Shooting, ruling on death add 2 to homicide count
Baltimore's homicide count has grown by two with a shooting last night on East Cold Spring Lane and a medical examiner's ruling on the death of a man who had been paralyzed since a beating 15 years ago.
In the latest case, officers responding to what was believed to be an automobile accident in the 900 block of E. Cold Spring Lane found two young men shot inside a damaged vehicle - one dead, the other wounded, police said.
The men's names were not available. The wounded man was taken by ambulance to Good Samaritan Hospital, police said.
The victim in the other case died in November, and the state medical examiner's office ruled in January that the death was a homicide - the result of injuries from the beating years earlier on a street near Green Mount Cemetery. Based on the date of the medical examiner's report, the death has been added to the count for this year, which reached 30 last night.
Police said Richard Witherspoon was 41 when he was attacked by three men in the 1800 block of Barclay St. on July 18, 1990, and that severe head injuries left him paralyzed. He spent a long period as a patient at Ravenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on West Franklin Street.
On Nov. 6, Witherspoon, who also suffered from diabetes and a kidney illness, was taken from the center by ambulance to the emergency room at Maryland General Hospital, where he died. The medical examiner ruled Jan. 9 that injuries from the assault led to his death.
No arrests have been made in the case, police said.
Richard Irwin
Baltimore: Circuit Court
Ex-teacher's aide guilty of sex offense
A former city teacher's aide pleaded guilty yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court to a third-degree sex offense involving a 15-year-old student at Benjamin Franklin Junior High School for three months last year, the state's attorney's office said. Walter Robinson Jr., 28, of the 4800 block of Briarclift Road was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with Judge Sylvester Cox suspending all but time served, prosecutors said. Cox also sentenced Robinson to four years of probation and ordered him to have no contact with the victim and no unsupervised contact with children younger than 18. Prosecutors said Robinson also was ordered into sex offender counseling.
Howard County: Laurel
Fire damages ice cream warehouse
Construction workers cutting a hole in the roof of an ice cream plant warehouse sparked a two-alarm fire in Laurel yesterday, a Howard County fire official said. There were no injuries. The administrative portion of the Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream warehouse in the 9000 block of Whiskey Bottom Road, east of U.S. 1, caught fire about 10:30 a.m., said Bill Mould, a spokesman for the Howard County fire department. The metal joists supporting the structure were glowing orange, according to firefighters' communications. Firefighters sprayed water onto the building and peeled portions of the roof back to control the blaze. The fire caused $500,000 in damage, Mould said. About 60 firefighters from Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties brought it under control about 11:40 a.m. The plant makes Edy's Grand, Nestle and Haagen-Dazs ice cream.
Melissa Harris
