Dontay

The eminent philosopher and jailbird Dontay Carter now find himself in an awkward position. He's had his 15 minutes of infamy and now must spend the remainder of his life wondering where everything went wrong.In Baltimore Circuit Court Tuesday, the 20-year-old convicted murderer, kidnapper, escapee and deep thinker on race relations did the one thing attorneys always caution their clients against: Too much talking.In a bitter, rambling, combative discourse on his life and philosophy, Carter inadvertently showed everyone his own pain, which he will carry for the rest of his years.

Anne Arundel County prosecutors have dropped murder charges against a Brooklyn Park teenager accused in a November killing after a key witness who was scheduled to testify in the case was killed. Lamal Lamonte Wise, 18, was released Friday after prosecutors determined their case was too weak without the testimony of Dontay Williams, the state's attorney's office said yesterday. "Unfortunately, with the death of Mr. Williams came the death of our crucial piece of evidence in the case," said Kristin Riggin, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office.

The brazen escape Monday of Dontay Carter, a 19-year-old convicted killer who fooled two prison guards and leaped from a bathroom window of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse downtown prompted the city's biggest manhunt since 1964. He was re-captured late yesterday.Those pursued nearly three decades ago were the Veney brothers, who had killed a police sergeant and wounded a lieutenant during and after a Christmas eve holdup of a liquor store. Police canvassed neighborhoods, searching houses and questioning anyone who bore the slightest resemblance to the suspects.

Leon N. Tomlin, a retired city police commander who successfully fought 1970s drug traffickers and later led security for Pope John Paul II's Oct. 8, 1995 visit, died Wednesday of a heart attack at Garrett County Memorial Hospital in Oakland. The Deep Creek Lake resident, who lived for many years in Northeast Baltimore's Hamilton, was 63. Among the highlights of his 38 years in the city Police Department -- he rose through the ranks to be a deputy commissioner, the department's second-in-command -- was his role in the 1992 capture of killer Dontay Carter, whose car and hostage Mr. Tomlin spotted.

The eggbeater whoop-whoop-whoop of helicopters could be heard over the tightly packed houses. Cherry-red police lights sliced the darkness. Residents checked and re-checked their door locks and stole glimpses out their windows in search of a person they hoped they'd never see.The Dontay Carter manhunt in Baltimore? No.This was the scene a few weeks ago in a suburban enclave near Bel Air. A police chase of a stolen vehicle on Interstate 95 led the armed thieves into a neighborhood off the highway.

Escaped murderer Dontay Carter was captured hiding under a bedsheet.Ironically, that's the same reaction many of us had, figuratively at least, to the news that Carter had escaped. Even in a region that buries enough homicide victims yearly to populate a small town, few individuals summon the thunderhead of fear that this 19-year-old has. He gets full-name treatment in the headlines -- -- "Dontay Carter escapes" -- because he's become an almost mythical symbol for the ills of a city and a region.

Dontay Carter, an East Baltimore teen-ager accused of murder and kidnapping in a February crime spree, was hauled into court yesterday and ordered to provide samples of his handwriting.Preparing for an Oct. 2 trial date for Carter and three co-defendants, prosecutors will compare the samples obtained yesterday with what they believe are the forged signatures of slaying victim Vitalis V. Pilius.Carter had faced a contempt-of-court charge after refusing to cooperate with a state police handwriting specialist when taken to the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit Aug. 6.Handcuffed and shackled, and wearing tan pants and a floral-print shirt, Carter, 19, was led yesterday up a flight of stairs into the jury room adjacent to Baltimore Circuit Judge John N. Prevas' courtroom.

Four state troopers have been disciplined mildly for failing to "go a step further" to arrest Dontay Carter, 18, who allegedly identified himself twice by showing the doctored driver's license of a 37-year-old Catonsville man he is accused of killing.One of the troopers, who was given a two-day suspension without pay for neglect of duty, has requested an administrative hearing, state Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services Bishop L. Robinson said yesterday.Mr. Robinson said another trooper was ordered to undergo guidance and counseling; another to undergo remedial training.

At a critical moment in the police interrogation of Dontay Carter, homicide Detective Donald Steinhice rose from his chair to hit the teen-age suspect in a tender spot -- his ego.Convinced that Carter was lying when he initially tried to pass the blame for Vitalis V. Pilius' death to a youth known as "Tom Boh," the detective said: "In other words, you ain't s," according to testimony yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court."

Gov. William Donald Schaefer ordered "a full investigation into Dontay Carter's escape from a Baltimore courthouse yesterday and vowed to fire any corrections worker found negligent in guarding the 19-year-old convicted killer.Mr. Schaefer, who spent the day in Pittsburgh, landed at Baltimore-Washington International Airport just after 5 p.m. to be greeted with news of Carter's jump through a bathroom window.Already, the phones in the State House were ringing with calls from citizens angry and worried that Carter -- convicted in a murder and two kidnappings and on trial for a third abduction -- was back on the streets."

Dontay Jackson isn't sure which part of his life has been hardest. After thinking about it for a moment, the West Baltimore 18-year-old settles on this: everything. He didn't have enough to eat at home growing up and would sometimes get by on toast - maybe with jelly - between trips to local soup kitchens. He has slept in the back of a pickup truck because his mother's boyfriend got mad and kicked him and his brothers and sisters out of the house. His father has been all but absent. And he watched several of his eight siblings make bad choices: getting pregnant, dropping out of school or ending up in trouble with the law. Dontay could easily have made bad choices, too. But instead, the senior at Edmondson-Westside High School is on his way to four free years of study at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Dontay Carter, the Baltimore killer who once made an infamous escape by leaping out of a judge's bathroom window, told members of a jury yesterday that they should blame him and not a notorious drug gang for the attempted murder of his half brother.Carter, 24, serving two consecutive life sentences plus 119 years for a murder and kidnapping spree, testified for the defense as a huge federal racketeering trial winds down. The Anthony Jones organization is suspected in a dozen killings, and nine of the ring's alleged lieutenants are on trial in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

No one would have blamed the members of Franklin's softball team if their minds had not been on the game yesterday.Just a few hours before the start of the Class 3A North region final against visiting Eastern Tech, the players attended the funeral of Franklin senior Dontay Yarbrough, a guard on the basketball team who was killed in an automobile accident last week.Once the game began, however, the 10th-ranked Indians were ready to play. Kara Wingate pitched a three-hitter and Missy King hit a home run to lead Franklin to a 4-1 victory.

Oh! somewhere in this favored land, the sun is shining bright;A band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;But there is no joy in your house -- on All-Star tickets, you struck out.You did, didn't you? Like Casey at the Bat, we've all struck out, all but the 46,000 or so who'll defy the humidity and the high prices and squeeze into Oriole Park at Camden Yards for tonight's All-Star Game.But wait! Help is on the way!

A state administrative law judge has upheld the firings of two Baltimore City Detention Center correctional officers who were responsible for guarding convicted murderer Dontay Carter when he escaped from a courthouse bathroom."

Convicted murderer Dontay Carter gave quite a impassioned speech on racism and crime at his sentencing hearing in Baltimore Circuit Court Tuesday: He complained that black people, particularly young black men like himself, remain enslaved by society, no matter what the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says.He charged that there are two systems of justice in America -- one for blacks and one for whites; and that people accused of killing whites are treated much more harshly than those who kill blacks.

A former MVA clerk said yesterday she felt sorry for Dontay Carter when she issued him a fraudulent driver's license in slaying victim Vitalis V. Pilius' name."

Convicted murderer Dontay Carter gave quite a impassioned speech on racism and crime at his sentencing hearing in Baltimore Circuit Court Tuesday: He complained that black people, particularly young black men like himself, remain enslaved by society, no matter what the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says.He charged that there are two systems of justice in America -- one for blacks and one for whites; and that people accused of killing whites are treated much more harshly than those who kill blacks.

The eminent philosopher and jailbird Dontay Carter now find himself in an awkward position. He's had his 15 minutes of infamy and now must spend the remainder of his life wondering where everything went wrong.In Baltimore Circuit Court Tuesday, the 20-year-old convicted murderer, kidnapper, escapee and deep thinker on race relations did the one thing attorneys always caution their clients against: Too much talking.In a bitter, rambling, combative discourse on his life and philosophy, Carter inadvertently showed everyone his own pain, which he will carry for the rest of his years.

Before being sentenced yesterday to life in prison with no chance for parole -- plus another life term plus another 190 years -- a defiant Dontay Carter turned to widow Aldona Pilius to offer his views on race relations and crime in the city."