Estranged

Anne Arundel County Police used tear gas early Thursday to force a man out of the Hanover home of his estranged wife, police said. Mark Edward McMillan had barricaded himself inside the house in the 7100 block of Ohio Ave. and had threatened to burn it down, police said. Howard County police told Anne Arundel County Police at around 1 a.m. Thursday that a man suspected in a home invasion in Elkridge might be on his way to the home of his estranged wife and might be armed.

A Harford County man charged with first-degree murder in connection with a double-shooting in Port Deposit earlier this year remains jailed in Cecil County while he awaits trial this summer. William Gary Roland, 57, of the 1500 block of Galaxy Drive in Street, allegedly shot and wounded his estranged wife, Eileen L. Roland, 56, of Edgewood, and shot and killed her boyfriend, Timothy S. Hammons, 48, during an altercation with the couple on the evening of Jan. 7 that took place in Mr. Hammons' home in the 200 block of Craigtown Road in Port Deposit.

After deliberating for 15 hours over three days, a Baltimore County jury rejected a 60-year-old woman's insanity defense on Thursday and found her guilty of shooting her estranged husband to death and of trying to kill their teenage daughter. Mary C. Koontz, a former English teacher at Sparrows Point High School, showed no visible reaction in the tense courtroom as the jury's forewoman declared her "guilty" of each of six counts — including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and assault — and answered "yes" to a final question, which asked whether the defendant was criminally responsible for the crimes.

A 35-year-old Beltsville man was being sought Sunday by Howard County Police for allegedly shooting his estranged girlfriend and one of her friends during a suspected domestic dispute at an Ellicott City spa on Saturday, according to police. Tuan Minh Pham, of the 11900 block of Beltsville Drive, has been charged with two counts each of first-degree attempted murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault, as well as reckless endangerment and multiple gun charges in the incident, police said.

A 31-year-old Glen Burnie man was arrested Sunday on multiple assault charges after county police broke up a fight between him and his estranged wife, authorities said yesterday.The argument broke out in the apartment of the estranged wife, Joyce Gates, 37, in the 300 block of Gatewater Court about 7 p.m., police said.Neighbors called police, who arrested John Russell Gates of the 1100 block of Marley Creek Drive outside the apartment.He was charged with assault, assault and battery, assault with intent to murder and malicious destruction.

A 27-year-old Kennedy Krieger Institute worker was shot and killed yesterday as her co-workers watched in horror, Baltimore police said.The woman's estranged husband, Michael Hudgins, 29, of the 2300 block of Longwood Circle in Woodlawn, was charged with first-degree murder and using a handgun in the commission of a felony.Following charges at police headquarters, Mr. Hudgins, a correctional officer at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup, was transported to the Eastern District, where he was held overnight with bail pending a bail review hearing today.

Circuit Judge Wanda K. Heard found a Baltimore man guilty yesterday of second-degree murder in the strangulation of his estranged wife. Steven Anthony Powell, 23, of the 5100 block of Belleville Ave. was found guilty of killing Brandi Logan Powell, 23, on May 23. Prosecutors said Brandi Powell left her estranged husband about five weeks before the killing because he was abusing her. She was planning to annul their 11-month-old marriage, according to...

The estranged wife of former Baylor basketball player Carlton Dotson said yesterday that coaches knew about his increasing mental troubles because they arranged for him to see a therapist this spring. And she said her mother told his coaches that he was "delusional" and needed help. Melissa Kethley, who had separated from Dotson in April, also said in an interview that she witnessed Dotson and other Baylor basketball players faking drug tests and Dotson told her he often got cash from his assistant coaches.

The owner of a Baltimore County electronics company was arrested last night and charged with hiring a hit man to kill his estranged wife - only the hit man was a member of the state police murder-for-hire unit. Charged with solicitation to commit first-degree murder, attempted murder and possession of a handgun was Ermelindo M. Piccinini, 37, owner of E & E Electronics, who lives above the business in the 9400 block of Belair Road, Perry Hall. Maj. Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman, said that in mid-May, Baltimore County police received a tip that a man was willing to pay $10,000 to have his estranged wife killed.

A police officer for the city's Housing Authority pleaded guilty yesterday to assaulting his estranged wife and attempting to murder her boyfriend in January when he shot the man twice.David A. Colson, 29, of the 500 block of N. Decker Ave. in Baltimore was on probation from a previous assault on his wife when he broke into her White Marsh home Jan. 24.He shot Aziz T. Bello and held Alison Colson, the estranged wife, at gunpoint while he ordered her to undress, according to Baltimore County Assistant State's Attorney Stephen Bailey.

A Guatemalan immigrant pleaded guilty Monday in Howard County Circuit Court to two counts of attempted first-degree murder for his role in a fire that authorities said was set at the Elkridge home where his estranged wife lived. Prosecutors said they would argue for a 20-year prison sentence for Santiago Adalpho Gonzalez-Miner, 44, although defense lawyers can seek a lesser sentence, according to T. Wayne Kirwan, spokesman for the Howard County State's Attorney's Office. Gonzales-Miner is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 31. A second defendant, Edvin Giovanni Ceron Reyes, 24, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing next month and a trial in mid-January.

A Baltimore County jury on Thursday found a 60-year-old woman guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of her estranged husband in Glen Arm. Mary C. Koontz was charged in the June 19, 2009, killing of Ronald G. Koontz and with the attempted murder of her daughter, Kelsey, who was 16 at the time. Koontz offered an insanity defense -- essentially asking the jury to find that she was not responsible because she was mentally ill. The jury rejected that argument. She was also convicted of first-degree attempted murder for firing toward her daughter, now 17, but the girl was uninjured.

Both sides have rested in the murder trial of Mary C. Koontz, accused of killing her husband a year ago. The judge presiding over the case, Thomas J. Bollinger Sr., sent the jury home for the long weekend after the last witness testified Friday morning. He asked them to return on Tuesday, when they will hear closing arguments before they begin deliberations. Two mental health experts, one for the defense, the other for the prosecution, provided dueling assessments Thursday of the sanity of the 60-year-old defendant.

For years, the Koontz family — Ron, Mary and their daughter, Kelsey — was a "pretty close-knit" group. Mary Koontz made "awesome sandwiches" for her husband and welcomed her daughter's friends into their "quiet suburban home," Kelsey, now 17, said in court Wednesday. "I could see the love between my parents," Kelsey Koontz said. "My childhood was fine. It was awesome." But in a few short years, she went on, the family's harmony dissolved into mistrust and recriminations, her parents separated, and Mary Koontz went to live in Florida.

A Glen Arm woman accused of shooting her estranged husband to death is mentally ill, her attorney told a jury this morning, going so far as to compare Mary C. Koontz, 60, to John Hinckley Jr. — the man who shot former President Ronald Reagan — during opening arguments. Koontz, whose trial began today, faces seven charges, including first-degree murder and first-degree assault. The prosecution intends to seek a sentence of life in prison without parole. Ronald G. Koontz, a former teacher and wrestling coach at Towson High School who later became an administrator in the Baltimore County school system, was killed June 19, 2009, three days before father's day. Prosecutor Robin S. Coffin told the jury that Mary Koontz flew from Florida where she was living, woke up before 6 a.m. in the Towson hotel where she was staying, took the gun and ammunition she had earlier purchased and went to Glen Arm. There, Koontz parked at an adjoining property and snuck through the woods.

A fugitive task force yesterday joined the search for an Owings Mills man who Howard County police believe has left the state to avoid prosecution in the slaying of his estranged wife.A federal judge in Baltimore issued a fugitive warrant yesterday for Daniel Scott Harney, 40.The Westinghouse Corp. employee disappeared after picking up his sons, ages 8 and 10, from their Ellicott City home Monday afternoon.The boys' mother, Shirley Scott Harney, 41, was found shot in the head at the end of her driveway Monday night.