Alford Plea

A Laurel supermarket clerk accused, along with her sister, of killing a man who prosecutors say owed her money for drugs entered a plea to second-degree murder Tuesday that will get her between eight and 10 years in prison. Patrice Rashah Dove, 22, cried as she entered an Alford plea before Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge William Mulford II, meaning she did not admit to killing Jamal Medina, 22, of Laurel on Dec. 21, 2009, at the Maryland City Plaza Shopping Center, but acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence against her for a conviction.

A Pasadena man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife as she was preparing to leave him. Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Alison L. Asti sentenced Stephen Richard Salb, 58, on Friday, agreeing with the sentence prosecutors sought for the July 2011 fatal stabbing of Jill Teets Salb, 38. "It was the ultimate in domestic violence," said prosecutor Anne Colt Leitess. "She was going to leave him and he wasn't going to have that. " Leitess said the victim had nine stab wounds, but more than 100 cuts - which Leitess said indicated that she tried to fight off her husband.

The mother of a developmentally disabled boy accepted responsibility yesterday for dropping him into a tub of scalding water in January, causing fatal injuries. Sheila Avery, 24, of the 600 block of N. Monroe St. entered an Alford plea in which she did not plead guilty, but acknowledged that the state could prove one count of child abuse resulting in the death of 5-year-old Travon Morris. The boy, who spent more than half of his life in the care of foster parents, died Feb. 15 of complications arising from second- and third-degree burns on his back, stomach, buttocks, legs, feet and hands.

A woman who faced more than 140 counts of keeping dozens of cats in poor conditions and not taking care of them entered a plea Tuesday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her of 10 charges. Deanna Lusko, who owned the Cool Cats Rescue, in Severna Park, entered an Alford plea to five counts of causing unnecessary pain and suffering to the animals and five counts of not providing veterinary care, according to Kristin Fleckenstein, spokeswoman for the county prosecutors.

A former and current Baltimore police officer received suspended jail sentences yesterday in a case in which a Morgan State University office manager and two young women were assaulted outside a Federal Hill pizza shop in 2005, according to city prosecutors. The victim, Akhenaton R. Bonaparte IV, has said the two officers, who are white, harassed him and called him a racist as he and his two young female friends talked about African-American history in Maria D's shop on Light Street. Jack H. Odom, who resigned from the force after the incident, was sentenced to a 10-day suspended jail sentence and a year of probation.

A Pasadena man charged in the death of a pedestrian who was walking home from work a year ago entered an Alford plea yesterday. William Glenn Greene, 60, did not admit guilt but agreed that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him of negligent homicide while under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of the fatality. Roger Gordon Sr., 61, also of Pasadena was killed in the early evening of Jan. 22. At Greene's March 18 sentencing, Deputy State's Attorney William D. Roessler said, he will ask Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Nancy Davis-Loomis to incarcerate him. The day of the accident, Greene was eastbound in his van on Mountain Road when he failed to yield to an oncoming car, turning left in front of it and into an Exxon station, Roessler said.

An 18-year-old Shady Side man told an Anne Arundel Circuit judge yesterday that he will not contest an attempted murder charge in connection with a drug deal gone sour.Daniel R. Brown of the 5200 block of Nick Road entered an Alford plea to attempted murder and handgun charges in the shooting of 27-year-old David Green of the 5900 block of Swamp Circle Road, Deale, who now must use a wheelchair and can barely speak.An Alford plea means Brown is not admitting guilt but acknowledges the state would have sufficient evidence to convict him if the case went to trial.

A 24-year-old Pasadena man pleaded guilty to manslaughter yesterday in connection with the December 1989 shooting death of his live-in girlfriend.Raymond Edward Davis, of the 7800 block Water Oak Point Road, had been charged with the second-degree murder of 24-year-old Linda S. Kohlhoff.Kohlhoff died within hours of being shot near the eye with a .22-caliber handgun, said Assistant State's Attorney Kathleen Rogers.Davis entered an Alford plea, in which a defendant concedes the existence of enough evidence to convict him but does not admit guilt.

An Edgewater woman admitted yesterday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court that she fatally shot her boyfriend after a night of drinking and fighting in the motel room that was their home.Vicki Lynn Flanagan, 37, entered an Alford plea to manslaughter in the May 13 shooting death of 37-year-old Joseph Boswell. She did not admit she was guilty, but acknowledged that the state had enough evidence to convict her.Assistant State's Attorney Warren W. Davis III said Flanagan called 911 shortly after 4 a.m. and told a police dispatcher that she had "just shot her boyfriend" in their room at the Mayo Motel in the 800 block of Mayo Road in Edgewater.

A 19-year-old Taneytown man could be sentenced to 10 years in prison for stabbing a man with a pocketknife in December, according to a plea agreement reached yesterday in Carroll County Circuit Court. William Paul Diebel of the 3900 block of Sells Mill Road entered an Alford plea, meaning he did not admit guilt, but agreed it was in his best interest to enter a guilty plea because the state had enough evidence to convict him of first-degree assault. In return, prosecutor David P. Daggett agreed to ask for no more than a 10-year prison term.

Former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has paid off the $45,000 a court ordered her to donate to charities, resolving charges that she violated her probation in the criminal case that led to her leaving office. In early November, Dixon was charged with violating her probation because she had fallen behind on the donations. In court Friday, her probation officer said the $27,000 balance had been paid off, pending the clearance of two cashier's checks. Dixon, who said when the charges were filed that she couldn't keep up with the payments, declined to say where she found the money.

Former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon could face the loss of her city pension — and possibly prison time — after being charged with a probation violation connected to a plea deal she struck on perjury and theft allegations. Dixon was $13,640 behind on payments toward a $45,000 charitable donation she agreed to make as part of the deal, according to records maintained by the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. The new legal trouble threatens to derail what some had speculated was a nascent political comeback by the former mayor.

A veteran Baltimore police detective must resign from the department after being placed on probation for stealing groceries with her daughter, a cashier at the store where the theft occurred. Darlene Early, a Western District detective who joined the department in 1990, entered an Alford plea Wednesday to one count of theft under $1,000. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain innocence while admitting that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction. Her 18-year-old daughter, Ciara Anderson, pleaded guilty to the same charge, prosecutors said.

A Baltimore County man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for the May 2010 murder of a Dundalk bar owner. Robert Garner, 28, was sentenced Wednesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court for the first-degree murder of Lee Martin, 43, his brother-in-law, who was shot eight times as he left the Hops Inn on Railway Avenue. Garner, one of four defendants in the case, had pled guilty before Judge Robert E. Cahill, Jr. in November. Garner's 31-year-old sister, Jaclyn Martin, had solicited him to kill her husband, prosecutors said.

A 25-year-old man died after he was shot Sunday night in the parking lot of Mo's Seafood in Glen Burnie. The Anne Arundel County police department identified the victim as Andrew Michael Johnson of the 100 block of Sloane Drive in Glen Burnie. According to police, officers responded to a report of a shooting about 10:34 p.m. Sunday outside the seafood restaurant, in the 7100 block of Ritchie Highway. Officers found the victim in the parking lot with a gunshot wound to the upper torso, police said.

A former Fallston psychologist, who sexually abused three girls under his care, will serve 18 months in jail, rather than the six years he agreed to as part of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors in August. Despite calling it a "sad and distressing case," retired Harford County Circuit Judge Maurice Baldwin Monday sharply modified the sentence David Wayne Schrumpf, 56, of the 4400 block of Prospect Road in Whiteford, from what Schrumpf had agreed to when he entered an Alford plea, which is not an admission of guilt, but rather an acknowledgment that the state had enough evidence to get a conviction.

An Essex man who pleaded guilty to raping his wife last September has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Baltimore County Circuit Court.The 34-year-old man had been separated from his wife for 10 months when he became angry while visiting her last Sept. 9 because she was soaking her wedding rings in jewelry cleaner and refused to put them on at his command, said prosecutor Stephen Bailey.He came back about 4 a.m. the next day, the prosecutor said. The man pulled his wife from her bed, where she was sleeping with their 5-year-old daughter, put "a very real-looking toy gun to her head and threatened to shoot her if she didn't submit."

A Crofton man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison as the result of a plea agreement in a case in which he was accused of carjacking a Macy's employee in the parking lot of Marley Station mall, leaving her with debilitating injuries. Andre M. Ennis, 41, made no statements Tuesday as he entered an Alford plea, which allowed him to deny responsibility while acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. Among that evidence was Ennis' DNA, which prosecutors said was found outside and inside the victim's car, including on the steering wheel and on the straw of a cup, prosecutor Anastasia Prigge told Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge William Mulford II, according to a recording of the plea proceeding.