Gaskins

The state health department is investigating allegations that Lena Gaskins, an 87-year-old Baltimore woman who was blind, diabetic and hypertensive, was abused in the last few weeks of her life in a Bolton Hill area nursing home."

A Baltimore man who in separate incidents killed a romantic rival and a woman he suspected of betraying a close friend has been sentenced to life plus 70 years in prison for the two murders.Baltimore Circuit Judge Ellen M. Heller sentenced Charles A. Clark Thursday on jury verdicts returned in back-to-back trials in January: first-degree murder in the shooting of Jimmy Darnell Barksdale June 28, 1989, and second-degree murder in the fTC death of Janice Irby. Ms. Irby's body was found wrapped in carpet and plastic bags in the 2300 block of North Howard Street Oct. 11, 1989.

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Elsbeth L. Bothe angrily told the teen-age mother of a dead child yesterday, "You don't deserve to have children," minutes after the mother's former boyfriend pleaded guilty to punching the 2-year-old baby to death last Sept. 17."All I know is, here is a child only 2 years old, born to a mother who must have been around 15, left in the hands of her former boyfriend's mother," said Judge Bothe, one of the more outspoken judges on the Baltimore bench. "This court is very disturbed about a lot of people's conduct in this case."

A Baltimore police officer was slightly injured yesterday when a man suspected in a stolen-check scheme tried to drive away with the officer's arm caught between the window and door frame of the car.Officer Robert Gaskins of the Central District managed to free himself and fire a shot at the car as it headed up the 200 block of North Calvert Street in the early afternoon traffic.His shot struck the right rear quarter panel of the car but did not hit the driver, who continued onto the Jones Falls Expressway and was eventually pulled over near the Falls Road exit.