Handyman

Police are seeking a handyman in the death of a Southwest Baltimore carryout owner who was beaten with a hammer 11 days ago and died of his injuries this week.Chol Ho Kim, 75, owner of a carryout and hair salon in the 600 block of Cherry Hill Road, died Thursday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.The attack occurred Oct. 27, when Kim began arguing with a handyman who claimed he was owed money for work he had done at the carryout store, police said. A hammer was thrown through the windshield of Kim's 1998 Buick, which was parked in tTC front of the store, then was used to strike Kim several times on the head and face, police said.

Volunteers are needed for a variety of positions including placing and picking up donation canisters, special event assistance, office assistant, assisting with recreational and crafts activities, handyman and gardening and yard work. Information: 410-224-4205.

Montiki M. Gyant, a handyman and sports enthusiast, died of an asthmatic attack Monday at his Northeast Baltimore home. He was 30. Mr. Gyant, who was born in Baltimore and raised in Cherry Hill and Middle River, was a graduate of Perry Hall High School. A self-employed handyman, Mr. Gyant enjoyed listening to hip-hop music and playing basketball. He also liked reading and watching the Baltimore Ravens. Mr. Gyant was a communicant of St. Veronica Roman Catholic Church, 804 Cherry Hill Road, where a Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 11 a.m. today.

The neighbors knew Ricardo Paige as "Pops," a kind man who lived and worked as a handyman in the Pen Lucy neighborhood renovating vacant houses for landlords. But Paige, police and prosecutors believe, unknowingly crossed the wrong people in the neighborhood. Authorities believe that drug dealers who used vacant houses on the block thought Paige might have turned over a drug stash to police. On March 20, 2007, they confronted him in the house where he was living and working, in the 500 block of E. 43rd St., and shot him six times, including once in the mouth.

After his third trial, a former Annapolis handyman was sentenced to life without parole yesterday for killing an Arnold woman nearly 12 years ago. Albert Gustav Givens had been tried twice before for the killing of Marlene Kilpatrick, who was found in her home Jan. 3, 1992. A 1993 conviction was thrown out on a technicality, and a second trial resulted in a hung jury. "We're more than pleased," said Kathleen Rogers, an assistant state's attorney. "The family has had a long, hard road."

Brian M. Fink, a self-employed handyman and Pigtown resident, was found dead Nov. 10 near the Maryland Transit Administration's light rail line in Bolton Hill. He was 28. Mr. Fink's body was found on the MTA's right of way between the Mount Royal and North Avenue stations. According to an MTA spokeswoman yesterday, his death remains under investigation by city and MTA police. Mr. Fink, who was born in Baltimore and raised in Pigtown, attended city public schools. Known as a "go-to-your-home" auto mechanic, Mr. Fink also worked as a self-employed home restoration and maintenance specialist in Baltimore.

An Annapolis handyman was sentenced to life in prison without parole yesterday for sexually assaulting, beating and fatally stabbing an Arnold woman in her home last year.Although Albert Givens, 38, maintained that he is innocent during yesterday's hearing in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. said that the evidence supported the jury's verdict."This case was like a puzzle and all the pieces fell together," he said before sentencing Givens. "The evidence of your guilt was overwhelming."

Elzie Roosevelt Watkins Jr., a retired handyman, died of respiratory failure July 22 at Future Care Old Court in Randallstown. He was 68. Mr. Watkins was born and raised in Annapolis, and graduated from the old Bates High School. He served briefly in the Army in 1957 before being discharged with a medical disability. A Randallstown resident, Mr. Watkins had worked for many years in construction and later was a self-employed handyman. "He was a great cook and was known for his soul food," said a niece, Tawana Avent of Baltimore.

WHEN APPLYING caulk, always use a gun and think thin. These words of home-maintenance wisdom emerged from the bottom of a shower stall the other day as Irv Stein applied a smooth, svelte seal to some tile. Irv is a handyman, one of those guys who fixes things. He runs Irv's Handyman Service, a one-man operation based in his garage. He specializes in freeing the door that sticks, the window that won't open, the tile that needs replacing, the endless amount of small stuff that can seem like a mountain to a distressed homeowner who wants to make the house "look right," usually "right away."

This is a goo-goo alert.For those who don't know what a goo-goo is, I'll explain.Among Chicago politicians, an incurable do-gooder or reformer is known as a goo-goo. It is not a term of endearment.I happen to like some goo-goos. There have even been times when I've been accused of being one. We all have our off days.But some goo-goos who are so relentless in their pursuit ofgoo-gooism that they become a public menace. When that happens, a goo-goo alert should be issued, which is what I'm now doing.

A man sought by city police in the fatal shooting more than a year ago of a handyman in a Northeast Baltimore house was arrested yesterday at a Georgia carwash. Detective Vincent Stevenson of the Regional Warrant Apprehension Task Force in Baltimore said that Kevin Armstead, 24, of the 700 block of E. 43rd St. was featured Saturday on America's Most Wanted and that several tips on his location came in. Stevenson said U.S. marshals and Decatur, Ga., police responded to a carwash where Armstead was working and arrested him without incident about 12:40 p.m. Stevenson said Armstead, who was living in a homeless shelter in Decatur, was expected to be extradited to Maryland next week.

CONSIDER THE PLIGHT OF THE Empty-Nester Male: Kids out of the house, tuitions done, weekends without a list of family obligations. A man in this pitiable situation might start thinking about freedom ... about the open road ... about a new car, finally, and one that's cool. A lot of folks in the automotive industry are counting on it. At the Detroit auto show last month, Nissan introduced a concept car designed strictly for the aging baby boomer male ready to plunge deeper into his hobbies.

When Sandra Gardner awoke in predawn darkness to find the heat off in the double-wide mobile home she shares with her 84-year-old husband, Warren, in Howard County, she knew they were in trouble. "It was like an iceberg in here," the 62-year old, partially disabled woman said, recalling that recent frigid morning in the home off U.S. 1. Unable to afford a commercial repair, she used the oven for heat until morning, and followed her daughter's advice to call Howard County's Office on Aging for help.

On trial for the fifth time in the killing of his friend's mother in her Arnold home, handyman Albert Givens was convicted again yesterday of first-degree murder. "I'm hopeful that this verdict will be the verdict that will stay with us," said Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee. He said "there would be no reason" his office would not seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole -- which Givens had received twice before, for convictions that were later thrown out -- when the former Annapolis resident is sentenced Jan. 8 for the 1992 killing of Marlene Kilpatrick, 55. During this most recent trial, which began Nov. 27, the defense unsuccessfully sought a mistrial, pointing to publicity and the fainting by a juror when shown bloody photos.

Nearly 15 years after Albert Givens was initially suspected of bludgeoning, stabbing and sexually assaulting his friend's mother in her Arnold home, he is on trial for her killing a fifth time. As the trial of the former handyman began yesterday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, longtime prosecutors said they could not recall another case that had earned the dubious five-time distinction. "The fifth? Wow," said Byron L. Warnken, a University of Baltimore law professor and expert in criminal law. He said multiple retrials can be complicated by challenges to witnesses' credibility: The more times a person gives an account, the greater the likelihood that it isn't exactly the same each time.

A state appellate court has ordered a fourth trial for an Annapolis handyman convicted of murder in the 1992 slaying of an Arnold woman. The ruling by the Court of Special Appeals erases last year's murder conviction of Albert Gustav Givens, a handyman accused of killing 55-year-old Marlene Kilpatrick in the bedroom of her home. Givens has twice been convicted of the murder of Kilpatrick, who was beaten, stabbed and sexually assaulted. His first conviction was overturned in 1999 because of ineffective counsel.

ALL I WANT FOR Christmas is a handyman.Not a man who considers himself handy. I've got one of those. I want a handyman.A guy who will fix everything that is loose or broken in my house when I tell him to because I am paying him.I want a man who will change the faucet in the bathroom, fix the leak in the shower, paint the interior shutters and then winterize the windows in the kids' rooms.I want somebody who will fix the chandelier in the dining room, who will paint the trim in the hall and then tighten the front door knob.

A 39-year-old Annapolis handyman admitted in Anne Arundel Circuit Court yesterday that he robbed three elderly women in their homes earlier this year.Arnold Brown of the first block of Fleet Street pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery, one count of theft and one count of escape yesterday before Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr.He could go to prison for up to 31 years when sentenced Oct. 6.Assistant State's Attorney William Mulford said that Brown, who had been previously convicted of breaking and entering, walked away from a county work-release program after he told a jail correctional officer last Feb. 18 he was going into the Maryland National Bank on Church Circle to get some money.

It used to be when homeowners had a leaky window or broken fence, they'd go to the garage, grab their tools and get to work. But as homes become more and more complicated and people's lives busier, homeowners are increasingly turning to handymen for repairs. Because of the surge in the remodeling industry and skyrocketing home prices that have owners looking to protect their biggest investment, the handyman field is becoming big business. The independent handyman - the "Chuck in the truck" who carries his own tools, answers his own phone and schedules his own jobs - increasingly is competing with rivals who work for national chains, wear uniforms and are dispatched by an administrative staffs.