Federal Prison

An Anne Arundel councilman was sentenced to five months in federal prison Monday on a charge that he failed to file nearly three dozen personal and business tax returns over a six-year period. Councilman Daryl D. Jones, a Democrat from Severn who is a practicing criminal defense attorney, was also sentenced to one year of supervised probation and six months of home detention during an emotionally charged hearing held in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. "This has been an extremely embarrassing and humbling experience," said Jones, speaking to the judge.

A former Baltimore County resident serving a 10-year sentence for armed robbery in federal prison has been named as a suspect in the death of his mother, who was visiting from Russia, a Baltimore County Police Department spokeswoman said Wednesday. Dmitry Yuryevich Pronin, 26, who pleaded guilty in June to robbery and a handgun charge in connection with a bank holdup in Wilmington, Del., has not been charged in his mother's death, but police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said that "the son is the suspect in the case.

John R. McLean, a Salisbury physician, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison Thursday, making him the second cardiologist in the country to face incarceration for implanting unnecessary coronary stents in dozens of patients, then fraudulently billing insurers thousands for the work. A Louisiana doctor was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2009 under similar allegations. And a half-dozen other physicians, including Towson's Dr. Mark G. Midei, are accused in civil lawsuits of overusing stents, though they have not been charged criminally.

A 36-year-old Baltimore cocaine dealer was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Friday, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Antionio Liburd was also ordered to forfeit a semi-automatic handgun and more than $13,000 seized from his home this spring. U.S. District Court Judge Ellen L. Hollander enhanced his sentence after finding that Liburd was a "career offender," with at least four prior drug convictions, the prosecutors' office said. Baltimore police said they found more than 150 baggies of cocaine, containing 20.5 grams of the drug, inside Liburd's truck, and eight more grams hidden in his pants, during a search performed in March.

A 31-year-old Baltimore drug dealer was sentenced to nearly 12 years in federal prison Wednesday for heroin possession with the intent to distribute, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Officers observed Darius Gaskins dealing heroin in October on the corner of South Smallwood and Christian streets, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty earlier this year. His sentence was enhanced because of two prior convictions, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. tricia.bishop@baltsun.com

A 39-year-old Baltimore woman was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison Friday for bank fraud and identity theft, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Phyllis Wilson used her positions working at four assisted living facilities in the Baltimore area to steal identifying information from residents and colleagues — including check books and social security numbers — then bought cell phones, clothes and technology services with it, according to prosecutors.

After five hours of deliberation, a federal jury convicted Antonio "Mack" Hall on Thursday in the retaliation murder of an FBI informant, who told investigators that Hall liked to "bang the gun" and was connected to several drug-related killings in the city. Jurors also found Hall guilty of weapons violations and participating in a seven-year conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine in the tiny southern Baltimore community of Westport, where both he and his victim lived. Hall, 30, shot Kareem Kelly Guest a half-dozen times in September 2009 as Guest pleaded for mercy.

A Baltimore man was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for armed bank robbery, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland said Friday. Randolph Burke Wells, 46, signed a plea agreement with the government for the armed robbery last October of the Harbor Bank of Maryland on W. Fayette Street. Wells was given more than $3,500 in cash after pointing a gun at a teller, the government said. Wells was on supervised release for a previous federal bank robbery conviction when he was arrested last fall.

A former Laurel police officer who pleaded guilty to photographing his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter as she got out of a shower was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for the sexual abuse of a minor. Howard County Circuit Court Judge Diane O. Leasure also sentenced 38-year-old Edward Charles Schmitt to a one-year term for use of a hidden camera. The state sentences will be served concurrently with the seven-year federal sentence Schmitt received earlier on a child pornography charge.