detectives accused him in the gang-related shooting of five people in the Barclay neighborhood last month. He's awaiting extradition.

Today the Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Omar McGee, 18, of the 3400 block of Dupont Avenue for first-degree murder and deadly weapon. Court documents allege on August 9, 2007 Omar McGee was identified as the person responsible for a shooting incident in the 3400 block of Dupont Avenue. Troy Richardson, 30, was found in the middle of the unit block suffering from several gunshot wounds. He succumbed to his injuries at Sinai Hospital the same day. An arraignment is scheduled for November 9, 2007 before Judge Martin P. Welch, Room 228 Courthouse East.

Two Towson U. football players were busted for marijuana, and TU sororities are in trouble for posting pictures of underage drinking on Facebook. And worst of all, Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Teri Hall says:

"Ironic that we have all these women doing things that they shouldn't have been doing as part of sorority recruitment and they post them on Facebook for everybody to see."

No lady, that's stupid. You have a doctorate and work in education but don't know the meaning of ironic-- THAT is ironic!

Bogus tickets?! The parking division is more evil than we even knew! Dixon says the inspector general is going to investigate.
QTD from Jaclyn Schwarz: “They’re always blaming the people who live here. My house was broken into, and they said it was my fault for not having the correct lock. It’s a very difficult city.”

Oricil to see Can from Inside

At a hearing yesterday, Judge Barry G. Williams found Kenneth Ellis, 27, of Bowie, MD guilty of violating his probation. Judge Williams sentenced Ellis to three years in prison, consecutive to a seven-year prison term he is currently serving following a Baltimore County assault conviction in August 2007. On June 20, 2006 Ellis, also known as “Oricl,” pled guilty to six counts of malicious destruction of property. Judge Williams sentenced him to a suspended three-year prison term, 18 months probation and 500 hours of community service. Ellis was a prolific “tagger” spray painting the name Oricl on property across the city. As part of his original sentence, he was to work with Department of Public Works Crews to clean up the graffiti. The assault conviction in August and the fact that Ellis completed just 32 of the 500 hours triggered today’s violation of probation hearing in city Circuit Court. Says the SA's office, yesterday's "hearing highlights the continued emphasis on the identification and prosecution of repeat offenders in Baltimore on supervised parole or probation who commit a new offense or technical violation."

Man, Pregnant Woman Shot

A double shooting in the 2600 block of Quantico Avenue killed a man and put a nine-months pregnant woman in serious condition.

Another grade-school boy trucked to the hoosegow! Eight-year-old Eric Turner was arrested after stabbing a classmate with a comb at Woodhome Elementary (near Harford & Taylor Aves). JZ:

"The situation depends largely on one's point of view. Did Turner slip and fall into a classmate while holding a comb, or did he stab the classmate with a comb while fighting in the hall?"

Or, was this the last straw for school officials who'd talked to his family more than once, only to have them excuse and defend his behavior? Mysteries upon mysteries...
(ps. the boy arrested for sitting on the mini-bike, Gerard Mungo Jr., was 7, for what it's worth, and unlike Stabby was just sitting around!)

At a hearing today Charles Brockington, 47, ("rims guy") of the 4000 block of Cedardale Road pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. Under terms of the plea agreement, announced in open court, Brockington faces a maximum of 10 years in prison suspending all but five years without the possibility of parole. Judge John Kaye Allison scheduled sentencing for December 17, 2007. Here's the JZ story. (thanks PP)

Four MDers were sentenced in a scheme to transport hundreds (hundreds?!) of illegal-alien prostitutes to the state.

From SA's office (edited): Today, after one day of deliberation, a jury returned a verdict of guilty on the charges of possession with possession and intent to distribute heroin in the case of Kennard Miles, 22, of the 700 block of Lakewood Drive. Miles was arrested as a result of a Baltimore City Police Department investigation focusing on the 2500 block of Monument Street, the 600 and 700 blocks of N. Rose St., and the 700 block of N. Luzerne Ave. On 6/30/06, Miles was observed receiving a black bag by an officer operating a pole camera focused on the 700 block of N. Luzerne Ave. The officer informed a waiting arrest team of the transaction. Miles fled the arrest team, and during the foot pursuit, Miles threw the black bag into a garage on 900 block of Lakewood Ave. The bag was recovered, and Miles was apprehended. The bag was found to contain 636 gelatin capsules of heroin. The trial, which lasted two days, began on October 10 and concluded on October 12 before Judge David Ross. The case was prosecuted by LaRai Forrest. Sentencing is scheduled for October 22, 2007 at 9:30am.

Fun fact! Odds of being arrested during a drug transaction, according to David Kennedy: less than 1 in 15,000.

The Sun has choice quotes from supersassy Baltimore County District Judge Bruce S. Lamdin. Here are the original stories by Van Smith of the CP from last month and six months ago.

Crime Farther Afield

Sad to hear about the possible murder of Dean Johnson of Dean & the Weenies fame in NY.
Here he is below singing one of the most brilliant songs of all time.



Also in the news... drunk Frednecks steal oversize keys

13th and 14th October

Short on details, but, surprise surprise, there's been another murder: 1700 block of Latrobe Street, shot in the head. Depending on whether or not the guy from the 12th died, this guy is either #245 or #246. I think.

The use of potentially excessive force to protect the well-being of a police cruiser becomes the 28th police-involved shooting in the City this year.

It's been thirty-years since Marvin Mandel's indictment, but, um, don't we have better things to worry about? Guess not.

"[M]iscommunication and possible equipment misuse" is the verdict in the Baltimore City Fire Department's report on the death of firefighter Allan M. Roberts on 10 October of last year. I have to admit, at first, I thought this story was about Racheal Wilson.

Rodney Curtis and Darien Watson, sentenced to hard time for a Joplin Street attack last year -- forty years Curtis, life for Watson. Here's my question: Curtis got "all but fifteen years suspended", Watson "all but five." What. The. Fuck? Seriously.

Ahh, here's a little white-collar-crime for a blue-collar-crime city.

Now that Baltimore's got a police commissioner -- and we've all got our fingers crossed that he's going to be great (but we'll settle for 'good') -- the City's Police Department is formalizing its new command staff. Anthony E. Barksdale is now the deputy commissioner of operations; Deborah A. Owens as deputy commissioner of the department's administrative bureau; John Skinner to chief of patrol, and others.

The trial of the guy who did the 2006 New Year's Day slaying of Ronny Martin is over, and here's hoping his family can try to put this behind them: Anthony Dickson, convicted. His sentencing is scheduled for December 7th, and here's hoping he goes the way of the U.S. Pacific Fleet: torpedoed and sunk. Most likely, he'll get sentenced to five years with all but a week suspended. Because this is Baltimore!

A tale of a pervert attempting to be perverted and the girl not-too-stupid-enough to fall for it, near the high school I graduated from. The article calls it 'Atholton', but anyone who has ever gone there calls it 'Assleton.'

STUPIDEST HEADLINE EVER: "Baltimore Police Search For Murderer." WHAT? Shouldn't it be: "Baltimore Police Search For Many Many Many Murderers." ????!!!!

The headline does say it all: "Failed by the system -- taken by the streets" regarding the life of The Sun's #211* - Davon Qualls.
(*Baltimore Crime's count puts him at #219)

Here's a fuzzy-wuzzy for this late Baltimore Crime entry: hats off to John Itati in his 2:16:24 win of the Baltimore City Marathon. It's nice to know the city's spiking homicide rate isn't scaring everybody away from Bodymore.

October 12

#244 seems to be an as-yet unidentified man shot to death in a barbershop in the 1100 block of West Baltimore Street.

You'd think once we moved away from paper files in favor of computerized shiznits, we'd stop losing people "in the system", but that's exactly what happened, and what allowed Eugene Waller another opportunity to 'slip through the cracks' (a figurative metaphor while also, unfortunately, a far too literal one considering the guy is a twice-convicted rapist).

What's the saying, the Early Bird Gets The Worm? In Baltimore, it should be changed to 'The Early Riser Gets The Bullet.' Ouch. It's unknown whether or not he's going on the body count list (yet).

An anonymous call to "shoot up" a Carroll County school gets schools throughout the area locked-down.

I don't blame the guy for carrying a gun -- after all, he's just as likely to be assaulted by a parent upset his kid didn't get to play as he is to be the victim of a random act of violence -- but the Feds don't share that view: Aaron McCrown, a 31-year old youth football coach, charged with illegally carrying a firearm because he's a convicted felon. Convicted of what? Possession with intent to distribute. How'd he get a job as a youth coach?

Gary Watson's release ... oh, just fucking brilliant.

Spotted!

... New Commissioner Fred Bealefeld III at the David M. Kennedy lecture.
I think he really cares!

October 11

A man was shot in the buttocks on Mosher Street for no apparent reason.

Dixon: our prisons are country clubs!

If you didn't go to the Block earlier this year, you missed hooch-swilling 15-year-olds, back-room "intimate interactions," plenty of drugs and a Foxy Lady named Lot of Bottom.

The Post serves up a TV-news-worthy lede: "The question has vexed us all: Where did I leave my cellphone? Consider the added anxiety, then, of having misplaced it near a murder scene -- a murder scene authorities suspect you created. Allegations made public this week suggest that James F. Swann put himself exactly in that bind. The 32-year-old is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the Oct. 3 shooting in Waldorf of Joseph G. Hickman..."

JZ: Rap and Fling Latest in Long String

"A woman was dragged from a bench and rapped at the Nursery Road Rail Station Tuesday afternoon ... After a few minutes she advised, all of a sudden he just grabbed her and forced her into a wooded area ... [she] managed to break free telling officers she swam to the Patpasco River back to the train station ... Officers say [the suspect] also flung to the Patpasco River where officers finally found him. Police say this is just the latest of a long string of similar arrest."
UPDATE: WJZ fixed all of the entertaining typos! :(
(For more grody details, read the Sun story!)

More on the NE district domestic-violence pilot project from the Wretched's Brendan Kearney and Luke Broadwater at the Examiner. Who wrote it better?

A Baltimore County judge Tuesday sentenced high school teacher Christian Liverman, right, to one year of probation after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a 16-year-old girl in his classroom.

Two gun felons and a thieving NIH employee met their fates in US District Court.

"Police called it one of the county's worst animal cruelty cases of all time.
But veteran District Court Judge Robert C. Wilcox said the investigation of the alleged Severna Park dogfighting ring is one of the worst examples of police work he's seen."
Meow!

The Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Carroll Bell, 56, of Philadelphia on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree rape. Court documents allege on January 25, 1990, a woman, later identified as Beverly Dixon, 31, was found dead and partially nude in an alley in the 2200 block of McCulloh Street. In 2006 evidence was retrieved and tested. On May 15, 2007 the evidence was matched to Carroll Bell. An arraignment is scheduled for April 8, 2008 before Judge Martin P. Welch, Room 228, Courthouse East.

Judge John M. Glynn sentenced Shardae Denise Coles, 21, of the 1300 block of Harlem Avenue, to 20 years in prison. Judge Glynn recommended that Coles be placed in the youthful offender program at Pautuxent Correctional Facility. Coles pled guilty to second-degree murder March 22, 2007. On May 7, 2006 Zion Treyvon Clemmons, 16 months old, was left in the care of Coles while his mother sought drug treatment. While in Coles’ care, Clemmons suffered blunt force trauma which resulted in his death. Coles admitted grabbing Clemmons and hurling him into the edge of a sofa at her apartment at 1305 Harlem Avenue. Assistant State’s Attorney Julie Drake, Chief of the Felony Family Violence Division, prosecuted this case.

October 10

Fed attorney Jason Weinstein explains GUNSTAT, and why some gun cases get The Rod:

"we've asked them [city police?] to track what you'd call 'federally significant convictions,' which are crimes of violence, felony drug crimes, that are the kind of prior offenses which increase your federal time to go above the five-year mandatory in the state court. So, people with two or more 'federally-significant' convictions are people who are looking at more federal time than state time. So, one of the things we do is, every two weeks, we go through and make sure that if there's someone with more than two federal convictions, that we've gotten a referral of that case."

Baltimore's 27th police-involved shooting was some crazy redneck shit! An officer making a traffic stop was dragged by the suspect SUV, until he shot the driver in the neck!

Ink updates include the closing of the cases of Shirley Cooper and Lorado Williams by exception.

Edgewood Grandma to thugs: "I don't give a damn what you think. I'm old-school."

Cops to sex offenders: no hole-in-the-candy-bowl tricks will be tolerated on Halloween!

News of the Weird: Cecil Co. man finds Weasel the Crackhead napping in his bed