Clarkston

CHESTERTOWN -- A Kent County judge refused yesterday to throw out the confessions police say were made in December by two brothers accused of committing a hate crime in the shotgun death of a 73-year-old woman in rural Kent County. In separate court appearances before Circuit Judge J. Frederick Price, David W. Starkey, 24, and Daniel R. Starkey, 20, sat impassively as lawyers argued that prosecutors should not be allowed to use statements in which the pair acknowledged their roles in the Dec. 4 killing of Germaine Clarkston as she returned home from a Christmas shopping trip.

Dominic Frank Guzzo, a retired Bethlehem Steel mechanic and East Baltimore community volunteer, died of pneumonia May 14 at St. Agnes HealthCare. The Highlandtown resident was 92. Born in Carbondale, W.Va., and raised in Ohio, he began work at age 16 to help support his family. He moved to Baltimore about 70 years ago and became a sheet metal mechanic at the Bethlehem Steel Co.'s Sparrows Point plant. He retired in 1976. He was a founder of the Sparrows Point Shipyard Retirement Association and served several terms as president of the 500-member group.

Kent County sheriff's deputies continued their search yesterday for the driver of a pickup truck who they believe fired two rounds into a car Saturday night, critically wounding a woman.Germaine P. Clarkston, 73, a Chestertown area resident, was shot by a gunman in a Ford pickup who followed the car in which she was a passenger for miles before firing, authorities said.One of the shots struck Clarkston in the hip, and another sent glass and metal flying in the car, injuring the two other women -- Meriam G. Spriggs, 67, and her daughter, driver Michelle Y. Wilson, 38, said Cpl. James Price of the sheriff's department.

CHESTERTOWN - Two white Eastern Shore brothers drew a life term and a 25-year sentence yesterday in the Dec. 4 shotgun slaying of an elderly black woman as she and two companions returned from a Christmas shopping trip. Family members and friends of Germaine Porcea Clarkston who gathered outside the courthouse criticized the sentences as too lenient, saying they were angry and disappointed that Circuit Judge J. Frederick Price sentenced David Starkey Jr., 25, to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder.

CHESTERTOWN - A Kent County prosecutor dropped hate crime charges yesterday against the second of two Eastern Shore brothers to face trial in the Dec. 4 shotgun slaying of a 73-year-old black woman. In a racially tinged case that is being watched by local and state NAACP officials, David W. Starkey Jr., 24, is accused of shooting Germaine Porcea Clarkston as she and two companions drove home from a Christmas shopping trip. He faces first-degree murder, attempted murder and assault charges and could receive a sentence of life without parole.

CHESTERTOWN - A Kent County jury deciding the fate of a 20-year-old Eastern Shore man accused in the shotgun killing of an elderly black woman with his brother asked to be excused late last night after about four hours of deliberation. The jurors will return at 9 a.m. today. Earlier yesterday, Kent County Circuit Judge J. Fredrick Price threw out a hate-crime charge against Daniel R. Starkey in the shooting death of 73-year-old Germaine Porcea Clarkston, citing a lack of evidence. Defense attorneys called only one witness and rested their case.

Two Kent County brothers have been indicted on charges of murder and a hate crime in the Dec. 4 shotgun death of a 73-year-old black grandmother who was killed while returning from Christmas shopping near her Eastern Shore home. A county grand jury indicted the two white men from Millington -- David Wayne Starkey, 24, and Daniel Robert Starkey, 20 -- on Jan. 6. The brothers -- one a carpenter and the younger sibling a truck driver -- are accused of killing retired school bus driver Germaine P. Clarkston of Georgetown after chasing her car for 21 miles through eastern Kent County.

CHESTERTOWN - Hamstrung by a key witness, Kent County prosecutors rested their case yesterday against the second of two white Eastern Shore brothers charged with shooting a 73-year-old black woman as she returned from a Christmas shopping trip Dec. 4. David W. Starkey Jr., 24, is accused in the shotgun slaying of Germaine Porcea Clarkston. Police say he and his 20-year-old brother, Daniel R. Starkey, trailed Clarkston and two female relatives for more than 20 miles before David Starkey, a passenger in his brother's pickup truck, fired two shots into Clarkston's compact car as the women arrived in their rural Kent County neighborhood.

CHESTERTOWN - Two white Eastern Shore brothers drew a life term and a 25-year sentence yesterday in the Dec. 4 shotgun slaying of an elderly black woman as she and two companions returned from a Christmas shopping trip. Family members and friends of Germaine Porcea Clarkston who gathered outside the courthouse criticized the sentences as too lenient, saying they were angry and disappointed that Circuit Judge J. Frederick Price sentenced David Starkey Jr., 25, to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder.

CHESTERTOWN -- More than 100 residents of the small rural community of Georgetown packed Asbury United Methodist Church here last night to seek answers in the shooting death of 73-year-old Germaine P. Clarkston on Dec. 4.Police say they are still looking into the possibility that the shooting was a case of road rage. The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation to determine whether race was a factor.State, local and national officials from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People attended the meeting to reassure the shaken community that the investigation will be thorough.

CHESTERTOWN - In a case that has drawn national attention, a 24-year-old white man was convicted of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder yesterday in the Dec. 4 shotgun slaying of an elderly black woman as she and two companions returned to their rural Kent County neighborhood from a Christmas shopping trip. David W. Starkey Jr. - who with his 20-year-old brother initially was charged with committing a hate crime in the death of Germaine Porcea Clarkston, 73 - faces a sentence of life without parole.

CHESTERTOWN - Yesterday, beautiful in almost every way, we might have seen Germaine Clarkston among the gentle souls seated on a wooden bench beneath the large shade trees in the park across from the Kent County Courthouse. She might have sat there, like the other senior citizens so tempted, to enjoy the lovely breeze and the soft sunlight on the cusp of summer, right there by the 101-year-old Victorian fountain with its ornate quartet of cast-iron swans and lion masks and, at its high crown, a wine maiden with vessel and goblet.

CHESTERTOWN - Hamstrung by a key witness, Kent County prosecutors rested their case yesterday against the second of two white Eastern Shore brothers charged with shooting a 73-year-old black woman as she returned from a Christmas shopping trip Dec. 4. David W. Starkey Jr., 24, is accused in the shotgun slaying of Germaine Porcea Clarkston. Police say he and his 20-year-old brother, Daniel R. Starkey, trailed Clarkston and two female relatives for more than 20 miles before David Starkey, a passenger in his brother's pickup truck, fired two shots into Clarkston's compact car as the women arrived in their rural Kent County neighborhood.

CHESTERTOWN - A Kent County prosecutor dropped hate crime charges yesterday against the second of two Eastern Shore brothers to face trial in the Dec. 4 shotgun slaying of a 73-year-old black woman. In a racially tinged case that is being watched by local and state NAACP officials, David W. Starkey Jr., 24, is accused of shooting Germaine Porcea Clarkston as she and two companions drove home from a Christmas shopping trip. He faces first-degree murder, attempted murder and assault charges and could receive a sentence of life without parole.

EVIDENCE, PEOPLE, evidence. If you're of the baby boomer generation, think of it as the secret word on the timeless Groucho Marx television show "You Bet Your Life." If you're younger, think of it as the final answer to a "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" question that asks, "What does a jury need in a trial in order to convict?" Evidence. Not hunches, surmises, intuition, gut feelings (which, along with 50 cents, won't even buy you a Big Mac), guesses or quantum leaps of logic. It's best we understand that before we examine the verdict against Daniel Starkey, the Eastern Shore lad (white)

CHESTERTOWN - In a racially charged case that has put rural Kent County in an unaccustomed spotlight, a 20-year-old Eastern Shore man was convicted yesterday of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in the Dec. 4 shotgun slaying of a 73-year-old black woman as she and two companions returned home from Christmas shopping. Daniel R. Starkey, who with his 24-year-old brother, David W. Starkey Jr., was charged with murder and committing a hate crime in the death of Germaine Porcea Clarkston, could face up to 30 years in prison on each count.

CHESTERTOWN -- Germaine Porcea Clarkston surely would have loved it all -- the choir soaring in the opening hymn, then moving on to her favorite, "Power in the Blood," and ending with the "Sweet By and By."She'd have loved the familiar dignity of the country church where she played piano for so many years, where her son plays the organ. She'd have loved the pageantry of about 300 mourners, decked out in their best clothes to pay their last respects.But most of all, Mrs. Clarkston would have loved the crowd of relatives: her son, daughter-in-law and grandson, her brother, her sisters, nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews and cousins who came yesterday to lay her to rest in the little cemetery down the street from the "home place" that has rooted generations of her family to the rolling Kent County countryside.

CHESTERTOWN - A Kent County jury deciding the fate of a 20-year-old Eastern Shore man accused in the shotgun killing of an elderly black woman with his brother asked to be excused late last night after about four hours of deliberation. The jurors will return at 9 a.m. today. Earlier yesterday, Kent County Circuit Judge J. Fredrick Price threw out a hate-crime charge against Daniel R. Starkey in the shooting death of 73-year-old Germaine Porcea Clarkston, citing a lack of evidence. Defense attorneys called only one witness and rested their case.