First Degree Murder

For years, the Koontz family — Ron, Mary and their daughter, Kelsey — was a "pretty close-knit" group. Mary Koontz made "awesome sandwiches" for her husband and welcomed her daughter's friends into their "quiet suburban home," Kelsey, now 17, said in court Wednesday. "I could see the love between my parents," Kelsey Koontz said. "My childhood was fine. It was awesome." But in a few short years, she went on, the family's harmony dissolved into mistrust and recriminations, her parents separated, and Mary Koontz went to live in Florida.

An Anne Arundel County jury took two hours yesterday to convict a Caroline County man of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of a Severn woman.Reginald Cooper, 20, of Ridgely was convicted of killing Joan T. Maiolo, 61. Assistant State's Attorney Laura S. Kiessling, the prosecutor, said she will seek a sentence of life without parole.Cooper was looking to kill someone when he climbed through a window in Maiolo's kitchen in the early morning of July 6, Kiessling said. Using a butcher knife he had brought with him and a knife he took from her kitchen, Cooper stabbed Maiolo 12 times, leaving her bleeding but alive, prosecutors said.

A 22-year-old Glen Burnie man is in custody for allegedly strangling his 62-year-old great aunt to death Tuesday in the 300 block of Gatewater Court, police said. Brandon Zachary Duncan is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Dianna Lee Fitzwater. Duncan is under a guard's watch at a local hospital for unrelated issues, police said Thursday. Police responded to a call at 11:44 p.m. Tuesday and found Fitzwater's body. A witness at the house reported that she and Duncan woke around 11:30 p.m. and went to the living room, where they found the victim unresponsive.

A man who told police that he killed his landlord because he believed the homeowner was a warlock who was conjuring spells against him was found not criminally responsible Wednesday and will be placed in a state mental hospital. Neal Jesse Manning, 41, had descended rapidly into mental illness before he killed Harry Allan Wagner just past midnight on Jan. 4, according to a state psychiatric evaluation. Wagner, a 57-year-old cargo company dispatcher, was on his living room couch in his Pasadena home watching television when Manning, who had rented a room in his house for less than a year, shot him with a handgun and shotgun.

In the days after his twin's disappearance, police say, Wael Ali led searchers to within feet of his brother's body, telling them he felt "something was wrong there. " Whether police suspect that Ali wanted his friends to find his dead brother or whether they think he was merely trying to cover his tracks is unknown, but the detail is one of several revealed in court documents that charge Ali with first-degree murder in the 2007 killing of his twin brother, Wasel. The documents were made public Friday after Ali was extradited from Georgia to stand trial in Howard County.

Baltimore Police have charged an 18-year-old Abingdon man with fatally shooting a woman in Cherry Hill last week, according to court records.  The records show that Queren L. Thomas, a 36-year-old whose last known address was in South Laurel, was found shot in the 200 block of Reedbird Ave. at about 7 p.m. on Sept. 27. Thomas had called 911 prior to her death and told police "that the person who was responsible for shooting her was a person that she picked up at 908 Coppin Court.

A 28-year-old Columbia man sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering two people in Howard County in 2007 was found dead and bloodied in his Allegany County prison cell early Thursday morning, according to Maryland State Police. Charles David Richardson IV, who was known as "Face" when he was arrested in May 2007 in the murders of an acquaintance and a 7-Eleven clerk, was found about 5 a.m. under a blanket in his cell bed with trauma to his head, police said. Guards at the North Branch Correctional Institution in Cresaptown rushed into his cell after observing his cellmate "in possession of clothing that appeared to be bloodstained" outside the cell on an upper-level tier, police said.

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.

A boy who came home from school and found his mother dead was then bound with belts and duct tape by her alleged killer, whom police arrested last week. Edward Ford, 36, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 44-year-old Cheryl Thomas, who was discovered dead in her home in the McCulloh Homes housing project near downtown Thursday afternoon. According to police, Thomas' son returned from school and found her in her bedroom, handcuffed behind her back and with her feet bound.

Combative to the end, a 31-year-old murder defendant stood in court at his sentencing Wednesday and accused the judge, prosecutors and detectives of lying, ganging up on him and ignoring evidence that would have set him free. "You all just wanted to blame me — you all just wanted to set me up," said Frederick A. Christian, looking directly at Baltimore County Circuit Judge Sherrie R. Bailey. Waving documents from his legal file, Christian repeatedly referred to what he said were mistakes and omissions in the state's case against him. He also criticized his attorney.