Malt Liquor

A 19-year-old Annapolis man was sentenced in Anne Arundel Circuit Court yesterday to five years in prison for manslaughter in the stabbing death of an acquaintance last June after a drug deal that went sour.William A. Graham of the 100 block of Cranes Crook Court was sentenced by Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. in the June 27, 1995, slaying of Michael Wilson David Jones, 17, of Arnold.Graham, Jones and three friends met at Annapolis Mall about 7 p.m. June 26 and went to Cape St. Claire Beach to drink two cases of malt liquor.

The body of 13-year-old Tywonde' Jones lay under a white sheet behind a decrepit vacant home in Northwest Baltimore. He had been stabbed and slashed 228 times. One-hundred and eighty-eight were puncture wounds, some as deep as six inches, piercing his skull, lungs, ribs, liver and kidney. He suffered injuries to his arms and hands as he tried to fend off the blows. Word quickly spread, and the boy's mother, Monica, frenzied and grief-stricken, rushed down to Cordelia Avenue in central Park Heights.

Q: My son and I are having a dispute about something he learned in his high school science class. He says beer contains as much alcohol as a mixed drink. I say beer has less. Who's right?A: It sounds like your son has learned his lessons well. A 12-ounce can of beer, 6 ounces of table wine (white or red) and a mixed drink (which usually contains 1.5 ounces of liquor) all contain the same amount of alcohol.Many people, including teens, erroneously believe beer is milder than drinks made with "hard liquor."

Annapolis police have arrested the same man twice in the last week on charges of carrying a concealed deadly weapon, police said yesterday.Jimmie Lee Heartridge, 21, of Washington was arrested Sunday near Clay and West Washington streets, then again Tuesday a few blocks away on an identical charge, police said.Tuesday, an anonymous caller complained to a police dispatcher of four men in a black Chevrolet Impala armed with handguns. Officers stopped Mr. Heartridge's car, which matched the description from the caller, just before 10:30 p.m. near Rowe Boulevard and Melvin Avenue because his car had a broken headlight and a cracked windshield, police said.

After U.S. Surgeon General Antonia Novello and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms joined last week in criticizing Maryland's G. Heileman Brewing Co. for targeting a high-alcohol malt liquor at inner-city blacks and Hispanics, the company has backed off its controversial advertising campaign. But the brouhaha over PowerMaster will remain fraught with hypocrisy so long as the nation continues in its complacency over the deeper, virtually unacknowledged issue of who consumes the products of America's brewing industry.

Capital gives $50,000 to visitors' centerThe Annapolis City Council's Finance Committee has agreed to chip in $50,000 to renovate an old home on West Street that will be converted into a visitors' center.To ease downtown traffic congestion and better serve tourists, Annapolis is opening a visitors' center in a colonial-era house that backs onto the Gotts Court Garage. City officials are leasing the two-story, chalk brick house in the first block of West Street. The county is chipping in $50,000, as is the city, to renovate the building, which had housed a bank.

An Annapolis man was convicted of manslaughter yesterday for stabbing an acquaintance after a drug deal went sour.William A. Graham, 19, of the 100 block of Crane's Crook Lane could get up to 10 years when he is sentenced June 24 by Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr.Graham could have been convicted of second-degree murder in the June 27, 1995, fatal stabbing of Michael Wilson David Jones, 17. That charge would have carried a 30-year maximum sentence.Judge...

A local radio station's refusal to air advertisements for an upcoming speech by Louis T. Farrakhan has sparked criticism from a Muslim minister who says the station is trying to squelch Mr. Farrakhan's message.Minister Jamil Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 6 on Garrison Boulevard said yesterday that WERQ-FM rejected three requests to air ads for Mr. Farrakhan's planned April 11 speech at the Fifth Regiment Armory."Is this Baltimore 1892 or 1992?" Mr. Muhammad asked. "How can they run ads for malt liquor but not Minister Farrakhan?

One adult and four minors were charged with drug possession Thursday night after Howard County drug detectives in Columbia stopped and searched their vehicle, police said.Juan Eugene McGill, 18, of the 6300 block of Loring Drive in Columbia's Owen Brown village and two 16-year-old males from Columbia were charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of alcohol by a person under 21, police said.Another 16-year-old male from Columbia was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, police said.

4 teens charged in mailbox vandalismCounty police charged four teen-agers with malicious destruction of property after officers allegedly caught them vandalizing mailboxes in West River early Tuesday.Police said a witness called at 2:10 a.m. from his car phone and said he was following a white Toyota Corolla with four people inside. He told police he saw them destroy a mailbox in the 5100 block of Sudley Road.Police stopped the group a short time later at Route 408 and Grenock Road.Michael Allen Eicens, 18, of the 5900 block of Vacation Lane in Deale; Christopher James McQueeney, 18, of the 100 block of Owensville Road in West River; Mathew Jacob Perkins, 18, of the 200 block of McKendree Court in Dunkirk; and James Morris Trott III, 18, of the 1300 block of Jordan Drive in Shady Side were all taken to Southern District station to be charged.