Baltimore Woman

A small rowhouse blaze sent a Baltimore woman to the hospital yesterday with second- and third-degree burns on her upper body, city fire officials said. The fire, in the 600 block of S. Decker Ave. in Canton, was reported about 4:20 p.m., said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a Fire Department spokesman. Firefighters rescued one victim, a woman believed to be about 50 years old, from the first floor of the home, Cartwright said. She was taken to the Johns Hopkins Burn Center, where she was treated for second- and third-degree burns above her waist.

Alcohol and speed appear to have contributed to a single-vehicle crash in Linthicum early yesterday that claimed the life of a Baltimore woman, said the state police at the Glen Burnie barracks. Sudi Sharifa Smith, 25, of the 5200 block of St. Charles Ave., died in the wreck, which occurred shortly before 5 a.m. on Baltimore-Washington Expressway near West Nursery Road. Richard Rolanzo Queen, 38, of the 700 block of Peach Orchard Lane in Dundalk was driving a 1998 Chevrolet Suburban northbound in the left lane when he lost control of the vehicle and swerved off the left side of the road, police said.

A 26-year-old Baltimore woman who tried to jump aboard a train as it moved through Washington Village yesterday morning fell and was decapitated by one of the train's wheels, police said.The woman was walking with friends about 2: 30 a.m. in an industrial area in the 1300 block of Ridgely St., southwest of downtown, when she tried to get on the train, which was traveling east to Locust Point on the CSX Corp. rail line, said Agent Ragina L. Cooper, a police spokeswoman."She apparently told her friends she thought it would be fun to hop on a train," said Cooper.

A Baltimore woman was raped at gunpoint and forced to withdraw $280 from her bank account yesterday morning, police said.The woman, 21, met a man at the bank machine in the 200 block of W. Cold Spring Lane about 5 a.m., police said. She accepted a ride from him and he took her to an area on nearby Linkwood Road, where he raped her at gunpoint, police said.Police said the man was black, 5 feet 11 inches tall and 190 pounds with a muscular build. He was wearing a black, waist-length leather jacket over a light-colored sweat shirt and driving a red 1999 Toyota Camry.

A 46-year-old Annapolis man died yesterday afternoon after he drove his minivan into the wrong lane on College Parkway while leaving a Denny's restaurant in Cape St. Claire and struck another vehicle head-on, police said.The man, whom police did not identify pending notification of his relatives, was taken to Anne Arundel Medical Center after the accident at about 1: 10 p.m., police said. He died at the hospital.The minivan struck a 1989 Mercury Grand Marquis. The vehicle's occupants, Walter Herman Garner and his wife, Maryann, both 78, of the 1600 block of Cananaro Drive in Annapolis were flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.

A Southeast Baltimore woman was shot to death last night when she answered a knock at her door, police said.Detective Joseph Kleinota of the homicide squad said Mercedes Jiminez, 31, of the 1700 block of Dundalk Ave. was shot at least twice in the upper body about 6: 45 p.m. and fell back into the foyer of her two-story home, where she was found by family members and friends who were in the house at the time.Jiminez was rushed by ambulance to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead about 20 minutes later, Kleinota said.

A Baltimore County man arrested Saturday night on charges of shooting two women and an Anne Arundel police officer in an alleged three-day crime spree was ordered held without bail yesterday by District Court Judge James W. Dryden.Norman Lindsey Mayes, 20, of the 2700 block of Yarnall Road, Baltimore Highlands, is charged with attempted first- and second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping and felony theft. The charges stem from the abduction Thursday of Evelyn Seto of Pasadena from a Northrup Grumman parking lot, an exchange of shots with Anne Arundel Police Officer Jeffrey Morgan on Friday and the abduction Wednesday of a South Baltimore woman.

County police are trying to identify the body of a man found about 10: 45 p.m. Tuesday beside the northbound lanes of Route 10 near Furnace Branch Road.The white male, 40 to 60 years old with gray hair and a gray beard, was wearing a black jacket, black bicycle pants, white socks and black tennis shoes.The cause of death has not been determined.Baltimore woman charged in shoplifting of meatsA Baltimore woman, Robin Bonka Crosby, 39, of the 1300 block of Dellwood Ave. was arrested Tuesday and charged with stealing meat worth more than $50 from the Super Fresh grocery store in the 300 block of Hospital Drive, county police said.

County police arrested a Baltimore woman Tuesday on shoplifting charges in the theft of pain relievers and deodorant worth $40 from a Giant food store in Glen Burnie.Lynette Robin Gray, 31, of the 1000 block of Radnor Ave. was charged with theft. She was being held on $4,014 bond at the county detention center.Louis Rittermeyer Jr., a security guard at the store in the 7300 block of Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd. told police he saw a woman conceal two bottles of Advil and a container of Secret deodorant about 10: 45 a.m. and walk past the registers without paying.

Acting on citizen complaints, officers staked out the bathroom at a Glen Burnie department store Tuesday and arrested two men on charges of indecent exposure, county police said.Augustus Darrell Pickens, 72, of the 100 block of Montgomery St. Baltimore and James Robert Mulvaney, 64, of the 200 block of Walton Ave. in Brooklyn Park were released on their own recognizance Tuesday.Officers were working undercover at Sears department store in the 6600 block of Ritchie Highway after police received reports of lewd activity in the men's bathroom, police said.

Five arrested after brawl in the Inner Harbor City police arrested five people Friday afternoon after a brawl at the Inner Harbor, police said. About 20 to 30 young people were observed fighting about 2:30 p.m. between the Pratt Street Pavilion and World Trade Center. Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman, said police who were on routine patrol responded. No major injuries were reported, Harris said, though he did not have additional details about those arrested or what caused the fight.

A small rowhouse blaze sent a Baltimore woman to the hospital yesterday with second- and third-degree burns on her upper body, city fire officials said. The fire, in the 600 block of S. Decker Ave. in Canton, was reported about 4:20 p.m., said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a Fire Department spokesman. Firefighters rescued one victim, a woman believed to be about 50 years old, from the first floor of the home, Cartwright said. She was taken to the Johns Hopkins Burn Center, where she was treated for second- and third-degree burns above her waist.

Alcohol and speed appear to have contributed to a single-vehicle crash in Linthicum early yesterday that claimed the life of a Baltimore woman, said the state police at the Glen Burnie barracks. Sudi Sharifa Smith, 25, of the 5200 block of St. Charles Ave., died in the wreck, which occurred shortly before 5 a.m. on Baltimore-Washington Expressway near West Nursery Road. Richard Rolanzo Queen, 38, of the 700 block of Peach Orchard Lane in Dundalk was driving a 1998 Chevrolet Suburban northbound in the left lane when he lost control of the vehicle and swerved off the left side of the road, police said.

In her tidy, cursive handwriting, the 91-year-old lifelong Northeast Baltimore resident explained the circumstances of the rape as best she could. The woman did not come to Baltimore Circuit Court yesterday to see her attacker, Naji Muhammad, 43, plead guilty and receive a sentence of 30 years in prison. Her son and daughter sat silently on the courtroom benches; like their mother, they tried to convey the trauma of the crime in letters given to the judge. She had lived in her Northeast Baltimore home for more than 65 years, filling it with treasures and memories.

For $100, Yolanda R. Johnson promised people that they could skip out on reporting for their weekly probation. For $150, she offered to end court-ordered supervision altogether. The 33-year-old former probation officer from Baltimore admitted in federal court yesterday that she extorted thousands of dollars last year from 23 probationers convicted of drunken-driving offenses. She pleaded guilty to one count of extortion. In the end, it was the criminals she was supposed to be supervising who gave her up. They became confidential informants for the FBI, wearing hidden microphones to record evidence of bribes.

In Baltimore County Judge OKs reprieve for golf course facing foreclosure by bank TOWSON - A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge granted a 10-day restraining order yesterday that prohibits a Carney-based bank from auctioning a Kingsville golf course Friday if the course's owners post a $150,000 bond. Chesapeake Bank had filed foreclosure papers July 17 in Circuit Court after bank officials said the owners of Mount Vista Golf Course stopped making payments on $2.2 million in loans from 1993 and 1996.

A Baltimore woman who suffered a miscarriage after a car crash is going to Maryland's highest court today to argue that though she's not entitled to ask for damages for a lost life, she should be able to be compensated for a lost body part. The case could result in women who suffer injuries that lead to miscarriage being compensated for the loss of a fetus in the early stages of pregnancy. Since 1995, Maryland law has barred wrongful death claims for the loss of a fetus before it is viable.

A Baltimore woman was arrested yesterday and charged with attempted murder after police said she slashed the throat of her 2-year-old son. Police said Antoinette Reid, 20, of the 4600 block of Manordene Road in Southwest Baltimore used a knife to inflict a 10-centimeter cut across the front of her son's neck about 6 a.m. yesterday. The assault occurred at the home of the toddler's grandmother, Rebecca Ricks, who lives in the 800 block of Cator Ave. in North Baltimore. Ricks has custody of the child.

Virginia authorities are seeking clues that could link the man accused this week of killing two female hikers to the 1996 slaying of a Baltimore woman, Alicia Showalter Reynolds, in that state. Asked if Darrell David Rice was considered a suspect in the Reynolds slaying, spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said the Virginia State Police "does not publicly release lists of suspects. However, we do look at each individual realistically. I guess you can say this individual has not been ruled out." She added, "I can't say that we have officially linked these cases at this point.

After two years of dogged research, Emily Tilley could only shake her head and the fading papers in her hands as though she expected to shake free the necessary clue to propel her search. Nothing fell to earth. It was 1988, and the Baltimore woman ran her fingers through the duplicate manifests, marriage licenses and court records she'd collected in binders over the years. Then she turned to confront the musty records that mocked her from the table inside the Eastern Shore Room of the Eastern Shore Public Library in Accomac, Va. Praying to pry loose something she had missed, she re-examined the evidence: Census records.