Jury Selection

Baltimore Circuit Judge Wanda K. Heard knew it would be difficult to find a panel of jurors who hadn't heard about the case of Mark Castillo, who is charged with murder in the drowning deaths of his three children at an Inner Harbor hotel last year. But if Thursday was an indicator, it might just be impossible. Jury selection began about 10:30 a.m., when 145 people filed into Room 400 of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse, two floors down from Heard's usual courtroom and at least two times bigger.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Wanda K. Heard knew it would be difficult to find a panel of jurors who hadn't heard about the case of Mark Castillo, who is charged with murder in the drowning deaths of his three children at an Inner Harbor hotel last year. But if Thursday was an indicator, it might just be impossible. Jury selection began about 10:30 a.m., when 145 people filed into Room 400 of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse, two floors down from Heard's usual courtroom and at least two times bigger.

Jury selection could begin as early as Wednesday in the triple murder trial of Mark Castillo, who police say confessed to drowning his three young children in a Baltimore hotel bathtub in March 2008 before unsuccessfully attempting suicide. Castillo's attorneys argued Tuesday to suppress the condemning statements he made to detectives shortly after the incident, though several delays prevented a ruling. The hearing is expected to continue Wednesday morning in Baltimore Circuit Court. Once the motions are resolved, the trial can begin.

Before a high-profile federal trial began in Baltimore last month, lawyers for the three black defendants filed a motion claiming that the prosecution deliberately - and illegally - dismissed black jury candidates to pack the panel with whites. "They want a jury that may be sympathetic to the death sentence," defense attorney Archangelo Tuminelli said. But the judge ultimately ruled that the allegation was wrong. And, it turns out, the stereotype might be, too. While many lawyers have long relied on stereotypes to figure out how potential jurors might lean, those characterizations are increasingly turned on their heads, trial consultants said.

Student arrested for having starter pistol An Annapolis High student will be charged as a juvenile after he brought a starter-style pistol to the school Thursday, according to Anne Arundel County police. No injuries were reported at the school at 2700 Riva Road. About 10:50 a.m., Annapolis High administrators received a tip that a student might have brought a gun to school, said Bob Moser, a spokesman for the public schools. A school resource officer and administrators found the student and escorted him away from other students.

They both lived on the streets, scraping together what money they could to get through each day. So when Michael Walter Evans Sr. came into $500 in cash - temporary help from his brother - Allan Jake Clark, a 23-year-old with drug problems, had to have it, prosecutors say. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday in the beating death of Evans, 54, who was found dead April 5 on an air conditioning unit on Crain Highway in Glen Burnie, a block from...

Escaped inmate found in W. Baltimore house An inmate at the state's Metropolitan Transition Center in downtown Baltimore who escaped Monday was captured yesterday morning while hiding in a West Baltimore rowhouse, authorities said. Shortly after 8 a.m., members of the Regional Warrant Apprehension Task Force entered a house in the 900 block of Arlington Ave. and arrested Gerard Damon, 25, without incident. Damon had about 18 months left on three-year sentence for distributing drugs. Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said Damon was returning from a road crew assignment Monday afternoon when he walked away after getting out of a van at the minimum-security complex on Forrest Street between East Madison and Eager streets.

Jury selection began yesterday in the capital murder trial of John C. Gaumer, a former University of Maryland, Baltimore County student who is accused of killing a woman he met online and then disfiguring her body in an attempt to prevent her from being identified. Gaumer, 23, is charged with first-degree murder, rape and other offenses in the December 2005 killing of Josie P. Brown, 27, of Hampden. Prosecutors are seeking a death sentence in the case. Gaumer, who had never been arrested before police detained him for questioning in Brown's death, told investigators that he beat and sexually assaulted the woman on the side of a highway after she changed her mind about going home with him, according to a videotaped interview with police played during an earlier court hearing.

Five years ago, Thomas L. Bromwell Sr. learned how deeply FBI agents had penetrated his inner circle. James Eick, a Bromwell friend, had agreed to wear a recording device for federal agents. He was to capture any potentially incriminating conversations with the former Maryland state senator suspected of accepting illegal kickbacks while in office, according to prosecutors. Then Eick secretly switched sides. Eick warned Bromwell in November 2002 that he was wired, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen O. Gavin wrote in court papers.

The verdict was in: A Howard County jury had convicted a 33-year-old Columbia man of second-degree murder and child abuse in the beating death of his toddler stepson. A day later, however, the jury commissioner heard from Adeyemi Alade, who said he was not a U.S. citizen - a prime reason for disqualification from serving on a jury in Maryland - but inadvertently failed to say so on the juror questionnaire. Now, nearly three years later, the state's highest court is being asked whether Alade's admission is cause to overturn Marcus Dannon Owens' guilty verdict in a case that points to courts' reliance on whatever potential jurors write on their forms and raises the question of what a jury of one's peers consists of. The case will be argued today before the Court of Appeals.