Jessup

Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services officials reported several stabbings Friday night inside the Brockbridge Correctional Facility in Jessup. Mark Vernarelli, a department spokesman, said seven injured inmates were transported to area hospitals; another was treated onsite as a result of several simultaneous fights at the minimum-security facility. At least one injury appeared to be serious, he said. No correctional officers were stabbed or physically assaulted.

Construction workers in Jessup found a body lying in woods in the 8900 block of Good Harvest Court Thursday morning, according to Howard County police. The decomposing body of a man had no identification when found behind a house about 10:22 a.m. Police are working to find out the man's identity and whether his death was the result of foul play. Anyone with information may call 410-313-STOP. The body, which was too decomposed to identify the man's race, was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy.

A Maryland corrections official says an inmate at the Jessup Correctional Institution was injured when he was beaten in the shower. Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman Mark Vernarelli says the 21-year-old inmate serving 40 years for murder sustained head injuries in the beating at the maximum security facility in Jessup on Wednesday. Vernarelli says the inmate was able to walk to the medical area and was alert, but was sent out to Shock Trauma as a precaution due to the head wound.

A 21-year-old Jessup man who attacked a Howard County sheriff's deputy while in custody and then eluded authorities for a week was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison. Devin Champagne pleaded guilty in Howard County Circuit Court to first-degree assault and escape for what prosecutors called "a vicious and heinous" attack last August that left Deputy Donald Chase unable to work. The veteran officer, who sustained what were described as "life-threatening" injuries, was returning Champagne to the Howard County jail Aug. 13 after he had been convicted of theft.

Giant Food, the region's largest grocery chain, announced Thursday that is outsourcing its dry-goods distribution business to a Jessup firm. The Landover-based grocer said Jessup Logistics LLC, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers, will take over the dry-goods operation by the end of the year. It is unclear how many of the 460 union workers and 130 nonunion workers at the plant could lose their jobs once the deal is completed. Jessup Logistics has agreed to adopt the contracts that Giant currently has with three local unions representing workers in the division, Giant spokeswoman Kim Brown said.

A 25-year-old Washington man was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years for shooting a fellow trucker in the hand and leg at a Jessup convenience store in November 2008. Douglas Howard had pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in the attack on Jaimie Dennis at a Royal Farms store in the 8600 block of Washington Blvd. The men had argued about the price of a vehicle Dennis had arranged to sell for Howard. Dennis identified Howard to police while being treated at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. In Howard County Circuit Court on Tuesday, Judge Richard S. Bernhardt suspended all but five years of a 20-year sentence for the assault and added five years for using a handgun in the commission of a violent crime.

A 59-year-old Pasadena woman admitted Monday to stealing more than $86,000 from the Howard County produce business where she worked as a bookkeeper, police said. Joan Elizabeth Krempa, of the 8400 block of Miramar Road, pleaded guilty to a single count of theft of more than $500 in Howard County Circuit Court. Krempa said she forged the signature of the owner of Parade Produce in Jessup between February and November of 2008; police said she wrote checks amounting to $60,501 and deposited the money in her personal account.

A Baltimore man was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to robbing a Jessup motel last February. Brandon Ray Walls will serve the time concurrently with a 10-year sentence he received for robbing a Pikesville motel five days earlier. Police say Walls, 22, of the 400 block of N. Calvert St., brandished a stun gun at the front desk of La Quinta Inn and Suites in Jessup on Feb. 12, 2009, and ordered a clerk to hand over cash from the register. Officers used surveillance video from the Jessup robbery to identify Walls as a suspect, police say. - Don Markus

A mobile home at Holiday Mobile Estates in Jessup was destroyed and another trailer home was threatened in a one-alarm fire shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday, Anne Arundel County fire officials said. Firefighters arrived to find one mobile home in the 7800 block of Clark Road in flames and one next to it threatened by fire, Battalion Chief Steve Thompson said. He said 42 firefighters worked to protect the second trailer, but the effort was hampered by high winds. The cause of the fire was not known.

A mobile home at Holiday Mobile Estates in Jessup was destroyed and another trailer home was threatened in a one-alarm fire shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday, Anne Arundel County fire officials said. Firefighters arrived to find one mobile home in the 7800 block of Clark Road in flames and one next to it threatened by fire, Battalion Chief Steve Thompson said. He said 42 firefighters were trying to protect the second trailer, and "the winds are not helping at all." The cause of the fire was not known.