Ex Wife

On the day David L. Holland was arrested in the killing of his ex-wife almost a year ago, he told police, "I care for my ex-wife very much. People say my wife is afraid of me. That's a lie. I am not a murderer."Today, Holland, 40, goes on trial in Baltimore County Circuit Court, accused of killing Francesca A. Holland -- a woman he met in prison when she was working as a volunteer to help prisoners and he was serving time for rape and robbery.Francesca Holland, 58, was deputy director of Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland at the time of her death.

A Baltimore County prosecutor gave a jury a long list of evidence yesterday -- including fingerprints, blood samples, /^ clothing and stolen merchandise -- that she says links David L. Holland to the killing of his ex-wife, whom he met while she was a prison volunteer and he was doing time for rape and robbery.In opening statements in David Holland's murder trial, Assistant State's Attorney Robin Coffin said that when police found Francesca A. Holland's strangled body in the trunk of her car outside David Holland's Essex home in February, they also found his fingerprints and a hat belonging to her ex-husband in the car.Blood taken from a coat he wore also is likely Francesca Holland's, Coffin said.

County Councilman Thomas W. Redmond has struck a deal with a bank that should keep him out of jail despite his failure to clean up a financial mess surrounding an apartment house he owns.An attorney for the Pasadena Democrat told Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner yesterday that First Union National Bank had agreed to refinance Redmond'sthree-unit building in Ocean City that was cited for building code violations before it burned Jan. 24 and went into foreclosure.Lawyer Michael Demyan said the refinancing would cost Redmond about $26,000 but would meet a court requirement that Redmond remove his ex-wife's name from the building's mortgage, as he promised to do nine years ago in their divorce agreement.

ON FEB. 28, I went to court in my chronic battle to get the state to stop threatening me with jail for the crime of not earning as much money as my ex-wife thinks I should.On the advice of "my" attorney, a young lady from the Public Defender's Office, I pleaded guilty to failure to pay child support as ordered and paid $1,520 to my ex-wife (money borrowed from a friend) to stay out of jail. I must come up with another $1,000 by the end of April -- and pay $130 per week in child support for the next three years even if I become ill or can't work for other reasons, or my probation will be revoked and I will go to jail for three years.

"I Want to Tell You," O.J. Simpson titled his book and, indeed, it's what he wants to tell you, not necessarily what you want to know.Arriving in stores yesterday, Mr. Simpson's book comes as his trial in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman concludes an opening week of heated arguments and stuttering delays.The 208-page book, which retails for $17.95, won't stop any presses with shocking confessions or revealing insights by the man whose case has riveted the nation, or at least its media.

Television and radio broadcaster Tom Davis will have to pay his ex-wife $20,000, according to a Baltimore County jury verdict a civil trial of her charges that he grabbed and choked her.Circuit Judge John F. Fader II granted a divorce in May to end the 21-year marriage of M. Thomas and Linda Davis, but ordered her assault and battery case against the Home Team Sports and WQSR-FM radio personality tried separately as a civil action.Mrs. Davis of Reisterstown said that her husband grabbed and choked her three times and twice pulled her out of their daughter's bedroom, where she was sleeping last year after their marriage fell apart.

It's the holiday season -- that time of year when families gather together in love and celebration.Or, maybe not.In NBC's "Take Me Home Again," it's mainly maybe not.The film, which will air tomorrow night at 9 on WMAR (Channel 2), stars Kirk Douglas and Craig T. Nel son in the story of an estranged son and a dying father coming together after a 20-year silence between them. As one family member puts it, the son went AWOL not only from the Army during the Vietnam War years, but from his family, too.The good news is that the film is written by Ernest Thompson, who wrote on "On Golden Pond."

One of the classiest television series ever has one of the classiest reunions in a long time at 9 tomorrow night on WBAL (Channel 11)."The Rockford Files: I Still Love L.A." is probably the best TV you'll see this November, although that might be damning it with faint praise.The 1970s private eye, Jim Rockford (James Garner), is still living in a house trailer on the beach, still beset by a friendship with Angel Martin (Stuart Margolin) and still driving Lieutenant Becker (Joe Santos) crazy.

A Virginia man who prosecutors say came to Howard County with the intention of killing his cousin was found guilty yesterday of the June 1991 murder of the man at the Jessup hotel room of his ex-wife.A Howard Circuit Court jury of eight women and four men deliberated about nine hours before reaching its verdict in the case of Adel George Hagez, 45, of Richmond, Va.Hagez was convicted of first-degree murder and a weapons charge in the slaying of Riad S. Hijaz, also of Richmond. Police said Mr. Hijaz was the boyfriend of Mr. Hagez's then ex-wife.

Q: My ex-wife married a man who appeared on the scene only a month ago. She said she was married civilly and plans a church wedding in the future. My concern is for our kids, 9 and 12. We have joint custody -- alternating every two weeks. (I think she told me the part about the church wedding so that she could live with her friend until then, with the kids in tow.)I wish her well, but the children do not know this man. I myself have never met him. Should I be worried?A: Concern is more fitting here, since you are not a long-distance parent and will be with your children two weeks out of every month to check on their welfare and provide stability.

The ex-wife of a Glen Arm man entered his home Friday morning and shot him several times before the 66-year-old chased his attacker out of the house, tackled her and held the woman until officers arrived, Baltimore County police say. By late afternoon, Ronald G. Koontz died of his injuries after undergoing surgery at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Police said Koontz was shot in the stomach and a hand inside his home in the first block of Manor Springs Court. Koontz's teenage daughter was inside the home at the time and called 911 about 6:15 a.m., according to police.

An Anne Arundel County man who videotaped himself and his ex-wife in a sex act without her consent was spared jail time yesterday. William A. Hendry IV, 38, of Edgewater pleaded guilty to one count of illegal wiretapping before Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge William C. Mulford II, who sentenced him to a six-month suspended sentence, with one year of supervised probation. Hendry pleaded not guilty in January to two counts of illegal wiretapping and was scheduled to go to trial next week.

An Anne Arundel County man pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that he videotaped himself and his ex-wife in a sex act without her knowledge. William A. Hendry IV, 38, of Edgewater has been charged with two counts of illegal wiretapping; he is accused of producing a videotape and recording cell phone conversations without his ex-wife's consent between September 2005 and late 2007 at his former home in Pasadena, according to court documents. After making the tapes, Hendry contacted his ex-wife's husband to say he had proof that the woman was cheating on him, according to court records.

On August 4, 2006 ROY LEE; father of John Hoover and wife Carole, Renee Hoover and friend Chad Slivenski, Michael Hoover, Cindy Bortner and Susanne Smith; brother of Gene, Patricia, Bruce and Brian Hoover; grandfather of Rachel Lowe, Lorin and Luke Hoover. Also survived by ex-wife Doris Ann Kirk. Funeral Service at ECKHARDT FUNERAL CHAPEL, P.A., 11605 Reisterstown Road, Owings Mills on Monday 10 A.M. Interment in Druid Ridge Cemetery. Friends may call Sunday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M.

Ralph Manna gunned down his ex-wife's friend and shot two more people, and that wasn't enough. He later tried to have his ex-wife and their son killed from his prison cell. But appearing in federal court in Baltimore yesterday to be sentenced for trying to hire a hit man, Manna said he doesn't understand why his family still considers him a pariah. "I'm glad to see you, Barbara and Raymond," he said, turning around to face his ex-wife and their son, now an FBI agent. "I wish Raymond would stop having this grudge for nine years, whatever it is."

A former Montgomery County developer will be heading back to state prison for another five years for making death threats against a Mount Airy couple, one of whom is his ex-wife, according to Carroll County prosecutors. Charles Samuel Shapiro, 65, formerly of Bethesda, was paroled in June 2003 on his conviction in Montgomery County Circuit Court for hiring a moonlighting Prince George's County police officer who twice tried to shoot Shapiro's cousin in a 1993 business dispute. Months after his parole, Shapiro made death threats against his ex-wife and her husband at their Mount Airy home, according to records in his conviction in Carroll County Circuit Court for telephone misuse, a misdemeanor.

An Ellicott City man once wanted by the FBI for faking his identity as a dentist was being held without bail yesterday at the Howard County Detention Center after turning himself in Saturday, claiming he had killed his ex-wife, Howard County police said. Ghafour "Billy" Asemani, 38, walked into police headquarters about 8 a.m. and told the officer at the front desk that he had killed Samira Salmassi, 38, the mother of his three children, that morning during an argument in which he struck her with a tape recorder and "placed his hands around her neck," according to court records.

A Columbia man was being held on $500,000 bail after he was accused of shooting at his ex-wife, biting off part of her lip and assaulting their 6-year-old son at a Columbia apartment complex, a Howard County police spokeswoman said yesterday. Police charged Fernando Alphonso Carr, 42, of the 7200 block of Calm Sunset, with attempted second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, and reckless endangerment in the incident Tuesday night, said Cpl. Lisa Myers, the spokeswoman. Police responded to the complex in the 5500 block of Columbia Road in Dorsey's Search village about 7:46 p.m. after receiving reports from neighbors of shots fired and screaming and crying at an apartment, police said.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, who was once exalted as the "Mother of the Nation," was sentenced yesterday to five years in jail with one year suspended after being convicted Thursday of dozens of charges of theft and fraud. Madikizela-Mandela, 66, who immediately issued a statement saying she would resign from Parliament and from posts in the governing African National Congress, had faced as many as 15 years in jail on 43 counts of fraud and 25 counts of theft.

Exceeding state guidelines, an Anne Arundel County judge handed down a 25-year prison sentence yesterday to a barber who nearly killed his ex-wife with a golf club in a rage in front of their children. Circuit Judge Joseph P. Manck told David Keith Clark that he did not believe the Laurel man's contention that he showed up uninvited at his ex-wife's doorstep at 9:30 p.m. June 17 with a Ping golf putter in hand to play miniature golf with his children. The judge said David Clark's visit was marked by an "evil intention."