Felon

The envelope was supposed to contain $3,600, cash, to buy 4 ounces of cocaine.Instead, it apparently held a $10 bill, four singles and 61 currency-size clippings from an Avon magazine.The deal, on a dead-end street in the Heritage Hill section of Glen Burnie, ended abruptly with Howard W. Anthony Jr., the supposed buyer, shot dead in the car of his friend who arranged the deal.Who killed Anthony, a 25-year-old Baltimore man, around 10: 50 p.m. on Sept. 15, 1998, has been the subject of a weeklong trial in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court.

Stephen Bailey, chief of the family violence unit in the Baltimore County state's attorney's office, had a problem.A woman had come forward to say that the gunshot wound that left her face half-paralyzed was not an accident, as she had originally told investigators. It was an attack by her boyfriend. But the woman balked at testifying, making chances of a conviction on state assault charges iffy at best.But a review of court records revealed that at the time of the shooting, the boyfriend had been convicted on drug distribution charges.

They met by the side of the road, the victim and the felon. The felon brought groceries. Chicken thighs, ground beef, Little Debbies, soda on sale. More than five years after he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her, the felon gave these things to the victim, along with a roll of cash amounting, by her count, to $28. He asked her to call him in two weeks if she needed more. Then he left.They met on Falls Road, at an animal hospital, because Raymond A. Tubman, a disbarred lawyer who stole his clients' money, could not locate the little apartment where his victim lives.

The owner of a Fells Point gun shop targeted by federal agents has won the right to resume selling handguns after his acquittal on charges he sold a weapon to a woman acting at the behest of a convicted murderer.The not-guilty verdict delivered by a 12-member Circuit Court jury Wednesday marks a defeat in the state's first attempt to convict someone under a 1996 law that prohibits people from buying guns for someone else.Anthony A. DiMartino, the 67-year-old owner of Baltimore Gunsmith Co., was given back his handgun sales permit yesterday.

A convicted felon and admitted con man sought by Baltimore County police since January has been apprehended and is being held in a jail in Texas.Salvatore P. Spinnato was in the Denton County Jail last night awaiting transport to Maryland, according to a Sheriff's Department spokesman in Denton.Spinnato, who has used nearly a dozen aliases, went into the federal witness protection program in the 1970s after being a star witness in a Baltimore public corruption case.At the time he disappeared in January, he was scheduled to be tried in Baltimore County Circuit Court on charges of kidnapping his ex-wife's boyfriend and threatening to kill him.Pub Date: 8/28/97

John C. Dortch, the convicted murderer denied a Maryland law license, is waiting to hear from two other jurisdictions where he has applied before deciding whether to appeal the Maryland ruling.Dortch, 51, is optimistic his applications to practice law will be approved by the West Virginia Supreme Court and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, he said in a telephone interview from Charleston, W.Va., where he is a law clerk. "Right now, I'm hopeful," Dortch said. "At this point, I'm just awaiting word from the other jurisdictions."

A man whose 3-year-old nephew shot himself in the head Tuesday with a gun the man kept under a mattress at their northeast Baltimore home is a convicted felon and faces prosecution in handgun violations, law enforcement officials said yesterday.Devon A. Marshall, 25, of the 3300 block of Kenyon Ave. has been charged with keeping an unsecured firearm within reach of a child, city police said. A warrant obtained by police this month charges him with battery and carrying a handgun, alleged offenses that are unrelated to Tuesday's shooting.

One of Baltimore's top law enforcement officers is criticizing a city court commissioner for setting low bail for a "well-known drug trafficker" charged with assault and handgun violations.Anthony Ayeni Jones, 22, was arrested in the 1600 block of Rutland Ave. in East Baltimore Feb. 19 after his girlfriend told police he had punched her, according to a police report. He was charged with assault, battery, concealing a deadly weapon and illegal possession of a pistol after officers found a loaded Ruger 9 mm handgun around the car Mr. Jones was trying to exit.

A man authorities call one of the city's most elusive drug dealers and a former Baltimore police officer accused of being on his payroll are expected to plead guilty today to federal charges.Anthony Ayeni Jones and the former officer, Erick McCrary, are scheduled to appear this morning before U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis to enter the pleas an hour apart. Jones is expected to plead guilty to being a felon in possession of a handgun; McCrary has arranged to plead guilty to witness tampering, according to court papers.

Judging from outgoing Gov. William Donald Schaefer's recent pardons, common folks can be forgiven if they jump to the conclusion that politicians and their friends get special treatment.First it was a posthumous pardon for S&L felon -- and big-time political bankroller -- Jerome Cardin. Then it was a pardon for the sexually exploitative ex-Baltimore County state's attorney, Samuel A. Green. Now it is a pardon for twice-convicted political thief and escaped felon Tony Cicoria, a former councilman from Prince George's County.

Authorities say Terrell Allen was a Baltimore drug kingpin who kidnapped the teenage brothers of an alleged rival in 2008 and returned them for a half-million-dollar ransom, launching a string of retaliatory shootings that has continued right up until this summer. But his attorney denies the allegations, and Allen has never been formally charged with any of them. Instead, he was convicted Tuesday on the easiest thing to prove: possession of ammunition, a federal offense for a felon like Allen, who has prior convictions for manslaughter and drugs and has beaten dozens of other charges, including murder.

The president of the Pagan motorcycle club in Maryland was sentenced yesterday to 21/2 years in federal prison and three years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of 19 guns, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. The man, Jay Carl Wagner, 67, of Hagerstown was prohibited from owning firearms because of a previous conviction of resisting arrest, according to the news release. Maryland State Police officers watched Wagner walk out of his home May 9, 2007, with a handgun, according to Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein's office.

A 28-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to more than 15 years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a gun, according to the U.S. attorney's office. U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. sentenced Michael Martin to 188 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, according to federal prosecutors. Quarles increased Martin's sentence after determining he was an armed career criminal, based on previous drug convictions and a conviction for assault with intent to murder.

Harford deputy assaulted An off-duty Harford County sheriff's deputy was assaulted and robbed by two men while walking on a bike trail in Belcamp this week, authorities said. The Sheriff's Office is not identifying the deputy, who is assigned to the detention center, because of safety concerns, said spokeswoman Monica A. Worrell. The deputy was walking to a gas station about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 1300 block of Riverside Parkway when he was assaulted, officials said. There were no weapons involved in the attack and the deputy was not taken to the hospital, Worrell said.

Someone should have been watching Nolan L. Evans. On a night in April 2006 when court records show he was supposed to have been secured inside a halfway house, authorities charge that the convicted felon was able to shoot a man in Northwest Baltimore. Months later, the man died from his injuries. The little-publicized homicide case, scheduled for trial this week, could be another blow to Volunteers of America's Comprehensive Sanction Center. The Sun reported last month that during a spot-check in April 2007, 10 inmates were discovered missing from the halfway house and that two probationary employees suspected of accepting bribes from those inmates were fired as a result.

A 32-year-old felon from Baltimore received a decade-long prison sentence yesterday in federal court for possessing a gun. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Cornell Vincent, 32, to the prison term followed by three years of supervised release after he was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to testimony presented by prosecutors at his trial, Baltimore police officers saw Vincent on March 4, 2005, coming out of an alley and drinking an alcoholic beverage.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Once he posed in a Superman shirt for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. On Monday he stood in a courtroom and later in a hotel ballroom, no longer invulnerable or impervious, an NFL superstar revealed as all too human. On the day he became a convicted felon, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick indicated that he, perhaps contrary to popular belief, has both a heart and a conscience. When he turned toward his family after court was adjourned, his look was one of abject shame.

A 29-year-old man was sentenced yesterday to nearly 20 years in prison after being convicted by a jury of being a felon in possession of a handgun, federal prosecutors said. Darryl Harcum had been convicted eight times in state court of crimes that include distribution of heroin, distribution of cocaine and assault, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Maryland. Prosecutors said that testimony during Harcum's two-day trial in U.S. District Court in Baltimore showed that a city police officer responded to the 1200 block of Braddish Ave. on Jan. 26, 2006, for a report of gunfire.

In 2004, Baltimore prosecutors secured a prison sentence of five years without parole for Robert Looney, a city man who had been convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. So why did Looney, an attempted murder suspect who barricaded himself in a West Baltimore neighborhood Tuesday, walk out of prison after serving just over three years? It's because "five years without parole" tells only part of the story. Like all inmates, Looney was able to earn "diminution credits" for good behavior, working and education.

Sacramento, calif. -- Tasty meals. A room with a view. Cable TV. In one of the more unusual marketing campaigns undertaken by state government, California prison officials are asking inmates to bid adieu to their cellmates and transfer to lockups elsewhere in the country. As part of the recruitment drive, wardens are screening a film extolling the virtues of out-of-state prisons - and reminding convicts of the violent, overcrowded, racially charged conditions they face in California. "You get 79 channels here - ESPN!"