Conspiracy

16-year-old to be tried as adult in homicide A 16-year-old boy accused of shooting a man who was scheduled to testify in a Baltimore City murder case will be tried as an adult. Attorneys for Johnathan R. Cornish withdrew their request yesterday in Baltimore County Circuit Court to have the teenager transferred to juvenile court. He and several codefendants are scheduled to go to trial in February. Cornish, of West Baltimore, is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and two handgun offenses in the fatal shooting of Carl Stanley Lackl Jr. The 38-year-old victim, killed July 2 in front of his Rosedale home, was a key prosecution witness in a city murder case against Patrick Byers.

The biggest mistake, by far, that well-intentioned laypeople make in concluding there was a conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination, and the biggest argument, by far, that conspiracy theorists use in their books to support their position of a conspiracy, is to maintain that such and such a group `had a motive' to kill Kennedy and, therefore, must have done it." - VINCENT BUGLIOSI, writing in his new book "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy"

A federal judge sentenced a 41-year-old Baltimore County man yesterday to serve 10 years in prison for his role in a large-scale drug operation that sold heroin and cocaine throughout the Baltimore region. Michael Felder, 41, of Cockeysville, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine over a 10-year period in a large narcotics-trafficking enterprise operated in Baltimore by brothers Howard and Raeshio Rice, who also pleaded guilty and received sentences of decades in prison.

A U.S. appeals court reinstated yesterday a conspiracy charge against Columbia-based W.R. Grace & Co. and six former executives in a case involving residents of a Montana town who suffered serious health problems after being exposed to asbestos from a former Grace mine. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco overturned decisions by U.S. District Judge Donald S. Molloy to throw out a conspiracy charge and limit evidence that prosecutors can use to prove the defendants knowingly endangered residents and workers in Libby, Mont.

Some state lawmakers questioned yesterday whether a proposal to bolster the powers of prosecutors to pursue violent gang members was necessary and voiced fears that it would unfairly target people who hadn't committed crimes. The bill would allow local prosecutors to lay out evidence at trial that a crime was ordered or planned by gang leaders. For instance, in a murder case, not only the shooter but also the gang leaders "who called the shots" could face charges of promoting gang-related criminal activity, in addition to charges of solicitation to commit murder or conspiracy, said Queen Anne's County State's Attorney Frank M. Kratovil Jr., who is president of the Maryland State's Attorney's Association.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Maybe the truth isn't as far out there as we thought."X-Files" creator Chris Carter is promising deep revelations in the alien conspiracy that Agents Mulder and Scully have investigated for six seasons now, and they're coming (could this possibly be a coincidence?) during February sweeps."You're going to understand the conspiracy after the end of the two-parter," Carter said Saturday at the winter meeting of the Television Critics Association, where he also indicated that next season would very likely be the series' final one, at least on television.

Life has moved fast for Hilton "Dinkles" Thomas. By age 15, he was selling cocaine for one of Baltimore's most notorious drug lords. By 17, federal prosecutors had linked him to six killings.And yesterday, at age 19, he was sent to prison for the rest of his life."It's always tragic to see a young life thrown away," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert R. Harding said after Thomas' sentencing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. "But this was a very vicious killer that we were determined to see punished for his crimes."

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge sealed all court records yesterday in a $500,000 wrongful eviction lawsuit brought by two former tenants of George A. Dangerfield Jr., a 29-year-old convicted drug dealer who owns more than 125 rental houses in the city.Judge Bonita J. Dancy issued a gag order requested by Dangerfield's lawyers, barring the parties from talking about the case in public. She then took the unusual step of sealing all court records, including tape recordings of yesterday's hearing.

Six members of the East Baltimore Nickel Boys gang, which violently protected the lucrative crack-dealing turf it had staked out in the O'Donnell Heights public housing complex, were convicted in U.S. District Court yesterday of several counts of drug conspiracy, murder conspiracy and federal handgun charges.One battle over turf led to the killing two years ago of Northern High School quarterback Rocco Cash, who was allegedly shot by rival gang members who mistook him for a Nickel Boys enforcer.

Saying he was "absolutely tortured" by the case, a federal judge has acquitted three men accused of being Eastern Shore drug dealers, ruling the government did not prove that they were involved in the conspiracy with which they were charged.Although U.S. District Chief Judge J. Frederick Motz said he was not "suggesting prosecutorial abuse," he expressed concern about the government's growing use of conspiracy statutes, which allow evidence that would not be allowed in other criminal cases.

Sarbanes won't face voters Congressman John Sarbanes, you are a coward. I believe you forgot who elected you. In the article ("Debate rages on," Aug. 8), it is pointed out that you are conducting conference calls instead of meeting your voters in person. Heath care reform is a very important issue throughout our country, not only for our representatives, but for every American citizen. Hiding behind your telephone will do this issue no service. I am a concerned citizen, not part of an organized group, and I plan to be at the town hall meeting Senator Benjamin Cardin is conducting on Monday evening.

It looks like the White House vegetable garden - First Lady Michelle Obama's effort to model healthful eating for the nation - is infested with a pest previously unknown to horticulture. It's the boll weevil of the blogosphere: the conspiracy theorist. Obama detractors are suggesting that the garden on the South Lawn (planted by Mrs. Obama and schoolchildren in March) is fake. The conspiracy theorists claim that, despite a lot of compost and a very rainy spring, the vegetables harvested by the first lady and those same schoolchildren last Tuesday could not have grown so big in just 90 days.

After two full days of deliberation, a federal jury found three men guilty Thursday of multiple murders and of running a lengthy drug conspiracy known as "Special" in Northeast Baltimore. A second phase of the trial will begin Tuesday to determine whether two of the men -Melvin Gilbert, 34, and James Dinkins, 37 - should be put to death. A third defendant, Darron Goods, 24, faces a maximum of life in prison. All three men were found guilty of drug conspiracy, selling heroin, cocaine, crack and marijuana.

A verdict could come as soon as today in a federal death penalty trial alleging vast drug conspiracy and killings by three Baltimore men known on the streets as Melvin, Miami and Moo Man. Jurors began deliberations about 4 p.m. Tuesday. If they convict Melvin Gilbert, 34, and James "Miami" Dinkins, 37, on certain charges, a sentencing phase of the trial would begin next week to determine whether the men should be put to death. A third defendant, 24-year-old Darron Goods, could receive life in prison if found guilty.

Dozens of suspected gang members and drug dealers were arrested Thursday morning after local and federal authorities raided nearly 50 locations across Baltimore - including jail cells - and two sites in California, looking for cash, criminals, guns, heroin and cocaine. The arrests culminated a sweeping, 17-month investigation into Maryland gang activity, intensified by the June abduction and murder of alleged PDL Bloods leader Kenneth Cooper "Cash" Jones, which set off a wave of retaliatory killings last summer.

Boy, 14, struck, killed by train in Laurel Authorities say a teenager has been struck and killed by a freight train in Laurel. Prince George's County police spokeswoman Erica Johnson says 14-year-old Prince Ibrahim Trye was hit early Thursday by a southbound CSX train. Johnson says the teenager was struck near Locust Grove Drive and Baltimore Avenue. She also says there were other children walking with Trye, but it is unclear why the children were near the tracks. Trye attended nearby Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School.

Castroneves cleared of most tax charges auto racing Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves was acquitted Friday of most charges that he worked with his sister and lawyer to evade more than $2.3 million in U.S. income taxes. A federal jury acquitted Castroneves on six counts of tax evasion but was hung on one count of conspiracy. The jury also acquitted Katiucia Castroneves, 35, who is her 33-year-old brother's business manager, on the tax evasion counts but hung on the conspiracy charge.

Willie "Bo" Mitchell, 31, of Baltimore was sentenced to nine life terms plus 60 years in federal prison yesterday for a racketeering conspiracy that involved at least five killings and drug trafficking, Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein announced. According to evidence during a nine-week trial, Mitchell and three other men were members of a violent organization that conspired to commit murder, armed robbery and home invasions from 1994 until August 2006. Mitchell was convicted of two double homicides.

LONDON - An Iraqi doctor who planted car bombs in the heart of London and tried to mount a fiery suicide attack on a Scottish airport last year was found guilty yesterday of conspiracy to commit murder. Bilal Abdulla, 29, was convicted for his role in a terrorist plot that alarmed Britain because of the involvement of a medical professional trained to save lives and because of the carnage that was only narrowly averted when the homemade bombs failed to explode. Abdulla, who was born in Britain but raised mostly in Iraq, was found guilty of joining fellow plotter Kafeel Ahmed in trying to commit murder on what prosecutors called an "indiscriminate and wholesale scale."

Jonathan Luna. Robert Clay. Kenneth N. Harris Sr. A federal prosecutor. A prominent businessman. A former city councilman. Did they all die as simply as authorities say - in eerie succession in 2003, 2005 and 2008 - the first two by suicide, the third in a botched robbery at a jazz club? Or were they killed, as some now claim, as part of a conspiracy to silence those who knew too much about Baltimore's underworld, about how, it is quietly alleged, a culture of drugs and corruption survives and helps build parts of this city while turning the rest into wastelands of addiction and despair?