Handyman

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.

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.

An Anne Arundel County jury deadlocked yesterday in the murder retrial of Albert G. Givens, telling the judge that after about 12 hours of deliberations over three days, members of the panel had differing interpretations of the evidence in the 1992 crime. A spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office said they plan to try the Annapolis handyman for a third time on charges that he killed Marlene Kilpatrick, 55, in her Arnold home. Prosecutors and defense lawyers will meet Wednesday with Circuit Judge Philip T. Caroom.

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.

For the third time in 11 years, Anne Arundel County prosecutors told a jury yesterday that handyman Albert G. Givens killed his friend's mother in her Arnold home - and defense lawyers disputed it. Marlene Kilpatrick's body was found Jan. 3, 1992, by her daughter. She had been sexually assaulted, beaten and stabbed. At his first trial, in 1993, Givens was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. A judge erased that conviction in 1999, ruling that a shoddy job by defense attorneys led to an unfair trial.

The Debra Anne Goodwich slaying case, which grabbed headlines for weeks last year, will be tried outside Baltimore County, because defense attorneys say publicity would make it hard to find an impartial jury there.Assistant Public Defender Patricia L. Chappell asked yesterday that the trial of Wallace Dudley Ball, scheduled to begin Monday, be moved."I believe a lot of people know about this particular homicide, and we feel we would lose too many jurors as being influenced by the crime," Ms. Chappell said in a county Circuit Court hearing.

Jurors yesterday convicted Annapolis handyman Albert Givens in the murder of a woman found beaten, sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in her Arnold home in January 1992.Givens, 38, an alcoholic, was convicted of first-degree murder after a trial that focused on the brutality of the slaying of Marlene Fitzpatrick, his inconsistent statements to police about his whereabouts, and DNA tests on saliva that placed him at the scene.Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. set sentencing for May 27.Givens, who did not testify during the week-long trial, showed no emotion as the verdict was announced.

CHICAGO -- Some buyers of "handyman specials" and other homes in need of repair will soon be able to apply for mortgages that will enable them to get funds both for purchase and rehab work in the same loan.The program, called community home improvement loans, was announced last month at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America convention in Chicago by the Federal National Mortgage Association, also known as Fannie Mae, and GE Capital Mortgage Insurance Companies.Up to now, two separate loans have typically been issued for purchase and repair work.

Randallstown handyman Wallace Dudley Ball will learn next week whether he must pay with his life for killing Debra Anne Goodwich.A Charles County jury convicted Ball of first-degree murder Thursday evening for shooting Goodwich, 19, after she interrupted his burglary of her family's Stevenson home Sept. 30, 1994.Ball will decide Monday whether he wants the jury that convicted him or Judge Joseph S. Casula, who presided over the trial in Charles County Circuit Court, to determine whether the sentence will be life in prison with the possibility of parole, life without parole or death by lethal injection.

Scott Wanex hooked up a video camera to his computer to go live on the Internet. He captured a image of a theft suspect in his own home instead.A man hired to do odd jobs in Wanex's Northeast Baltimore home allegedly pilfered 129 compact discs. But before the discs were taken, the man posed for a computer portrait, apparently not realizing his image would be stored on a hard drive.So when Wanex and his wife, Carole Holmes, noticed the collection of theater and movie music, including the theme from "Gone With the Wind," was missing, they had a color photo to give police.