Defense Attorneys

Constantine James "Kit" Sfekas has been a Howard County District Court judge for less than five months, but he has already experienced the toughest part of his job: sentencing defendants to jail."

Baltimore County Circuit Judge Dana M. Levitz yesterday ordered a psychiatrist to examine Rose Mary Fisher, after her lawyer said Fisher suffers from a mental disorder and is not competent to stand trial in the death of her younger sister.Rita Denise Fisher, 9, starved to death in June. Rose Mary Fisher is set for trial April 8 with her mother, Mary E. Utley, 50, and Rose Mary Fisher's boyfriend, Frank E. Scarpola Jr., 22, on charges of murder and child abuse.This month, Mary Utley dropped her insanity claim that she was not criminally responsible for her actions at the time her youngest daughter died.

The high-profile death-penalty retrial of Scotland E. Williams, which culminated in Friday's sentence of life in prison without parole for two murders, is raising critical questions that other defendants also face, defense lawyers say."There are issues that have come up in this case that I see as having a potential for trouble," said Nancy M. Cohen, one of Williams' three public defenders.The biggest issue, now in a federal appellate court, has piqued the interest of defense attorneys in the state because it challenges the FBI, whose expertise local law enforcement agencies turn to routinely.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- The stage was set yesterday. Thomas Capano was building to the moment when, finally, he would explain under oath what happened that night 2 1/2 years ago when his girlfriend was killed in his home and he stuffed her body into an ice cooler and dumped it into the ocean the next day.But, as has happened so often in the tumultuous, eight-week trial, yet another disruption left the proceedings up in the air: a sudden request by defense attorneys...

The trial of three Florida brothers accused of savagely killing two Columbia men on spring break this year will be delayed until June because prosecutors and defense attorneys are seeking DNA evidence.In a hearing Monday, a Florida judge granted a request by prosecutors to test the blood of the three men charged in the April slayings of Kevans Hall II, 23, and Matthew Wichita, 21, at a resort in New Smyrna Beach, Fla.That judge also ordered, at the request of defense attorneys, blood samples from two men who have pleaded guilty to attempted murder charges in the slayings, officials said.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Diane Zamora probably could not have inflicted two of the wounds that contributed to 16-year-old Adrianne Jones' death, a medical examiner testified yesterday, boosting defense attorneys' contention that Zamora was present when Jones was killed but did not help kill her.Tarrant County medical examiner Marc Krouse, who performed the autopsy on Jones, said a severe wound to Jones' head was probably caused by the butt of a Makarov 9-mm...

BOSTON -- While Louise Woodward served the second day of her life sentence in prison, one juror in the case said the panel probably would have convicted the 19-year-old au pair of manslaughter, rather than second-degree murder, if the jury had been given that option.The woman, who spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity, said the jury believed Woodward's behavior fit the criteria for murder: intending to cause 8-month-old Matthew Eappen harm. But she admitted it would have been easier to find Woodward guilty of manslaughter, if only because it was so heart-wrenching to send a teen-ager away for life.

After months of debate touching on race, command and coercion at Aberdeen Proving Ground, court-martial proceedings open today with a key challenge to the Army's handling of the sexual misconduct investigation -- on the talk-show circuit and in the interrogation room.Defense attorneys will charge that a zealous public campaign by Army Secretary Togo West and other top officials has improperly influenced the courts-martial -- a quirk of military justice known as "unlawful command influence."

A Circuit Court jury acquitted a Columbia man this week of charges he fondled a 15-year-old Laurel girl while posing as a professional photographer.Jurors deliberated 90 minutes before acquitting 29-year-old Richard Charles of child abuse, sex-offense and battery charges in the first of six similar cases.Circuit Judge James B. Dudley ruled Monday that the cases would be tried separately, a move that prosecutors said significantly harmed their case.During the trial, prosecutors presented a May 1995 confession that Mr. Charles signed, admitting that he touched the teen-ager's genital area.

The Maryland Court of Appeals overturned yesterday the double-murder conviction of Scotland E. Williams, ordering a new trial for the condemned Arnold man in the May 1994 slayings of two prominent Washington lawyers.The state's highest court ruled unanimously that Williams was unfairly convicted last year on charges that he murdered Jose Trias and his wife, Julie Gilbert. The two were found dead in their Annapolis weekend home, hand-cuffed and shot in the head."Mr. Williams is once again presumed to be innocent," said Michael Braudes, a public defender who argued the Williams case before the Court of Appeals.

How will Lipscomb hold up? Ronald H. Lipscomb is perhaps the most important figure in the trial, other than Dixon herself. Her former boyfriend and a pivotal figure for both the defense and the prosecution, Lipscomb is participating in the case after pleading guilty to exceeding campaign finance limits in a separate case and agreeing to cooperate with state prosecutors. He is expected to say the mayor solicited gift cards for charity, as prosecutors try to prove she stole money by using the gift cards herself.

Man who died in city fire identified 2 City Fire Department officials have identified a man who died in a fire in the Mondawmin neighborhood of West Baltimore early Thursday, a spokesman said. Firefighters responded to reports of a fire in a house in the 2000 block of N. Smallwood St. just before 5 a.m., city fire spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright said. After extinguishing the blaze, rescuers found the body of Willie James, 75, the spokesman said. Fire investigators were working to determine the cause of the blaze.

Attorneys for the teenager accused of shooting a 5-year-old girl in Southwest Baltimore plan to call the vendor for the state juvenile services' GPS ankle-monitoring system as a defense witness to show that the device provides an alibi. Defense attorneys also contend that at least three witnesses interviewed by police, including a 17-year-old also shot in the incident, identified a different person as the shooter but that police ignored their statements. Police have said that Lamont Davis, who had been arrested 15 times as a juvenile, was wearing a GPS ankle bracelet that police cut off when he was arrested in the shooting about 4 p.m. July 2. The case has raised questions about the effectiveness of the monitoring technology, a top priority of Gov. Martin O'Malley.

State prosecutors in the City Hall corruption cases defended their investigation of Baltimore's mayor, arguing they did not abuse the grand jury process when they issued three subpoenas this summer before dismissing their initial indictment of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon. Deputy State Prosecutor Thomas "Mike" McDonough contends in court papers filed Friday that new investigative material brought to a Baltimore grand jury after Dixon's original indictment in January supported the second set of indictments that were brought against Dixon in July.

Mayor Sheila Dixon will go to trial Nov. 9 on charges of theft and perjury, and plans to enter a not-guilty plea, according to her lawyers. State prosecutors and defense attorneys for Dixon hammered out a new schedule for her case after a Baltimore grand jury handed up two new indictments against the mayor last week. At a court hearing Wednesday morning, prosecutors dropped the original indictment against Dixon, which like the new case stems from allegations that she stole gift cards intended for the needy and failed to report gifts she received on city ethics forms.

The City Hall corruption case against Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and other officials could widen to include additional development projects, one of several fresh details revealed Thursday when prosecutors and defense attorneys met in open court for the first time. Lawyers for developer Ronald H. Lipscomb said prosecutors are interested in his involvement in three city projects not previously targeted in January's indictment: Orchard Ridge, Frankford Estates and Uplands. Lipscomb's contracting company, Doracon, worked on all three ventures.

A 16-year-old girl was cleared yesterday in juvenile court of the most serious charges in connection with the beating of a teacher that was captured on a cell phone camera and drew national attention to violence in Baltimore schools, a case that turned on testimony that the teacher might have provoked the fight. Circuit Judge Paul A. Smith said he was "appalled" by the conduct of the student and of the art teacher, Jolita Berry. He said evidence presented by prosecutors and defense attorneys came out "evenly balanced," leading to an acquittal for the student on criminal assault charges and a related charge of school violence.

The 2006 trial of Adan Canela and Policarpio Espinoza was one of the longest in Baltimore history - stretching two months and including 21 days of testimony about the near-beheadings of three of their young relatives. The jury passed 31 notes to the judge before finding the men guilty. But yesterday, attorneys for Canela and Espinoza were back in court for an unusual proceeding that could get their clients a new trial. They allege that retired Circuit Judge David B. Mitchell never shared some of those jury notes with defense attorneys.

Baltimore taxpayers could foot the bill for Mayor Sheila Dixon's legal fees under a new policy being drafted by the city law department. The city's top attorney, Solicitor George A. Nilson, said he offered to research whether city officials could be repaid for costs associated with a lengthy investigation into City Hall corruption after a conversation with Dixon and others last summer. "I looked at the prior record and realized that there wasn't any clear policy," Nilson said. "I just thought it made a whole lot of sense to spell it out."

Two Baltimore defense attorneys have withdrawn requests for a court order that would have barred attorneys and police officers from publicly discussing the case against the two men accused of killing former City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr. Attorneys for The Baltimore Sun, WBAL-TV and WJZ-TV had opposed the gag order in filings in District Court this week. A hearing on the dispute was scheduled this morning, but late yesterday, Assistant Public Defender Maureen Rowland and defense attorney Jan Bledsoe withdrew their requests.