Saturday, April 19, 2008

Can't Get Enough BCrime?

I'll be on a panel discussion this Thursday at 8 p.m. at Goucher, along with some very interesting characters.

April 19

Unidentified victimSounds like the mystery victim found in Middle River last week, right, was a landlord killed by two tenants.

Butterfingers! Teacher arrested after marijuana falls out of her purse during class

The EEOC has filed a lawsuit against McCormick & Schmick’s for alleged racial discrimination against black applicants and employees. :(

It turns out the 70 animal bodies found in Fredneck belonged to foxes, not dogs or cats.

Friday, April 18, 2008

The Lullaby of Bumberg

Big news!
Our friend Shayne has streamed Baltimore City Police radio transmissions from the Northern and Northwestern districts, and you can tune in at Scanbaltimore.com!
The links to the feeds are on the left of the page.
For the most action, tune in Fridays and Saturdays at about 2:15 a.m. (though there's always something going on).

For it to make any sense you'll need to refer to your "10-Codes"

April 18

The BPD doesn't have the 50 grand it needs to either exonerate Douglas Scott Arey or confirm that he's a killer.
Unidentified victim
"An unidentified man who was found dead Sunday in a new townhouse development in Middle River in eastern Baltimore County was killed in East Baltimore." There's a sketch of the victim, right.

A bunch of pending drug cases involving Sgt. Allen Adkins and Detective Deryl Turner are being dropped.

As bupe is being used more, more of it is being used illegally.

In HarCo, Samuel and Donna Merryman got 22 years each for starving their 8-year-old son to death. "... two of the couple's other children provided a look inside the family home in Whiteford -- where, they said, their brother was bound, strapped to a crib and deprived of solid food." (Examiner article.)

Kerri King got off on a HarCo driving charge that should've sent her to prison. She's still being held in the city for killing Courtney Brooks.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

More Teen Hooligans!

Yikes, a 15-year-old boy stabbed a 14-year-old boy in the neck and back with a pair of scissors at Lemmel Middle School.

Har! "Police charged five Montgomery County teens and one adult [last week] with being linked to what authorities said was a scheme to steal guns from a student's home and sell them to classmates, a sale broken up when a 14-year-old potential customer accidentally fired a bullet into the wall of a restroom stall."

... and one brokedown stripper! If you've ever doubted that booze is bad for the complexion, check out this picture of Kerri King (alleged hit-and-run killer of Officer Courtney Brooks).

April 17

Tavon Smith was fatally shot yesterday afternoon in the 2900 block of Garrison Blvd. in the Northwestern.

Who needs stupid shows like CSI when you've got the Southwestern? Seriously, if the shit going on over there were in a Mark Wahlberg movie, I'd dismiss it as bad screenwriting. (Here's yesterday's article on the police shooting, and a couple of paragraphs in the Examiner.)

We're not prejudiced against either side of town, though. Last night, a dude got shot on the west side, and a dude got shot on the east side.

Are they spreading shitty sludge around poor black neighborhoods in Baltimore, or are they treating the soil with compost to help eliminate toxins and reduce risks of lead poisoning?

Cynthia McKay was convicted for killing her boyfriend and setting his body on fire. She faces 30 years. (Sun coverage.)

Tyron Montray McGowan admitted to killing Kwame Travon Johnson last month in Annapolis.

PDJ: Daddy likes to touch his teenage daughter and watch her take showers. Maybe some nice men in prison will like touching daddy and watching daddy take showers.

Rape now occurs the moment a woman says no and she is ignored, even if it's in the middle of a deed to which she's already consented.

Some Fredneck dumped the bodies of more than 70 dogs in the woods.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Third Trial Starts for Erik Stoddard

A third trial has begun for Erik Stoddard, accused of the murder of three-year-old Calen Faith Dirubbo in 2002. Stoddard's first conviction was thrown out because a toddler's "utterance" was considered hearsay by the CSA. Here's info on the case from the second trial which concluded in May of last year; that conviction was also thrown out. Reported the Sun last year:
... the judge in the case ordered a new trial, saying he should have asked jurors during the selection process whether they had any racial prejudice against the defendant.

Circuit Judge Allen L. Schwait's decision was based on a little-known but sweeping 1999 Maryland Court of Appeals ruling that a defendant has an absolute right to question jurors about racial bias, even in cases with no apparent racial dynamic.

Stoddard, 26, is white. Calen Faith Dirubbo, the 3-year-old who was fatally beaten in June 2002, was white. All of the state witnesses in the case were white. The attorneys and the judge were white. The jury was made up of eight blacks and four whites.
This case has inspired some interesting comments over the years.

April 16

Hot diggity damn. Only one new murder in the Ink (that of Anthony Izzard), and details on Yolanda Brown (who was ruled a homicide victim on 4/8). One of the other men who was shot at the same time as Izzard was apparently struck by a stray bullet while sitting in his house.

A boy was shot in the face this morning in West Baltimore.

18-year-old Charles Jakes didn't mean to kill his 14-year-old girlfriend Shawndreta, who was found lying in a bed naked from the waist down. Jakes accidentally shot himself in the thumb at the same time. Too bad he didn't accidentally shoot himself in the head. Congratulations Charlie, you are the douchebag du jour.

The burned body of an unidentified man has been ruled as a homicide, but police aren't releasing the cause of death.

Despite what the Jessup teenagers who got shot say, the cops say they only fired one shot.

PDJ: Scott Carpenter of Dundalk pleaded guilty to receiving kiddie porn. Maybe Chuckie Jakes can shoot off Carpenter's wang.

The state dropped charges against Patrick Byers so the feds could wholeheartedly nail him. Or so we hope. (Byers was indicted for killing witness Carl Lackl.)

Rapist Eugene Waller got 20 years.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Evening Update

City Officer Mark Spila was shot in the upper hip during a routine traffic stop around Poplar Grove Street and Lanvale Avenue in the SW. The suspect is still at large.
(TG the bullet didn't hit the "ephemeral artery"!!
UPDATE: the officer is recovering from surgery, and WBAL corrected the typo)

Eighteen-year-old Charles Jakes has been arrested for the murder of 14-year-old Shawndreta Griffin.

Party is sure to be a verb as "the b Street Team" holds a "Happy Hour" tonight at "The Green [sic] Turtle" in Towson. (Yes, I just posted that for no other reason than to annoy you).

April 15

Jee-zus. Practically every headline in the local section of the Sun is a crime story. I may be the only blogger cheering for the crime staff over there, but dammit, I'm cheering loud. Meanwhile, the Examiner site has been totally redesigned, and I kinda like it. Anyhoo... on to the wacky hijinks of us Baltimorons.

The girl who was killed on N. Patterson Park Ave. yesterday morning has been ID'd as Shawndreta Griffin. Shawndreta was actually 14, not 15 as previously reported. (I drove down that street last night, and it is one of the bleakest streets I've seen in this city. Greenmount Ave. is like a healthy and thriving neighborhood in comparison.)

A typo contributed to the murder of Jeffrey (aka Jeffery) Clinton Butler.

Antajuan Wilson confessed. Hopefully they spelled his name right.

The boy killed by the wayward van on Saturday has been ID'd as 3-year-old Kyrell Sellers. Police are investigating the possibility that the two cars might have been racing.

The Griffins of Rodgers Forge were indicted for murdering their 2-year-old son. (It's taking all my restraint to not write something like "HA! Serves you right, fuckers!" Oh... shoot... I just wrote it. Oh well.)

Roger ErvinIn case you missed MJB's post yesterday, DNA evidence led police to 46-year-old Roger Ervin, aka the alleged Roland Park Rapist, pictured at right. (Despite my challenges to Lori Barrett at "b," there's nothing today on the Parkville rapist. Oh well.)

There was a bizarre stabbing/wrestling incident in the can at Douglass High School yesterday.

In other stabby news, a man was knifed by a relative at a family get-together in Edgewood on Friday night.

If the schools weren't run as if a herd of lobotomized cattle held power on North Ave., Andres Alonso might have better luck getting volunteers. Oh, and he also wants to quadruple funding for gifted students. Does videotaping the beatdown of a teacher count as "gifted?"

There's something to Alonso's statement about volunteers, though, as the Towson/Cherry Hill partnership suggests.

Ick. People in Jessup want to castrate the police. Oh, castigate. That makes more sense. My bad. (Despite my stupid commentary, it's an interesting article. Citizens are pissed about the police shooting in the Pleasant Chase community last week.)

Can we start a new feature? The Douchebag du jour? If so, Sanford M. Abrams totally gets my vote.

The honorary DDJ award goes to the Fells Point double-parker who attacked the woman writing him a traffic ticket.

More fires in Harson County.

Monday, April 14, 2008

That's Cold

Tribune lays off reporters, replaces them with hired bloggers to comment on the remaining reporters’ inadequacies.

First-Degree Conviction in Daniel Savage Murder

Today a Baltimore City Circuit Court jury convicted Alton Teel of the 3700 block of Bonview Street of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Daniel Savage in February 2008 in the 1500 block of N. Bradford Street in East Baltimore.

At approximately 8:40 a.m. on February 21, 2007 officers and medics responded to the 1500 block of N. Bradford Street where the victim Daniel Savage was found lying in the street with multiple bullet shot wounds. Mr. Savage succumbed to his injuries.

Assistant State’s Attorney Theresa Shaffer prosecuted this case. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Roland Park Rapist Caught!

For real this time (we hope)! Roger Ervin

"Roger Ervin, of the 3500 block of Dudley Ave., faces numerous charges of rape, sex offenses, assault, handgun and burglary charges, police said. He was charged on Sunday after detectives linked DNA samples taken from the victim."

Here's links to the stories from last August, (amazingly, the ones from the Examiner still work) and a picture of Ervin at right. (Thanks anon.)

Fatal homicide on east side

WJZ reports that "Baltimore Police are investigating a fatal homicide in East Baltimore. ... Police say a male was shot in the head."

Nick at the Sun tells us that a 15-year-old girl was shot in the head in the 1900 block of N. Patterson Park Ave. (which, for the record, is nowhere near Patterson Park). A suspect is in custody. A construction worker at the scene said he saw six or seven kids being taken out of the house, and two of them were young enough to be placed in baby seats.

And yes, it appears that this was, indeed, a fatal homicide.

(Thanks to Mr. Mephistopheles for the info)

April 14

Anthony Izzard, one of the three men who was shot on Friday night in Franklin Square, has died.

The burnt body of an unidentified man was found yesterday morning near Middlesex Elementary in Baltimore County.

In West Baltimore, a van was hit by another car and was forced onto the sidewalk where it hit two little boys (one of whom died). In true Baltimore style, onlookers then beat the woman who was driving the van. The depth of the anger in this city is truly terrifying sometimes.

Two men tried to rape a 15-year-old girl in Cockeysville.

Olesker talked with people who were paying respects where Bryan Adams was murdered in Columbia, and Antajuan Wilson was arrested for Adams' murder.

The war on drugs is alive and well in Baltimore.

From the Daily Record:
For a fugitive riding public transportation, it didn't pay to be cheap. A North Carolina bank robbery suspect is in custody after he was caught taking a free ride on Baltimore's light rail. A ticket on the train costs $1.60. But the Maryland Transit Administration says 58-year-old Isaac Ray Dunn didn't have one when an MTA police officer asked passengers to show their tickets on Thursday afternoon at the North Linthicum stop south of the city. After arresting Dunn for failing to buy a ticket, police did a check for outstanding warrants and found out he’s wanted for a bank robbery in Charlotte, North Carolina. Police turned Dunn over to U.S. Marshals.