City Homicide

The owner of a Harford County plumbing company was arrested and charged with attempted murder after offering to pay an associate $20,000 to beat and kill his wife, city police said yesterday. Homicide detectives arrested George Thompson, 37, on Thursday night, said Agent Donny Moses, a Baltimore police spokesman. Thompson was charged with first-degree attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He is being held without bail.

No expense was spared for Gwendolyn Burgess' 32nd birthday party in March at Maceo's Lounge in West Baltimore. A band played downstairs, while a DJ spun records upstairs before a group of about 40 people, including at least five Baltimore City school police officers. About 11:30 p.m., the party for Burgess, a school police dispatcher, erupted in gunfire. Panicked guests took cover or rushed for the narrow exits, knocking over snacks and tables. Lamont Thomas Harrell, 23, had opened fire on Allen Coates, 36, shooting him nine times.

Donald Kincaid still can remember when his supervisor in the Baltimore Police Department paired him with an FBI agent, then sent him out to West Baltimore to search for a murder witness."

City homicide detectives have charged a 21-year-old northwest Baltimore man with the murder of his next-door-neighbor, an 18-year-old city high school senior.Adrian Jordan, of the 3400 block of W. Belvedere Ave., was charged yesterday with first-degree murder in the death of Shawneeka Rene Gunter. Jordan will have a bail review hearing today.Gunter was one of two people killed in the city yesterday. A man was shot to death in a drive-by shooting on Greenmount Avenue last night.The killings brought to 252 the number of people murdered in Baltimore this year compared with 254 at this time in 1990.

Out of the doghouse Nathan C. Irby Jr., executive secretary of the Baltimore liquor board, was all handshakes and holiday cheer this month. The reason? The police detectives who were witnesses in several liquor-license violation cases did not appear for a hearing, meaning charges against the taverns had to be dropped. "Christmas early," Irby declared, shaking hands with folks from the Dawghouse Tavern, which had been accused of providing illegal video gambling. - Laura Vozzella Blast from the past Baltimore Ravens fans are buzzing about some new weapons in the team's occasionally exciting offense - Clarence Moore and Todd Heap, who can leap high above defenders in the end zone and score a touchdown, as they did this season against the New York Giants.

IF YOU SPELL "murder" backward, you get "red rum." And "Red Rum" is a street brand of heroin so poisonous it kills. Red Rum also was the name of an effective but short-lived homicide task force that went after deadly drug gangs in the Baltimore region. It brought together the expertise of seasoned homicide detectives from the city, Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties and the state police. Because the Drug Enforcement Administration spearheaded the effort, prosecutions could be handled in federal courts.

City police are investigating two killings that occurred Monday, including the death of a 37-year-old woman who was found beaten in her home in the Waltherson neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore, according to authorities. Police identified the woman as Somchanh Sipayboun, who lived in the 5400 block of Hillburn Ave., just off Frankford Avenue. Det. Jeremy Silbert, a city police spokesman, said she suffered from trauma but a cause of death was pending a ruling from the medical examiner.

In the third week of February, two separate killings of couples alarmed Baltimore police and contributed to a spike in the city's homicide numbers that prompted the department to shift strategies, deploy more officers on foot patrols and hold community meetings in neighborhoods feeling the wave of violence. This month, police arrested one of the men they believe is responsible for one of the double homicides. On May 6, court records show, Perry Alexander, 19, of the 1700 block of Holbrook St. was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and gun charges in the shooting death of Shantese Evans, 26, on Feb. 24 in the 1700 block of Montpelier St. in the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello neighborhood.

City police made arrests yesterday in two homicides. In the Brooklyn neighborhood, Joel Ugah, 22, of the 800 block of Gretna Court was arrested in the 1000 block of Herndon Court, said Donny Moses, a police spokesman. Ugah is charged with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and weapons violations in a shooting last month in which a woman was killed, Moses said. On June 17, someone in a Cadillac fired at a Toyota in the 4100 block of Hyden Court, police said.

City police have identified several recent homicide victims in killings dating back to May 8. All of the cases remain unsolved and motives were not available, though each victim had recent drug arrests and convictions. The killings bring the city's total to 68 for the year, down 16 percent from this time last year. •Mark Crockett, 34, of the 200 block of S. Herring Court was found lying on the ground in the 200 block of S. Spring Court about 9:25 p.m. Monday. He was near a basketball court, suffering from several gunshot wounds to the upper body.