Guilty Plea for Philip Airey's Murder

Tracy Asbury pleaded guilty today to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree assault before the Honorable John Addison Howard. Police believe Airey was killed during a fight with the suspects in Curtis Bay (South Baltimore).
The maximum sentence for second degree murder is 30 years and 25 years for conspiracy to assault. Sentencing will be held sub curia with a date to be set. The story from the SA's office:

"On June 20, 2007 Anne Arundel County Fire Department responded to the scene of a car fire in the field off a ramp leading to West Nursery Road off of I-295. The firefighters noticed the 1993 Chevrolet Prism gas cap was missing, license plates were missing and the area around the car was also burned. When fire officials popped the trunk they found decomposed remains of a body later identified as Philip Calvin Airey Jr., 36.

Statement of facts. Philip Airey had been reported missing by his mother on June 19, 2007. She last saw her son on June 18 just before he left to meet Tracy Asbury at a local bar. According to witness statements, Airey arrived alone, ordered two drinks before Asbury showed up at the bar. The two were observed by witnesses having drinks and playing pool together for several hours before Asbury left the bar alone at midnight. Asbury was observed on her cell phone as she left the bar. Cell phone records revealed that Asbury was calling Michael Martin and Robert Speake. Airey ordered his last drink after Asbury left at 12:07 a.m. Cell phone records indicate Asbury made several cell phone calls to Airey between 12:40 and 12:42 a.m. Shortly after that time Airey arrived at the house on Pennington Avenue. According to witnesses, upon his entrance to the house he was met with fists, kicks and punches in the living room. The fight moved down into the basement where he was further assaulted and ultimately stabbed to death. Witnesses at the house at the time of the assault gave statements that they saw Michael Martin, Tracy Asbury and Robert Speake assault Airey and later saw a body wrapped in a blanket and a sleeping bag in the basement of the house. Another witness gave a statement that the next day, in the early morning, he saw Philip Airey’s prism in the alley and that Tracy Asbury was standing next to the vehicle and the trunk of the car was open. Witnesses gave statements that Asbury had spoken openly about an elaborate plan to assault Airey over the course of several weeks.

Speake, 19, [pleaded] guilty April 7, 2008 to second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and use of a deadly weapon (knife) with intent to injure. Under terms of the plea agreement Speake was to testify truthfully in the Asbury trial. and will receive a prison term of 58-years suspend all but 43-years at a later date."

Michael Martin’s murder trial is pending.
Assistant State’s Attorney Theresa Shaffer of the Homicide Division prosecuted this case.

May 14

Anna D. points out that despite our recent influx in murders, we're still killing each other much less frequently than we were last year at this time. She also provided ID's for four of the recent murder victims.

A rare misstep from Linskey: Quite a different story has emerged re. the gun battle May 7 on Ellwood Ave!
Turns out the 18-year-old who reportedly shot his mother actually shot his mother's friend. Alleged rotten teen Montreal Proctor, 18, is now in the city jail being charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder.

A look back at some of our city's most famous "criminals," who were motivated by something far greater than drugs, money, and street cred.

Greg Kane focuses on a group of students who are kicking ass in all the right ways.

Grad Student Robbed of Soda

JHU Homewood Campus
ARMED ROBBERY
Unit Block East 29th Street
MAY 13, 2008 - 1:05 AM

A graduate student had parked his vehicle and was walking east in the unit block of E. 29th Street when a black SUV drove slowly by him and stopped. Two unknown males wearing black bandanas over their faces got out of the SUV. One suspect pointed, what appeared to be, a long-barreled gun at the student while the other suspect went through his pockets. A wallet and a 12-pack of soda were taken from the victim who was not injured. The two suspects ran back to the SUV which then drove west on W. 29th Street. Baltimore Police and Campus Officers responded. Investigation continuing.

Thanks Colin!
Loving the new level of detail at CrimeBaltimore.com!

UPDATE: shot baby wasn't shot after all, but had his head scraped as grandma dove for cover.

Fresh from the Gov's Desk

Brand-new laws "expanding the state's collection of DNA samples from criminal suspects, establishing a commission to study the death penalty and delaying a ban on phosphorous in dish detergents."

May 13

There's a follow-up story on the completely chickenshit murder of father-to-be Carlos Santay-Carrillo. For all you cynics out there who are waiting to hear about the victim's rap sheet, it's looking like he was a pretty decent guy who was a victim of a random attack.

If a stray bullet penetrated the outside wall of your O'Donnell Heights rowhouse and suddenly you noticed your baby's head was bleeding, would you run outside to be safe? I mean, the bullets came from the outside, right? MJB, maybe you should address the proper course of action in your next book.

Two men were shot last night, one in Allendale (in the Southwestern) and the other on N. Collington in Middle East. (Or is that the Middle East? It sounds kinda weird saying "A man was shot in Middle East." Of course, it doesn't sound as weird as saying "I saw a bunch of happy children singing songs and playing with puppies and smelling flowers in Middle East.")

Irwin's trying out a new dialect: "A deliveryman for Papa John's was returning to the store about 5 p.m. Saturday when he at a stop sign in the 1300 block of Filbert St." (Also in the Blotter: a couple of shootings and a stabbing.)

Could someone please ask the dipshit editor at the Examiner why he/she thought it was a good idea to put the story about customers who aggressively threw coins at a McDonald's employee above the story about police searching for one of the Edgewood kidnappers?

Three men were arrested, and they're suspected in a slew of city robberies (including the one against a grocery-bearing woman on Schenley Rd. a few weeks ago).

Aaron McCown, the respected Old Town youth football coach who got busted for threatening a ref with a loaded gun at one of his Pop Warner team's games, got 6 1/2 years.

The witness intimidation trial for Yusef Winston-Bey and Victor Shuron has been postponed again. Of course, the trial is a moot point because Margaret Mead says Winston-Bey is "absolutely innocent."

Freddie "flash and boom" Mackler is out on bail and chilling at his brother's house in Owings Mills.

May 12

Okay, this is the saddest and most infuriating story I've heard about Baltimore in... uh... well, I was going to write "in a long time," but unfortunately the proper statement is more like "in about three days." Anyway, Carlos Santay, 19, was fatally stabbed at a Catonsville gas station was putting gas in the family car so he could drive his pregnant wife to the hospital. She gave birth to their first child a few hours after her husband died.

Mothers of murder victims speak out.

A woman drove Timothy Swann Jr. to Shock Trauma, stuck him in a wheelchair, and drove off before he could die. (Sun story)

The man who was killed by a gun-toting bicyclist on Friday night was ID'd as 18-year-old David Henderson. Onlookers at the scene claim they were roughed up by police.

Violence, violence, and more violence in the Blotter. (We even had some flare gun violence.)

Hit-and-run victim Michael Thompson is still in Shock Trauma, and the U-Haul driver has been ruled out as a suspect. Surely, one of you fine readers was shooting some sweet YouTube footage at the McDonald's on Perring Parkway on April Fools Day and accidentally videotaped the crime, right?

There's a new sheriff in town. Actually, it's a new police chief, the town is Annapolis, and they're on track to more than double last year's homicide stats.

"We believe this is just a personal issue he has with uniforms."

May 11

Baltimore City police say two Baltimore City teens were abducted from a bus stop, tortured and possibly sexually assaulted. A suspect, 21 year old Christopher Johnson, has been arrested.

Alleged scorned-lesbian murderer captured by her victim's son in Joppatowne, HarfCo

In the county, a male victim was stabbed to death yesterday at the Carroll Fuel gas station in the 5200 block of Baltimore National Pike.

Blood Convicted of Shooting Crip Ex-GF

Friday, a Baltimore City jury convicted Randy Golden, 19, of the 3600 block of St. Victor Street today of first-degree murder, use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence, wear/carry/transport a handgun. The jury deliberated approximately two hours before reaching its verdict.

Judge Timothy J. Doory scheduled sentencing for June 24, 2008 at which time he faces a maximum possible prison term of life plus 23 years.

On January 9, 2007 at 12:00PM in the 600 block of Washburn Avenue Golden shot his ex-girlfriend, Melissa Stefanski, once in the back of the head. The shooting took place in broad daylight in the middle of the street. Witnesses testified that two days before the shooting, Golden warned three different people, including the victim’s sisters, that he intended to kill Stefanski. The State asserted that the motive for the shooting was that Stefanski began selling drugs for the Crips, a rival gang of the Bloods, of which Golden is a member. Stefanski’s new boyfriend was also a Crip.

Assistant State’s Attorneys Lisa Phelps of the Homicide Division and Brandis Marsh of the Narcotics Division prosecuted this case.

Humbert Arrested in CV Rapes!

The state has in custody one Marlow Humbert, 44.
Humbert?!

Teenager murdered in the Northeastern

WJZ reports that a teenager was shot and killed Friday night at about 9:30 at the corner of Hillen Rd. and Harford Rd. in Northeast Baltimore. Police are looking for a kid on a bike.

Police are also looking for a man by the name of Reds. He's a red-headed white dude who hangs in Highlandtown and runs down motorcyclists in Dundalk when he's not busy selling CDs.

So, if you see a kid on a bike and a red-headed white dude, jump out of your car and tell the redhead to get behind the wheel. Then run over to the kid on the bike and make sure he's still got his gun. Once you're done with that, you should be able to time it so the kid on the bike shoots the white dude just before the car runs into the bike. Kid on bike: 0; Reds: 0; City of Baltimore: 2.

New City Paper feature

Anna Ditkoff has started a new weekly feature on the City Paper web site where she follows up on closed homicide cases to see whether or not the person who was arrested was actually convicted of the crime. The first installment looks at murder cases from early 2006.

May 9

Holy crap. A 19-year-old college student almost got abducted from in front of her Bay Ridge house on Wednesday. Best of all, one of the wannabe kidnappers walked up to her as she was talking to the police.

The sons are shooting the mothers, and the mothers are shaking the sons. "The mother of Damaud Martin -- a 4-year-old boy who doctors say was severely shaken and is in a coma-like state -- was arrested on child abuse and other charges yesterday, Baltimore police reported."

There's some mother/son drug action in the Blotter, as well as a bunch of people who should really consider spending some time at the gun range if they're going to make careers as murderers. (One of the failed homicides happened a couple of blocks down from Jimmy's Chinese Carryout, where Paris Richardson got killed a few days ago.)

WJZ has video of the two women who got stabbed near the light rail on Wednesday.

Police are running DNA tests on the toddler's body that was found in a suitcase in Philly.

A couple of HoCo dopes got busted after they tried to rob a cop.

AsKishor Kc was beaten into a coma as he delivered pizzas in Edgewood in February. He's on the slow road to recovery, and attempts are being made to raise money for his wife and two young daughters. Kc was/is the sole provider for his family.

I can already see the geniuses at some non-profit putting together the billboards: "STAY IN SCHOOL, DON'T GET SHOT." "MATH, NOT METH." "THE ONLY BULLETS GOING INTO THESE KIDS ARE BULLETS OF KNOWLEDGE." (Examiner article)

Some dude in Texas says the teens who beat Sarah Kreager just might be a sign of the apocalypse.

Mother's Day is May 11

An 18-year-old allegedly shot his mother last night in the head in east Baltimore. Linskey reports that at least one officer returned fire, and, amazingly, mom is alive.
There were also two other non-fatal shootings last night.

FLIP Letter Sends Man to Can for Gun

Says the SA's office:

At a hearing today Yimoe Siddha, 41, of the 500 block of East Madison Street, pled guilty to possession of a handgun after being convicted of a disqualifying crime and wear/carry/transport a handgun. Judge Gale E. Rasin sentenced him to five-years in prison without the possibility of parole. A Federal Letter of Intent to Prosecute or “FLIP letter” was utilized by the State today. FLIP letters are written by federal prosecutors to notify defendants with pending State charges that the evidence in their case has been reviewed by the United States Attorneys Office and that federal charges will be filed if their cases are not resolved in State court.

On December 26, 2007 at 11:05AM in the 2800 block of Edmondson Avenue, officers approached a group of individuals who began to disperse upon observing their presence. Officers observed Siddha holding his side, acting in a manner consistent with that of an armed person. Officers patted him down and recovered from his dip area a P90 Ruger .45 handgun loaded with live rounds and ready to fire.
Siddha’s record included a 1993 conviction for robbery deadly weapon (handgun) and a 1988 conviction for robbery.

Yimoe?

Bus violence is to December as school violence is to May!
There's a hearing scheduled today regarding assault charges against Sherry Shields, who assaulted her daughter's biology teacher in front of students.
Wonder if Jenna Bush will get a job teaching in the city?
That would be awesome!

May 8

Back in the day, it was pigs who got slaughtered in Pigtown. Murder #67 is a guy who lost a fight in the 1200 block of James Street near Ostend.

Some douchebag shot a woman in the head just east of Patterson Park. A cop saw the whole thing and shot at the douchebag, but missed. The woman is expected to be fine, and the douchebag was arrested.

Yesterday was a bad day for the ladies: a 16-year-old and a 21-year-old were stabbed during a fight downtown near the light rail.

And the woman hating continues, with a couple more cuttings in Govans and a washer/dryer theft on N. Collington. Oh, and an aspiring mathematician in Cherry Hill got beaten and robbed of his scientific calculator.

Someone threw an exploding bottle into a classroom at West Baltimore Middle School. The sad thing is, this kind of shit happens way more often than you think it does.

Hey! Luke did a follow-up story on Herve Massaba, the college student from Cameroon who was shot and paralyzed during a robbery last year. Unlike many people in this city, Massaba has a helluva positive attitude and isn't sitting around bitching about being a victim.

Yeah. This article is just going to piss you off, so I might as well close today's post here. Go read it.

May 7

(MJB beat me to a few of these links, including today's Murder Ink, but I've already written this post so redundancy be damned.)

If it took six or seven thugs to beat and kill a 73-year-old man, then how many of our city's toughest gangbangers would it take to drown a kitten or steal candy from a baby?

Hmmm... maybe the cops should sic this guy on the douchebags who like killing senior citizens.

A 17-year-old was chased down an alley off of Presbury St. and shot repeatedly.
UPDATE: The boy died at about 2:15 this morning.

Two 13-year-old students broke into West Baltimore's Calverton Elementary/Middle School on Sunday afternoon and tried to rape a teacher who was putting in some overtime. She fought back and they ran away like the little cowards they are. Both boys got arrested when they showed up for class on Monday.

It's not just city schools that are being disrupted by violent asshats.

Perv du jour: Child rapist Carlos Cortez got 100 years, and alleged grandma rapist Roger Ervin was indicted and faces life.

Kevin G. Johns got caned, albeit not in the traditional way.

Greg Kane is going to be getting mad praise in the comments section now.

They're building new single-family houses in Oliver.

Another Harsonist got caught!

Confidential to Frank Conaway: If you'd done your job in the first place, this wouldn't be an issue, so shut the fuck up and get to work.

Another school attack?! This time 13-year-olds (yes, you read that correctly, 13-year-olds) tried to rape a teacher! What the effing ef?

And 73-year-old Ellsworth Monroe* was reportedly beaten to death by a group of 6 or 7 people. Then robbed. Superduper. I'm going back to bed now!
* Anna says he is identified in police reports as both Ellsworth Monroe-Bey and Monroe Ellsworth.

Arrests in Recent Robberies

From the Rp listerv:

Concerning the recent armed robberies, one on Schenley Road, there is good news. The Police report:

"the ND/DDU conducted follow-up investigation relative to several robberies which have occurred in the ND. …. we have been working a joint investigation with Baltimore County, Western District DDU and CD DDU; as a result three people have been arrested and are currently detained in Baltimore County Investigation has revealed that these individuals were operating a 2006 Buick Lacrosse (silver in color) MD tag LLL-924. This vehicle has since been recovered. The vehicle was taken by the suspects in a carjacking in Baltimore County. Reports thus far have indicated that the suspects were engaging victims in groups of two or as an individual, we have reports of them wearing a white bandanna and a blue bandanna over their faces, brandishing a silver handgun.

"So far, the investigation has linked the suspects to the ND, CD, WD and Baltimore County. As you can see the suspects have been mobile. This investigation is continuing, if anyone should have a question or think they may have similarities please contact the BC police. So far Baltimore County has conducted one search and seizure warrant in the County and we have conducted two in the city."

Regarding the burglaries, the Criminal Justice Office (wonder what that is)-- Ed.) provides the following information:

"As for the burglaries I speak to all of them but I know the commercial on Cold Spring we thought we had some leads but not so sure now. There has been an increase in burglaries along the top end of the district. I would say this to the community is we are looking for two cars: A newer red mini van with 3 …males in it (they are breaking into homes after the stake them out, they even knock on the doors and the driver had a coat and tie on) and a gray Ford F-150 extended cab with a black bed liner and 2 …males (they are hitting garages taking bikes) most all of this is daytime stuff for the burglaries."

Finally, the Northern District suggests the following:

• Keep your garages and sheds locked.
• Mark your lawn equipment i.e.: mowers, weed eaters, leaf blowers etc. with your drivers license, state identification number or home address.
• Do not leave your equipment unattended.
• Thieves can quickly enter your home through open windows and doors while you are gardening in your yard.
• Record the brand, model and serial number of all of your lawn equipment and bicycles.
• Keep your shrubbery trimmed away from windows and doors to maintain clear visibility.
• Ensure that your outdoor lighting is adequate and in good working order.
• When you leave your home, ensure that your doors and windows are locked. As well, close your garage doors.
• Have adequate window covering so you don't advertise your valuables to individuals passing by.
• If you see anything suspicious, do not hesitate to call the police - 911.

The Northern District Community Relations Office can provide a home security survey. This survey will provide you with some tips to better secure your home, garage and shed. To schedule a survey, call Officer Jon Walter or Officer Doug Gibson at 410-367-8491.
Email: Jonathan.Walter@baltimorepolice.org
Douglas.Gibson@baltimorepolice.org

ps., the County Police recommend hidden shackle locks.