Maximum Sentence

This letter is in response to your editorial "Awash in illicit guns" (Oct. 6). Everyone agrees that illegal firearms are a problem. However, to blame other states and give a free pass to the Maryland General Assembly is ridiculous. There are two common sense gun laws the Maryland General Assembly could pass to punish those that possess illegal weapons. Number One: Enact a "shall issue" concealed carry law that allows lawful citizens to carry a handgun without the need to show good cause to the Maryland State Police.

Penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana in Maryland — less than 10 grams — will drop in October, when a new law goes into effect reducing the maximum prison term to 90 days from one year and cutting the potential fine in half, to $500 from $1000. Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein backed the bill, which was signed into law Wednesday, as a way to reduce the number of cases clogging the city's circuit courts. "To continue making Baltimore safer, we must focus our limited resources on the strategic investigation and aggressive prosecution of violent offenders," Bernstein said in a statement.

A 27-year-old Glen Burnie man was sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday for raping a Severna Park woman at knifepoint in her bedroom last March.Michael Todd Curlett, of the 7500 block Whaler Court, pleaded guilty in August to first-degree rape in exchange for a maximum sentence of 20 years.Circuit Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. handed down the maximum sentence yesterday.Assistant State's Attorney Ronald M. Naditch said Curlett, an employee of a painting company, broke into a Severna Park home March 11 and raped a 42-year-old woman.

Baltimore County police have charged a 25-year-old Perry Hall man in a Jan. 22 fatal hit and run accident. David Grayson French Jr. of the unit block of Sandstone Court turned himself in Tuesday and is being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center on $500,000 bail. Information from an anonymous caller helped police locate the vehicle French drove in the crash that resulted in the death of 68-year-old Beverly Moore. She was struck while crossing Seven Courts Drive near Lincolnshire Court in the suspect's neighborhood.

A middle-schooler who killed another student in 2008 - the first murder on Baltimore school grounds since 2001 - was sentenced to 50 years in prison Tuesday, with all but 20 years of the term suspended. "You took something that you can't put back," Circuit Judge Wanda K. Heard said to defendant Timothy Oxendine, who turned 16 this month. He pleaded guilty in November to stabbing 15-year-old Markel Williams three times in the stairwell of William H. Lemmel Middle School a year earlier.

A Curtis Bay man accused of killing his wife by running her over in a church parking lot was convicted yesterday of negligent homicide while intoxicated. Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Michael E. Loney found Charles L. Page, 42, not guilty of murder in the death of his wife, Valerie, on June 10. He also found Page guilty of drunken driving and related charges. Prosecutors said they were "overwhelmingly disappointed" with the verdict. They maintained that although Page and his wife were drunk, the couple had argued earlier and that Page knew what he was doing.

Baltimore County police have charged a 25-year-old Perry Hall man in a Jan. 22 fatal hit and run accident. David Grayson French Jr. of the unit block of Sandstone Court turned himself in Tuesday and is being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center on $500,000 bail. Information from an anonymous caller helped police locate the vehicle French drove in the crash that resulted in the death of 68-year-old Beverly Moore. She was struck while crossing Seven Courts Drive near Lincolnshire Court in the suspect's neighborhood.

A pedophile who molested two Baltimore County brothers a decade ago will learn today the punishment he faces for sending one of them a videotape containing sickening scenes of childhood sex in 1995.Within 15 months of the mailing of the tape, Justin Wilke, 19, his brother, Matt, 22, and their father, Don, 56, took their own lives, filling their cars with clouds of carbon monoxide in separate suicides.Peter Dudley Albertsen II, 35, a former camp counselor and substitute city school teacher, faces up to 10 years in prison for trafficking in child pornography when he is sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson.

A 29-year-old Oxon Hill man pleaded guilty yesterday to first-degree murder, eight months to the day after shooting his former fiancee in the head outside her Edgewood apartment complex. Harford County Circuit Judge William O. Carr sentenced Frank Vernon Rainey Jr. to life in prison as a result of a plea bargain days before his trial was to resume after a November mistrial. In May, Rainey drove to a county police precinct and confessed to killing Crystal Marie Busta, 26. Her body was found in the passenger seat of his car, and his clothes were stained with blood, police said.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Wednesday that she will seek legislation that would enhance the penalties for illegal gun possession and make the crime a felony. Speaking before a group of top law enforcement officials, Rawlings-Blake called for a change to state laws that would create a minimum sentence of 18 months and a maximum sentence of 10 years for defendants arrested with an illegal, loaded firearm. The current penalties call for sentences between 30 days and three years.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Wednesday that she will seek legislation that would enhance the penalties for illegal gun possession and make the crime a felony. Speaking before a group of top law enforcement officials, Rawlings-Blake called for a change to state laws that would create a minimum sentence of 18 months and a maximum sentence of 10 years for defendants arrested with an illegal, loaded firearm. The current penalties call for sentences between 30 days and three years.

This letter is in response to your editorial "Awash in illicit guns" (Oct. 6). Everyone agrees that illegal firearms are a problem. However, to blame other states and give a free pass to the Maryland General Assembly is ridiculous. There are two common sense gun laws the Maryland General Assembly could pass to punish those that possess illegal weapons. Number One: Enact a "shall issue" concealed carry law that allows lawful citizens to carry a handgun without the need to show good cause to the Maryland State Police.

An Anne Arundel County judge told a Glen Burnie man Wednesday that "society has no place for an individual" like him before sentencing him to 50 years in prison for fatally shooting another man after a bar fight. Ricco Clifton Gough, 30, stood motionless as Circuit Court Judge Paul A. Hackner ordered a sentence that fell five years short of the 55-year maximum after a prosecutor argued that the incident for which he was convicted was the second time in 10 years that Gough used a gun to take out his rage on others over a fairly minor dispute.

Roderick Hayes was just six months from the end of a 17-year sentence in Jessup when he stole a pair of handguns to sell when he got out. Now he's going back to prison - for a stretch that could end up being twice as long. Howard County Circuit Judge Timothy J. McCrone sentenced Hayes on Thursday to 36 years in prison for theft, possession of a firearm after being convicted of a violent crime and violating the terms of his probation. The 40-year-old Baltimore man, who was convicted of the charges in February, must serve at least 20 years of the sentence.

A middle-schooler who killed another student in 2008 - the first murder on Baltimore school grounds since 2001 - was sentenced to 50 years in prison Tuesday, with all but 20 years of the term suspended. "You took something that you can't put back," Circuit Judge Wanda K. Heard said to defendant Timothy Oxendine, who turned 16 this month. He pleaded guilty in November to stabbing 15-year-old Markel Williams three times in the stairwell of William H. Lemmel Middle School a year earlier.

Calling him a "wolf in sheep's clothing," an Anne Arundel County judge sentenced a Baltimore man yesterday to two consecutive life terms in prison for raping a Russian teenager, who was participating in a work exchange program, and leaving her for dead. Circuit Court Judge Paul A. Hackner said the chorus of family and friends praising 40-year-old Kelroy Williamson's character at yesterday's hearing made his crime all the more horrifying. He said he handed down the maximum sentence to keep Williamson off the streets for the rest of his life.

An Ellicott City man, his two sons and the Baltimore County company they work for were charged yesterday with illegally importing and distributing switchblades and boxed knife sets bearing counterfeit NASCAR and related trademarks, according to a federal grand jury indictment. NFZ Products Inc. and three senior employees, Mohammed Aslam, 57, and his sons, Farhan Aslam, 31, and Zeeshawn Aslam, 27, also allegedly conspired to import and distribute knives and swords violating United Cutlery and Lord of the Rings copyrights, according to Maryland's interim U.S. Attorney Allen F. Loucks.

A Howard County jury acquitted a Prince George's County man last week on charges of raping a co-worker in the back room of a Columbia shoe store.Jose Chaparro, 51, of Riverdale, who claimed that he had consensual sex with his accuser, was found guilty of battery. He was facing a charge of second-degree rape, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.Battery is defined as the unlawful touching of another person andcarries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Chaparro will be sentenced June 16.The 39-year-old woman who accused him testified that Chaparro attacked her in the back room of the shoe store at about 8:45 a.m. Nov. 9, before the store opened for business.