Attempted

Former Randallstown High football star Melvin Alaeze was indicted by a Baltimore County grand jury on charges of attempted first-degree murder and related offenses earlier this week, county prosecutor John Magee said yesterday. The attempted murder charge stems from a Dec. 24 shooting and alleged robbery at the Brookhaven apartment complex in Randallstown, where a man was wounded in the head, face and back and said he was robbed of his 1998 Buick, $400, two cell phones, keys and tennis shoes.

A 45-year-old man was convicted last week of second-degree attempted murder and other charges in the stabbing of a Columbia man in the victim's home.Charles E. Fitzgerald, of no fixed address, is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18 for second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and telephone misuse.Fitzgerald was upset at a former friend, David Seay, 28, of the 10400 block of Blue Arrow Way. On March 7, he went to Seay's house and stabbed him several times with a pair of scissors, authorities said.

A Harney teen-ager was found innocent of premeditated attempted murder but guilty of second-degree attempted murder and eight related charges by a Carroll County jury in the shooting of a Taneytown pizza deliverywoman last year.Edward F. "Eddie" Sible, 19, could receive a sentence of 85 to 100 years in prison, prosecutor Clarence W. Beall III said. Beall said he would request a sentence of at least 60 years.Second-degree attempted murder carries a maximum sentence of 25 years, and Sible could receive up to 20 years for using a handgun in an attempted armed robbery, Beall said.

Ruthann Aron's encounter with the legal system might be far from over, despite the fact that a Rockville jury is likely to begin deliberations today in her murder-for-hire trial.Her lawyers have promised an appeal if the jury finds she was mentally competent when she hired a hit man to kill her husband and a lawyer.Aron, 55, is scheduled to stand trial two weeks from now in the same Montgomery County courthouse on attempted murder charges.Prosectors say that on April 24, about a month before she took out a contract on her husband, Aron tried to kill Dr. Barry Aron by poisoning his bowl of homemade chili.

Baltimore police will interview more alleged victims next week, and could file additional attempted murder charges against a serial rape suspect who may have infected up to three women with the AIDS virus.Ronald Andre Jackson Sr., 49, is being held without bail at the Central Booking and Intake Center, facing 10 charges, including attempted murder, rape and kidnapping in a series of attacks that occurred in the same vacant rowhouse in West Baltimore.Jackson's cousin said yesterday that police have the wrong man. "I know he was here with me when the incidents occurred," said Dale Jones, 39, who lives with the suspect in the 800 block of W. Saratoga St. "I have to let the police do what they have to do, but they know they don't have the right guy."

The last time we heard from Arthur Jay Harris, he was convinced that no one had tried to shoot Marie Luskin in a celebrated Baltimore murder-for-hire scheme gone bad.In a 1991 Baltimore Sun Sunday Magazine piece, he outlined the attempted murder of Luskin, wife of Baltimore-born Paul Luskin, a prosperous Florida businessman and member of the Luskin electronics dynasty.Marie Luskin, Harris maintained, was hit in the back of the head as part of an almost comically botched murder plot carried out by someone posing as a flower delivery man.The Luskins, at the time, were in the midst of a vicious and high-stakes divorce.

A 53-year-old Baltimore man who doused his estranged wife with gasoline in her Edgewood home and held a lighted match 12 inches from her face pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder in Circuit Court Tuesday.Judge William O. Carr scheduled April 11 as the sentencing date for Robert Joseph Mintzer, who broke into the residence of his wife, 51-year-old Mary Kathleen Mintzer, in the 300 block of Palmetto Drive on Aug. 8, 1993.In doing so, Mintzer violated a July 26, 1993, court order to stay away from her.According to the plea arrangement, Mintzer will serve no more than 25 years in prison and no fewer than 15.The defendant also pleaded guilty to attempted arson, battery and reckless endangerment as well as the attempted murder of his wife and Robert James Lawson, 27, a neighbor who heard the woman screaming and came to her rescue.

A 30-year-old parolee pleaded guilty yesterday to the attempted murder of a woman that he followed on her way to work in Havre de Grace and stabbed eight times. The March 1993 attack occurred a month after he was released from prison.At the time, James Eugene Barnes of the 100 block of Vancherie Court in Havre de Grace, was on parole after serving seven years for assault with intent to rape and related sexual offenses, court records showed.Harford County Circuit Judge William O. Carr agreed to abide by a plea arrangement that limited Barnes' maximum penalty to 30 years in prison.

Washington. -- Sometimes one man of forgiveness, compassion and uncommon wisdom can bring more tranquility to a city or nation than a thousand policemen, or ten thousand National Guardsmen.Occasionally, one victim of a horrible crime who chooses righteousness over revenge can redeem an entire criminal-justice system and pull millions of people out of a long, dark night of hatred and fear.Such a man is Reginald O. Denny, the white truck driver we saw on television in April 1992 as he was beaten mercilessly by young Los Angeles blacks.

Two men charged with the attempted murder of an off-duty city police officer during a shoot-out and carjacking outside his White Marsh home yesterday morning are also being sought for questioning in the fatal shooting of a motorist in the New Town section of northwest Baltimore last night.While no charges have yet been placed against them in last night's slaying, city police were seeking Damation Lee Kent, 19, of the 2700 block of Cylburn Ave., and Kevin Lamont Coley, 18, of the 4400 block of LaPlata Ave., following the death last night of a 61-year-old northwest city man in the 4400 block of Tamarind Drive.

Even in a city where so many of us have become inured to violent crime, the vicious beating of 76-year-old James A. Privott, allegedly by a self-described white supremacist, last week at Fort Armistead Park was particularly unsettling and repugnant. Not just because the victim, a state government retiree who was doing nothing more provocative than fishing - and who had no water or cigarettes to share with his assailants - was hospitalized with a fractured eye socket and two missing teeth, but because of the questions it raises.

Police seek identity of remains found in Carroll Maryland State Police have released a sketch of what a female homicide victim, whose remains were found in March in Carroll County, might have looked like, in an attempt to identify her. Police believe she was white, in her late teens or early 20s, with a petite build. A Baltimore County forensic artist examined the victim's skull to develop a composite drawing. Police said the woman could have been killed decades ago. The remains were found March 24 in the 900 block of Baltimore Blvd.

A 27-year-old man was found guilty Wednesday of second-degree attempted murder for stabbing an ex-girlfriend's mother and her fiance in their Columbia home last year. Gregory Imes Jr., who has no fixed address, had smashed a glass door and repeatedly stabbed the couple Sept. 27, 2008, after becoming distraught over the breakup of his relationship. He will be sentenced Oct. 8. Imes' sister testified against him, saying he wanted a confrontation with police so they would kill him. He deliberately returned to the neighborhood the day after the attacks, mixing with police and residents at another crime scene, but no one confronted him, Melinda Allen, Imes' sister, testified Wednesday in Howard County Circuit Court.

Former Randallstown High football star Melvin Alaeze was indicted by a Baltimore County grand jury on charges of attempted first-degree murder and related offenses earlier this week, county prosecutor John Magee said yesterday. The attempted murder charge stems from a Dec. 24 shooting and alleged robbery at the Brookhaven apartment complex in Randallstown, where a man was wounded in the head, face and back and said he was robbed of his 1998 Buick, $400, two cell phones, keys and tennis shoes.

Melvin Alaeze, a former Randallstown High football star who was one of the nation's top recruits, is facing charges that include attempted murder in connection with an alleged robbery last month. Information on whether Alaeze, 19, of the first block of Asgard Court in Parkville, was still being held or had been released was not available last night. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Feb. 9 at the district court in Towson, Baltimore County police said. Alaeze was The Sun's All-Metro Defensive Player of the Year for 2004 and ranked as the country's No. 1 defensive end recruit.

A District Court judge denied bail yesterday for a 19-year-old man accused in the death of a burglar who was beaten and burned while trying to break into a Northwest Baltimore home, officials said. Dwayne Gibson is being held on a charge of attempted murder in the assault on a 43-year-old man identified in court documents as Wayne Rideout, whose most recent address was in the 3400 block of Lynchester St. in Northwest Baltimore, records show. During a brief hearing, Judge Askew W. Gatewood ordered Gibson held without bail, and prosecutors said they were awaiting autopsy results before filing a charge of first-degree murder.

A Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to two consecutive life sentences plus 15 years in prison for the attempted rape and imprisonment of a 19-year-old woman at a Mount Vernon laundromat. Saleem Abdullah, also known as Donald Sasser, 43, of the 2000 block of N. Calvert St., was on parole for attempted murder at the time of the offense, in June 2000. Abdullah had been released for about five months at the time of the attack Abdullah was convicted Feb. 5 by Circuit Judge Albert J. Matricciani Jr.

A 26-year-old Baltimore man who has been repeatedly accused - but often not convicted - of serious violent crimes had attempted murder charges dropped yesterday after he pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a bulletproof vest. It was the 12th time that Solothal Deandre Thomas either has been acquitted of attempted murder or had charges dropped by prosecutors. After Judge John N. Prevas sentenced Thomas to four years in prison on two misdemeanor vest charges, Assistant State's Attorney James Wallner dropped the attempted murder case because he considered it too weak to win a conviction.

A 16-year-old boy accused of shooting a student at Lake Clifton-Eastern High School on Thursday had been released from jail this summer after spending eight months behind bars in an attempted-murder case, court records show. Brandon Bayne of the 3600 block of Kenyon Ave. was charged in November with attempted murder in the botched armed robbery of a 16-year-old boy in East Baltimore. In that case, Bayne pleaded guilty in July to attempted robbery in an agreement with prosecutors, who dropped attempted-murder, assault, armed robbery and handgun charges.

The fourth suspect to appear in Baltimore County Circuit Court in the near-fatal beating of a Hereford Middle School teacher in June admitted yesterday that he took part in the attack. But Daniel J. Leksen argued during a daylong trial that while he is guilty of assault, the punches he threw that night were insufficient evidence to convict him of attempted murder. "This was a confrontation that just got out of hand, and it happened very quickly," said Patrick Maher, Leksen's lawyer. "We have a very bad second-degree assault."