Murder Case

Lawyers for a doctor charged with killing five viable fetuses at an Elkton clinic said in a court motion filed Friday that Maryland lacks jurisdiction because the deaths occurred in New Jersey, and the charges should be thrown out. Steven C. Brigham, of Voorhees, N.J., faces five counts of first-degree murder and other charges. Another doctor, Nicola I. Riley, is charged with one count of first-degree murder. Both have been freed on bail pending trial. The motion filed by Brigham's attorneys — C. Thomas Brown and former Maryland public defender Nancy S. Forster — criticizes the indictment for "cryptically" identifying all but one of the fetuses by numbers, such as "CR 2-103.

It took two minutes and eight seconds for Robert Conley Richardson III, the 16-year-old C. Milton Wright High School freshman accused of murdering his father in their Bel Air house last Monday night, to waive his right to a pre-trial hearing on the charges. Much of that time was spent with Eric MacDonnell, Richardson's public defender, going through the formality of publicly asking Richardson a series of questions, so the teenager could state in the open courtroom that he was waiving his right to a hearing that would require the prosecution to prove it has enough evidence to hold him over for trial.

One of the two abortion doctors indicted in Elkton on murder charges under the state's fetal homicide law may not fight extradition and could soon be brought from New Jersey to Maryland, according to the Cecil County State's Attorney. Dr. Steven Chase Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, N.J., is being held on $3 million bail in Camden County and an arraignment hearing is scheduled there Thursday. He is charged with five counts of first-degree murder and other charges in Maryland. Cecil County's top prosecutor, Edward D.E. Rollins, said Tuesday that he believes the doctor may not contest returning to Maryland based on conversations with the suspect's defense attorney.

Suspects charged with murder and those facing gun charges in Maryland can expect to be held without bond pending trial. But twice in the past six months, 18-year-old Brandon Kyle Mitchell has been arrested in shootings - one of them fatal - and was released after posting just $50,000 bail. Officials acknowledged an error was made when Mitchell was released last week on $50,000 bond on a first-degree murder charge, according to interviews and recordings of court hearings. But when prosecutors appealed the decision in hopes of having Mitchell held without bond, District Judge Askew W. Gatewood Jr. said Mitchell's good behavior while he was free showed that he could indeed be released on bond.

A Howard County judge ordered new county prosecutors to take over the murder case against a homeless man accused of fatally burning his girlfriend, ruling Friday that the current prosecutors' knowledge of confidential defense information would put Richard Rodola at a disadvantage in his upcoming trial. Judge Diane Leasure is expected to postpone the trial, now scheduled for early November, to allow other prosecutors in the Howard County State's Attorney's Office who don't know about the defense strategy to get up to speed on the case.

Baltimore homicide detectives have made an arrest in one of the open murder cases cited in an internal Police Department memo that accused prosecutors of holding up cases. The killing had been among five cases that the acting commander of the city homicide unit cited in a memo to top commanders in which he said prosecutors were "stalling and hindering" detectives' ability to close cases. He concluded that the strategies of police and prosecutors were "not marrying up cohesively," The Baltimore Sun reported Wednesday.

Raine Curtis reluctantly took the stand in federal court Wednesday and identified her former Baltimore boyfriend as a crack-dealing killer who carried guns and routinely wore a mask shoved back on his head like a hat — always accessible when he needed it. Federal prosecutors say Antonio "Mack" Hall, 30, pulled down that mask to cover his face on the night of Sept. 20, 2009, and shot an FBI informant twice from behind as the man ran — snapping his spine — and four more times after he fell to the ground already dead.

It was a Sunday in September 2009, and Kareem Kelly Guest had spent the entire day assembling a bedroom for his 6-year-old daughter in his mother's Westport home. He'd been released from jail three weeks earlier and was making up for lost time. He left the house after dark to pick up the little girl and show her his handiwork. But he never made it. Guest was executed shortly after stepping outside, shot twice in the back and four times in the head. Guest had been labeled a rat, and everybody knew it, prosecutors said Tuesday in Baltimore's U.S. District Court, during opening statements in the federal trial of Antonio "Mack" Hall.

Stunned by the not-guilty verdicts this week in Florida's Casey Anthony murder case, state Senate Republican leader Nancy Jacobs wants Maryland parents who do not report the death of a child to be subject to felony charges. Jacobs said dozens of outraged constituents have contacted her and asked her to do something. She said she is drafting a bill to introduce in the next legislative session. She's now looking into criminalizing the failure of a parent, guardian or legal caretaker to inform authorities that a child has gone missing or has died — new crime categories that several local top prosecutors said could prove helpful to them.

Almost a year to the day after Baltimore police Officer Gahiji Tshamba shot to death an unarmed Marine, the state concluded its murder case against him Monday without calling several expected witnesses — including the victim's sister, who saw the confrontation. The omission shocked Tshamba's lawyers, who said they will call Chantay Kangalee themselves when they begin presenting their defense Tuesday. "I did not expect to get into my case so quickly," said defense attorney James L. Rhodes, noting that at least two other prosecution witnesses — a police investigator and an expert in law enforcement procedures — were also passed over without being called to testify.