First Degree Murder

The 19-year-old man charged with fatally stabbing Dennis Lane allegedly told investigators that his girlfriend had instructed him to kill her father and his fiancee, specifying the number of times each was to be stabbed in the throat - 10 for him and 15 for her. Jason Anthony Bulmer charging documents In a conversation at school hours before the Ellicott City blogger and businessman was killed, Jason Anthony Bulmer said, 14-year-old Morgan...

City police have charged a 22-year-old man in a double shooting over the weekend in Southwest Baltimore that killed a 42-year-old woman.  Gerald Gaffney, of the 3500 block of W. Garrison Ave., is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and armed robbery counts, court records show. A motive was not immediately disclosed by police, though the charges indicate a robbery. Police said officers were called to the 2700 block of Kinsey Ave. at about 6:45 p.m. for a report of a shooting, and found a 33-year-old man suffering gunshot wounds to his arms.

The 21-year-old college student allegedly told detectives that he hadn't just killed the man who'd lived with his family for months, but had eaten his heart and portions of his brain. The victim's severed head and hands were found in the men's Harford County home; more remains were left in a trash container outside a church. Authorities outlined the macabre circumstances Thursday in charges against Alexander Kinyua, an electrical engineering major at Morgan State University and member of his school's ROTC program, of first-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie, a Ghanaian national and a former master's degree student.

A German native who consorted for years with New England's social elite by pretending to be a Rockefeller was convicted Wednesday in Los Angeles of first-degree murder, capping a nearly three-decade-old mystery involving a missing couple and a body buried in a Southern California backyard. Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, 52, was accused of bludgeoning his landlady's adult son with a blunt object, then digging a 3-foot-deep grave in the backyard of the victim's home in San Marino. The body was buried behind a guest house where Gerhartsreiter had been living.

Three Baltimore men were arrested and charged Sunday with first-degree murder in the Saturday morning stabbing death of a Marine at a house party in Northeast Baltimore, police said. The three men arrested and charged with the murder of Pfc. Darius Ray were Michael Wiggins, 26; Vernon Hadley, 22; and Nicky Woodward, 27, said Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. Four homicide detectives interviewed more than 30 witnesses to the stabbing, Guglielmi said. "The murder of a service member hits very hard," Guglielmi said.

A Baltimore County jury convicted a man Wednesday of murder in the gang shooting that rocked Towson Town Center mall at the height of the Christmas shopping rush two years ago. Tyrone Chester Brown Jr., 21, was found guilty of first-degree murder for killing Rodney Pridget in a retaliatory shooting that was to help Brown gain entry to the Black Guerrilla Family gang, State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger said. He faces life in prison without parole when he is sentenced on May 7. "We feel justice has been served," said William Pridgen, Pridget's uncle.

A 48-year-old homeless man who police say set his girlfriend on fire has been indicted on first-degree murder charges by a Howard County grand jury. Richard Rodola, of no fixed address in Laurel, poured gasoline on Pamela Myers on Oct. 23 in the woods where they lived, police say. Myers, 37, died last week at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. She was taken to the hospital with severe burns covering 70 percent of her body, police said. According to police, Rodola used Myers' own pocket lighter to start the fire.

Anne Arundel County police charged a man with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting and stabbing death of a man found in the woods in Glen Burnie early Sunday morning. Eric Glenn Banks, 47, of Baltimore County, was charged with first-degree murder late Sunday. The victim was identified as Darren Dwayne Bell, 26, of Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood. Bell was pronounced dead at the scene. Police responded to an area near Tanyard Cove Road and Marley Neck Boulevard shortly after 4 a.m. on Sunday, when they found two suspicious vehicles on a dirt road: one empty, and the other occupied by a male and female.

A 31-year-old woman found dead in her southern Baltimore home was murdered, police said Friday.  Officers were called to a home in the 2600 block of Wegworth Lane, in the Lakeland neighborhood, on Thursday at noon for a report of a person who was not breathing, said Det. Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman. Inside, they found Rachel Curtis unresponsive and suffering from undisclosed trauma to her body. She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. Silbert said detectives consider the killing to be "domestic-related," and said they have a person of interest.

A Glen Burnie man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for the first-degree murder of a man outside a bar in Glen Burnie, according to a spokeswoman for the Anne Arundel County prosecutors. Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Ronald A. Silkworth ordered that Clayton A. Battle, 35, begin his sentence after he completes an eight-year prison term on a drug conviction. Battle pleaded guilty last February to fatally shooting Kelly T. Fisher, a 30-year-old Glen Burnie resident, outside Dietrich's Tavern on Dec. 4, 2010.

A 31-year-old woman found dead in her southern Baltimore home was murdered, police said Friday.  Officers were called to a home in the 2600 block of Wegworth Lane, in the Lakeland neighborhood, on Thursday at noon for a report of a person who was not breathing, said Det. Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman. Inside, they found Rachel Curtis unresponsive and suffering from undisclosed trauma to her body. She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. Silbert said detectives consider the killing to be "domestic-related," and said they have a person of interest.

After fighting with the father of her child, an Essex woman contacted her boyfriend and his brother, who shot and killed him, and injured two others at a Middle River bus stop last month, Baltimore County police said. Michael Desmon Martin, 22, Mikal A. Martin, 20, both from Prince George's County, and Laquesha Maria Lewis, 24, are charged with first degree murder after plotting to kill the father of her child near a bus stop on Eastern Boulevard near Kingston Road just before 11:50 p.m. on Feb. 18, police said.

A 25-year-old Northeast Baltimore man convicted two years ago for vandalizing a synagogue, has been charged with attemped murder after police said he attacked two men with knives in the Upper Fells Point area, severely injuring one of them.  Ian Baron. who was arrested and charged on Wednesday, has been in trouble before. In 2010, the Latino-born, Jewish-raised man was charged with causing $25,000 worth of damage to a Jewish temple in his hometown of Olney, Md. He had neo-Nazi tattoos, lived in a shack with "Whites Only!"

A Baltimore County jury convicted a man Wednesday of murder in the gang shooting that rocked Towson Town Center mall at the height of the Christmas shopping rush two years ago. Tyrone Chester Brown Jr., 21, was found guilty of first-degree murder for killing Rodney Pridget in a retaliatory shooting that was to help Brown gain entry to the Black Guerrilla Family gang, State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger said. He faces life in prison without parole when he is sentenced on May 7. "We feel justice has been served," said William Pridgen, Pridget's uncle.

Two men have been charged with shooting three people, killing one, during a home invasion in Northwest Baltimore last month, court records show.  Roger Spears, 32, and Eric Jones, 20, were charged with first-degree murder and related charges in the Feb. 2 shooting, which occurred in the 3400 block of Reisterstown Road and killed 46-year-old Quentin Cannady, a Navy veteran who worked as an audio/visual engineer.  According to charging documents,...

Lawyers for a Harford County teenager charged with killing his father last year say they have evidence that two other juveniles were involved in the man's death. At a hearing in Bel Air on Friday, lawyers for Robert C. Richardson III told Harford County Circuit Judge Stephen Waldron that they are seeking information on the two juveniles, including their criminal histories and school records. The 17-year-old Richardson, who lived in Bel Air, is charged as an adult in the death of his father, Robert C. Richardson Jr., in January 2012.

After a two-week trial that traced a failing marriage's path from disharmony to a vicious killing, a former community activist in Northeast Baltimore was found guilty Friday of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of his pregnant wife in 2008. The jury also convicted Cleaven L. Williams Jr. of a dangerous-weapon charge in the death of Veronica Williams, with whom he had three children. Their relationship, testimony showed, was fast disintegrating in the weeks before she was attacked.

Baltimore County police say a Halethorpe man has been charged with attempted first-degree murder and other offenses in connection with the stabbing of his 14-year-old son Saturday morning. Police say Charles V. Palmer, 50, was in his attic in his home in the 600 block of Washington Ave. about 9:30 a.m. with his son. The two were looking at knives when Palmer stabbed the boy in the neck. Palmer dropped the knife and the boy picked it up and ran outside with it, police said. When police arrived, they said, they found the 14-year-old with a large wound on his neck, and he was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital with injuries that were not expected to be life-threatening.

Facing first-degree murder and other charges stemming from a fatal shooting Dec. 12, Clarence Eugene Johnson III of Annapolis turned himself in Wednesday to the law enforcement officials, Annapolis police said. Police responded to a report of a shooting at a home in the 1400 block of Tyler Avenue around 9:20 p.m. Joseph Johnson III , 33, of Brooklyn - no relation to Clarence Johnson - had been shot and killed. Jana Jackson, 31, was seriously wounded. Police had issued a warrant for Clarence Johnson in connection to the case, and his attorney said Tuesday that his client maintained his innocence.