2 charged with identity theft
A federal grand jury indicted two Baltimore men and a city woman yesterday on charges of stealing mail and using the victims' Social Security numbers and other identification information to cash checks, prosecutors said.
Joseph Lawrence, 43, Maurice Racks, 53 and Tara Wagner, 37, are accused of assuming the identities of at least 31 people from April through October of last year and face charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
The indictment alleges that the defendants created false identification documents in the names of the victims by combining their own personal information with the victims' information. The defendants then used the false identification documents to cash checks, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say some of the victims lived on Dudley Avenue in Baltimore and on Foxcreek Court in Owings Mills. Lawrence and Wagner could face a maximum of 25 years in prison; Racks could face a maximum of 10 years.
Brent Jones
Use of confession opposed
The attorney for a man accused of stabbing another man in a Howard County apartment before being injured trying to escape, argued yesterday that a confession the man allegedly made to a paramedic on the ride to a hospital should be thrown out.
Kazeem Akinyoade Akinniyi, 25, of Baltimore is charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, burglary and several other offenses in the December incident in Columbia.
Police said Akinniyi broke into the home of his ex-girlfriend about 5 a.m. Dec. 23 and stabbed her new boyfriend multiple times. Akinniyi jumped out the third-floor window and broke both legs, police said.
Officer Eric Ward testified in a motion hearing yesterday in Howard County Circuit Court that he was ordered to ride in the ambulance taking Akinniyi to the hospital but not to ask questions. He said he was directed to take notes if Akinniyi said anything.
Akinniyi's attorney, Janette DeBoissiere, argued that his confession to stabbing Jefferson Bolden should not be admissible because police did not read Akinniyi his Miranda rights. She said some of the questions the paramedic asked were not medical in nature and that his responses therefore may not be used.
Prosecutors argued that the paramedic was not a law enforcement officer or working on behalf of the police.
Tyeesha Dixon
Man, 73, dead after beating
