Felony Murder

A mentally ill homeless man charged with killing a dental student in Baltimore may be set free after a jury acquitted him yesterday of all but one charge. The city Circuit Court jury acquitted David Edward Terry, 39, of second-degree murder, armed robbery and carrying a concealed deadly weapon, among other charges, in the death of Christian W. Ludwig, 26. However, it could not reach a unanimous decision on the count of felony murder because one juror held out for a guilty verdict. But Assistant Public Defender Charles H. Dorsey III said he would ask Judge Albert J. Matricciani Jr. to dismiss the felony murder charge today.

Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected to commute the sentence of a Baltimore man serving a life sentence for murder, using that power for the first time during his tenure. Mark Farley Grant's attorney Renee M. Hutchins confirmed Thursday that she had been notified of O'Malley's decision. The O'Malley administration declined to comment, but an announcement was expected this afternoon. "[The governor] had not to this point granted any clemency requests, so I am extremely grateful to him for exercising his ability to do so in Mark's case," Hutchins said.

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.

It appears that the governor of Maryland, a former prosecutor and Baltimore mayor who built his political career on zero-tolerance crime policies, might finally give birth to a conscience in the matter of Mark Farley Grant - an inmate who went to prison 28 years ago for a crime he most likely didn't commit. It's one thing to be tough on crime, another to be just and fair. In the matter of Farley Grant, the otherwise ambitious governor of Maryland has come late to the latter ... maybe.

A state appeals court has affirmed the felony murder conviction of Troy White, one of four men sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in the slaying of Baltimore County police Sgt. Bruce A. Prothero during a robbery in Pikesville last year. The Court of Special Appeals rejected White's arguments that Circuit Judge John G. Turnbull II should have barred White's confession and any evidence obtained from police wiretaps. White had argued that he asked for an attorney before he confessed, but that detectives tricked him into talking by telling him he was being charged with murder.

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...

An 18-year-old man was convicted of felony murder yesterday in the killing of a father of five who was shot as he tried to flee during a robbery last year in Essex. Robert J. Pittman of the 1600 block of Eastern Ave. also was convicted in Baltimore County Circuit Court of attempted armed robbery and a handgun violation. The jury of eight men and four women deliberated about three hours. Pittman showed no emotion as the verdict was announced, but clutched a Bible that he kept throughout the trial and began to cry as he was escorted from the courtroom by sheriff's deputies.

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.

A Circuit Court judge who sentenced Kevin Michael Briscoe to life plus 30 years for the April 1990 murder of a Columbia woman reduced his sentence yesterday by 20 years.Briscoe, 27, who was convicted of felony murder in the April 1990 death of 44-year-old Pamela Mary Barker, was sentenced to life in prison in April by Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr. Judge Kane also imposed the maximum sentences of 20 years for robbery with a deadly weapon and 10 years for burglary, to be served consecutively.

A Circuit Court jury convicted three men yesterday in the 1999 shooting deaths of five women in a Northeast Baltimore rowhouse, a mass murder that received national attention. In the courtroom, relatives of the victims responded with tears and quiet applause. Some clasped their hands as if in prayer. The men talked to each other, smiled and laughed occasionally as the verdicts were read. One drove several relatives of the victims to tears with a comment as he was led from the courtroom.

John Alexander Wagner was sentenced Friday to life in prison plus 20 years for the 2010 robbery and stabbing death of Stephen Pitcairn, a Johns Hopkins researcher whose murder led to a cry for change in Baltimore. "I am going to show you the same mercy that you showed Mr. Pitcairn," Baltimore Circuit Judge Charles J. Peters said, ignoring a defense request for leniency based on Wagner's troubled upbringing, and sentencing the 38-year-old to maximum, consecutive terms for felony murder and conspiring to rob with a deadly weapon.

It got to the point where the governor of Maryland would anticipate Melvin Bilal's words whenever he saw him. "I know what you're going to say," Martin O'Malley declared each time Mr. Bilal approached him at various public functions over the last five years. "Tarif Abdullah. " Mr. Bilal is a politically savvy Catonsville-based attorney. For several years, he's handled daunting post-conviction matters for men and women serving life sentences in Maryland prisons, including Tarif Abdullah.

A grand jury in Virginia considering charges in the death of Cockeysville resident Yeardley Love indicted her ex-boyfriend on Monday on first-degree and felony murder charges, and a judge set a trial date of Feb. 6. Still, new evidence presented at an April hearing against suspect George Huguely V is raising questions about whether prosecutors can prove the most serious charges at trial and about how the University of Virginia women's lacrosse player...

New charges against George Huguely V, the former University of Virginia lacrosse standout accused of killing fellow student Yeardley Love, are likely to give prosecutors more flexibility in the case, legal experts said Monday. In a brief hearing Monday morning in General District Court, Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman entered the new charges, including one for first-degree felony murder, for the record. He also said he needed more time to examine the more than 100 pieces of evidence gathered by police, and Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. pushed back a preliminary hearing scheduled for Jan. 21. Josh Bowers, a University of Virginia law professor who specializes in criminal law, said in a phone interview that with a felony murder charge prosecutors would not have to prove Huguely went to Love's apartment with the intention of killing her. Even if he simply planned to take her computer, which he did before dumping it in a trash bin, the fact that Love died during an ensuing struggle would be enough to back up the charge.

George Huguely V, accused in the May 3 killing of fellow University of Virginia student and lacrosse player Yeardley Love, will be in court Monday to face five new charges added to the existing first-degree murder charge. Charlottesville District Court records show that Huguely, 22, of Chevy Chase was charged Friday with felony murder, robbery of a residence, burglary, entering a house with an intent to commit a felony and grand larceny. The added charges are part of a recent spate of legal activity in a case that captured national attention after Huguely was accused of killing his former girlfriend, Love, 22, of Cockeysville.

Jurors weighing the case against three men accused of killing former City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris told the judge Wednesday that they could not reach agreement on whether the defendants are guilty of murder. They were instructed to keep trying. The 12 jurors, who have been deliberating since Friday afternoon, told retired Baltimore Circuit Judge David Ross that they had been unable to arrive at a consensus on charges of first-degree felony murder and second-degree murder against Gary Collins, 22, Jerome Williams, 17, and Charles McGaney, 22. The three face more than two dozen charges in the robbery of the New Haven Lounge Sept.

A clerk at Pepe's Pizza who was convicted in June in the slaying of the shop's owner was sentenced yesterday to life without the possibility of parole in Baltimore County Circuit Court. Judge Robert N. Dugan sentenced Martin Hoffman, 40, who was convicted by a jury June 9 of felony murder in the death of Peter Makris. Makris, 72, died of stab wounds July 3 of last year after he confronted someone in the kitchen of the restaurant in the 6000 block of Falls Road, according to testimony.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the trial of three men accused of killing former Baltimore Councilman Kenneth N. Harris will get a last chance on Thursday to convince jurors of the merits of their respective cases. Since the trial began Sept. 13, the jury in Baltimore Circuit Court has listened — sometimes wearily — to a long stream of prosecution witnesses testify in support of the state's contention that Charles McGaney, Gary Collins and Jerome Williams were responsible for the death of Harris, who stopped by a Northeast Baltimore jazz club just as it was about to be robbed at gunpoint and was shot as he tried to flee.

Her son was killed just after he became a Marine. Her daughter was killed as she was beginning a career as a nurse. Now, after more than 12 years of mourning and painful memories, justice has been delivered to the murderers of both of Cherand Monroe's children. The second conviction was Friday. Monroe couldn't bear to visit the courtroom during the latest trial and came only once, when she had to testify. She had to look at the man who had raped and stabbed her daughter, Jerrisha Burton, and left the naked body wrapped in a blue comforter in the back seat of a tan Mercury Cougar parked on Fillmore Street.