Felony Murder

A Westminster man was sentenced yesterday to life in prison plus 30 years, with the possibility of parole, in a Carroll County Circuit Court case involving first-degree felony murder and attempted second-degree murder in a December 2005 double shooting that resulted in Carroll County's only homicide in two years. Shawn Anthony Jones, 29, was convicted of 11 counts in May, including first-degree felony murder, attempted second-degree murder, attempted armed robbery and first- and second-degree assault.

A Carroll County grand jury voted for murder charges #F yesterday in two recent homicides: the shotgun slayings of a Hampstead man and woman last month, and the death in February of a 6-year-old Westminster girl of an overdose of a prescription pain-killer.In the first case, the grand jurors returned a seven-count indictment against Smith Harper Dean III, including charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of Kent L. Cullison and Sharon L. Mechalske on June 14.In the second, they voted to indict Dianne Lynn Harpster for second-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Bethany Marie Harpster, at their apartment in the 400 block of E. Main St. on Valentine's Day. The 6-year-old girl was found dead the next ** morning after her mother called 911.In April, a state medical examiner ruled the death a homicide and the cause an overdose of Roxicodone, a synthetic narcotic prescribed for pain.

The Carroll County state's attorney has filed formal notices of intent to seek the death sentence against Smith Harper Dean III if he is convicted of the shotgun slayings of a former girlfriend and her date in Hampstead on June 14.It would be the first Carroll County death-penalty case in about four years.A Carroll County grand jury returned a seven-count indictment against Dean on July 10 that included two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Sharon L. Mechalske and Kent L. Cullison.

A Baltimore County judge yesterday sentenced David Lawrence Carlton to life in prison without parole for the 1994 NTC murder of a Perry Hall Christmas tree dealer.A jury found Carlton, 28, guilty Sept. 13 of felony murder in the slaying of Paul Robert Zinkhan, 53, who was found dead from a blow to the head at Christmas time. Detectives found two of Mr. Zinkhan's pockets turned out, indicating an apparent robbery.Baltimore County Assistant State's Attorney Mickey J. Norman called the sentence "appropriate," but Assistant Public Defender Sally Chester, who represented Carlton, said it was excessive.

A teen-ager charged as the gunman in last May's fatal shooting of an off-duty Baltimore police officer was merely trying to scare the officer, not rob him, the defendant's lawyer told a Baltimore Circuit Court jury yesterday."

A teen-ager named by authorities as the gunman in last May's fatal shooting of an off-duty Baltimore police officer was convicted yesterday of first-degree felony murder.A Baltimore Circuit Court jury deliberated for two hours before finding Herbert "Squeaky" Wilson of the 2100 block of E. Biddle St. guilty on all charges in the murder of Officer Herman A. Jones Sr. Officer Jones, 50, was killed in a shootout in a Chinese food carryout in East Baltimore.Wilson, who also was convicted of using a handgun in a violent crime, attempted armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, could receive prison terms totaling life plus 40 years.

A Dundalk man was convicted last night on felony murder charges for participating in a burglary in August that resulted in the grisly death of 44-year-old woman as her husband slept upstairs.The Baltimore County Circuit Court jury deliberated about 7 1/2 hours before finding David Wayne Couch, 27, of the 200 block of St. Helena Ave. guilty of first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary. He will be sentenced July 22.Homicide detectives testified Couch admitted driving the getaway truck and served as a lookout for the man who killed Patricia Jane Kaczynski, 44, of the first block of Liberty Parkway in Dundalk.

A Baltimore County Circuit Court jury took an hour yesterday to convict a New York man of felony murder in the execution-style shooting of a Rosedale drug dealer on Dec. 23, 1991.Presentaci Cartajena, a 21-year-old Puerto Rican native who moved to Brooklyn several years ago, is to be sentenced Aug. 3 by Judge J. Norris Byrnes. The maximum sentence for felony murder is life in prison.The jury found Cartajena not guilty of first-degree premeditated murder in the death of 28-year-old Robert "Trini" Collins.

A Washington man described by prosecutors as the mastermind of the carjacking in which Pam Basu was dragged to her death could face the death penalty after his conviction yesterday of first-degree murder.The Baltimore County jury that convicted Rodney Eugene Solomon, 27, will convene Tuesday in Towson to decide if he should be sentenced to die in the gas chamber or to life in prison.The Circuit Court panel of nine women and three men deliberated about four hours before finding Solomon guilty of premeditated murder and felony murder -- two types of first-degree murder -- for the Sept.

ROCKVILLE -- A Montgomery County jury decided yesterday against sending Jeffrey Damon Ebb, 26, to the gas chamber and instead sentenced him to two life terms without parole for the murders of a popular Catonsville barber and a customer.The jury had convicted Ebb last week of two counts of felony murder for killing James E. Brodie, 57, and Michael S. Peters Jr., 20, during an attempted robbery of Mr. Brodie's barber shop last Nov. 28.The murders disrupted life in the neighborhood surrounding the shop in the 400 block of Winters Lane.

On Monday, the House of Delegates passed a bill that would establish a Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment. The commission, which will have 19 members, is to issue a report by Dec. 15 of this year on at least seven recommendations. Guess what's at the top of the list of recommendations? You'd be right if you guessed "racial disparities," and you'd have guessed that even if you had just beamed in from Planet Dimwit. No. 2 on the list is "jurisdictional disparities." No. 3 is "socio-economic disparities," while "the risk of innocent people being executed" comes in at numero quatro.

Saying that he poses too great a danger to society, prosecutors argued yesterday that convicted killer Brandon T. Morris deserves a death sentence for killing a correctional officer. Washington County Deputy State's Attorney Joseph Michael sought to establish Morris' "future dangerousness" during the opening of sentencing hearings in Howard County Circuit Court. Defense attorney Arcangelo Tuminelli started the proceedings by saying Morris chose to be sentenced by Judge Joseph P. Manck rather than by the jury that convicted him Friday of first-degree murder and other counts in the January 2006 killing of Jeffery A. Wroten in Washington County.

Too little evidence exists to prove that a prison inmate charged with murdering a corrections officer at a Western Maryland hospital in 2006 planned to kill the man, his lawyer told a jury yesterday. However, prosecutors said a witness will testify that Brandon T. Morris crouched over the officer, said, "I'm going to kill you," and shot the man in the face with the officer's state-issued revolver. Whether Morris intended to kill Officer Jeffery A. Wroten emerged as a key issue in the trial, which began yesterday in a Howard County courtroom.

A Westminster man was sentenced yesterday to life in prison plus 30 years, with the possibility of parole, in a Carroll County Circuit Court case involving first-degree felony murder and attempted second-degree murder in a December 2005 double shooting that resulted in Carroll County's only homicide in two years. Shawn Anthony Jones, 29, was convicted of 11 counts in May, including first-degree felony murder, attempted second-degree murder, attempted armed robbery and first- and second-degree assault.

So another Maryland death row inmate is scheduled to take the lethal injection needle. And, again, anti-death penalty activists have yanked out their ever-handy race card. Wesley Baker killed Jane Tyson in 1991 on the parking lot of Westview Mall in Catonsville. Not even the presence of Tyson's two grandchildren deterred Baker. He was sentenced to death for the crime, and his death warrant says he should be executed sometime next week. Baker is black. His victim was white. Death penalty opponents point to that to support their claim that Maryland's death penalty is racist.

Convictions of first-degree murder were overturned yesterday by Maryland's second-highest court for a man sentenced to life in prison without parole in the 1999 killings of five women in a Northeast Baltimore rowhouse, but he will not be going free. In a 36-page decision filed yesterday, the Court of Special Appeals ruled that Baltimore Circuit Judge Joseph P. McCurdy Jr. had failed to give the jury the option of convicting Tariq A. Malik, then 22, of the 1400 block of Kossuth St. of second-degree murder, given evidence at his trial in 2001.

Maryland's highest court ordered a new hearing yesterday in the case of a Baltimore County man convicted of felony murder, saying two black residents might have unlawfully been kept from sitting on the jury that convicted him. In what the defense attorney for Jerome M. Edmonds called an unusual move, the Maryland Court of Appeals said Baltimore County Circuit Judge J. Norris Byrnes must revisit whether prosecutors excluded two potential jurors because they...

Up for debate: Which murder is most heinous? Gregory Kane's column "Homicide data should give death penalty foes pause" (May 22) seeks to justify the racial disparity on Maryland's death row with statistics that show that blacks on death row are not out of proportion to their numbers as offenders in felony murder cases and that whites are more often the victims of felony homicides. Mr. Kane's premise is that these statistics are relevant because felony murder is the most likely way to be death-penalty eligible in Maryland, and perpetrators of felony murder are considered the "most vicious and dangerous."

REMEMBER, when reading these statistics, that it was the death penalty opponents who brought up the subject of race. They're the ones who contend that blacks on Maryland's death row are there in "disproportionate" numbers. The statistics are from a Bureau of Justice study, "Homicide Trends in the U.S.," from 1976 to 1999. Part of the study lists "homicide trends by race," which for our purposes are most revealing. First, a caveat: Statistics can prove almost anything the person using them wants to prove.

Two Glen Burnie men were found guilty of first-degree felony murder yesterday in the October 2000 shooting of a teen-ager in Pasadena. An Anne Arundel County Circuit Court jury deliberated for nearly 12 hours over two days before finding Gerald Carvell Wallace, 24, and Keith Lamont Mallet, 21, guilty in the shooting death of Jerome Isaiah Johnson, 18, of Columbia during an attempted robbery in Pasadena's Freetown neighborhood. Assistant State's Attorney Kathleen E. Rogers said jurors were convinced by physical evidence that corroborated everything the prosecution's witness, George Scott, 24, of Annapolis, said during the trial.