Man Fled

Bryant E. Davidson, a Baltimore man who was convicted on drug charges last month even though he walked out of his trial, was arrested yesterday in Baltimore, Howard County officials said. County authorities were notified yesterday morning that Davidson, 27, had been arrested on other charges and was being held at the city's Central Booking and Intake Center, said Cpl. Charlie Gable, supervisor of the warrant/fugitive unit for the Howard sheriff's office. Details of Davidson's arrest were unclear yesterday.

A man who had feigned paralysis and escaped from police custody at a hospital Sunday was arrested today on the roof of an East Baltimore rowhouse.Oswald Gerald Trayham, 20, who police said has no permanent address, was arrested about 10:30 a.m. atop a three-story rowhouse in the 1200 block of E. Preston St. The arrest came after a tip that Trayham was in the house. He surrendered without a struggle, police said.Trayham was charged with escape, two counts of robbery, kidnapping, assault and a handgun violation.

The man who was involved in two crashes in less than two hours last week in Harford County, including one that killed a woman and her son, might have been arrested after the earlier collision. Troopers acted properly in issuing summonses to Christopher H. Lentz after he allegedly failed to stop at the scene of the first accident, a state police spokeswoman said yesterday. "They took appropriate action based on their observations at the scene," said Elena Russo, a state police spokeswoman.

A 21-year-old southern Baltimore man who fled to Canada to escape a murder charge was sentenced yesterday to 48 years behind bars, city prosecutors announced. David Alfred Gatton Sr., of the 1000 block of Bristol Ave., pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in May in Baltimore Circuit Court, after trying to fight deportation from Canada by claiming the American penal system was inhumane. Gatton had surrendered to police in Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 25. Gatton admitted shooting Anthony Henson, 23, at his home in the 4200 block of Audrey Avenue in Brooklyn on February 18 last year.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, setting the stage for a review of police patrols in high-crime urban areas, agreed yesterday to rule on the officers' power to stop and question someone just because that person has fled when the police arrive.The court has been interested in that issue for a decade and twice before had agreed to settle it. But both earlier cases ended without a ruling on how police may react to someone's decision to run away at the sight of officers.Federal and state courts have been widely divided over the question -- a factor that appeared to have persuaded the justices to try again.

Trying to figure out how a handcuffed prisoner escaped from the back of a locked patrol car, Baltimore police have another mystery on their hands: Why was the man wearing old, police-issued body armor?Investigators have determined that a bullet-resistant vest worn by the suspect -- who escaped during his arrest April 25 and is being sought -- was formerly worn by a city police officer.Both questions appeared to involve missteps -- officers leaving their prisoner unattended in the police car, and a protective vest stored at police headquarters turning up on the street.

Maryland State Police continued searching yesterday for Gregory Augustus James Jr., a Baltimore man they believe fled the scene of a two-car accident Tuesday morning on Interstate 95 in Howard County using the Ford pickup truck of a driver who had stopped to help. Police identified James, 32, by listening to messages on a cell phone found in the smashed Isuzu Trooper involved in the accident, which sent two Silver Spring residents to Maryland Shock Trauma Center and slowed the morning commute.

A man whose escape through a bathroom window led Crownsville Hospital Center to revamp the state mental hospital's security procedures pleaded guilty yesterday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court to attempted carjacking and robbery.Judge Joseph P. Manck sentenced Shawn A. Chowanetz, 31, formerly of Severna Park, to 16 years in prison under the terms of a plea agreement. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop about 30 related charges.Chowanetz was described by his attorney, assistant public defender Robert Waldman, as a mentally ill man who left school in ninth grade and whose "whole life has been a desire for drugs."

The Harford County sheriff has ordered a review of departmental policies after the office failed to notify state authorities this week that a man undergoing an evaluation at a psychiatric hospital had been charged with rape in Pennsylvania. Instead, Paul D. McGlothlin, 32, was left unattended in an unlocked room on the open campus of Spring Grove State Hospital Center in Catonsville, officials said. Early Tuesday, he fled the hospital, apparently after cutting through mesh wiring affixed to a window.

An 18-year-old man who fled when his arrest was interrupted by the shooting of a Baltimore police officer Saturday night has surrendered to authorities, police said yesterday. Elliott T. Reed of the 2000 block of N. Fulton Ave. was being held last night at Central Booking and Intake Center on charges of escaping police and possession with intent to distribute drugs. He turned himself in about 11:30 p.m. Monday at police headquarters. Reed had been sought by police since the shooting of Officer Chris Houser, 29, in the 3500 block of W. Belvedere Ave. Houser and several other officers were arresting Reed after spotting him selling drugs, police say, when a gunman fired four or five shots at the officers.