Probation

No need to explain the relief on Elijah Snow's face in September when a jury acquitted him of carrying a deadly weapon - a kitchen knife - through downtown Baltimore. A guilty verdict would have landed the twice-convicted armed carjacker back in prison. Now he appeared to be home free. That may explain his confused expression when he stood in another city courtroom in November, listening as another judge sent him off to prison on the basis of the very same evidence that had failed to convince the jury two months earlier.

A 38-year-old West Baltimore man will spend three years in prison for hitting political activist and frequent political candidate A. Robert Kaufman in the head with a brick and then robbing him, according to city prosecutors. Kaufman is currently running for mayor. Steven Carr of the 3800 block of Hillsdale Road pleaded guilty in May to robbery with a deadly weapon for the Dec. 6 attack that occurred on the front porch of Kaufman's North Hilton Street home. Circuit Court Judge Wanda K. Heard sentenced Carr to 15 years but suspended all but three years.

After more than a month of surveillance, plainclothes police officers raided a house early yesterday in Southwest Baltimore, arrested three men and seized a large amount of suspected heroin packaged for street sale. A police spokesman said the officers found 3,200 gel caps and a loaded handgun in the basement of a home in the 2500 block of W. Pratt St. when they entered about 6:45 a.m. The men were involved in a heroin-dealing operation that received large quantities of the illegal drug twice a day, police said.

A Howard County circuit judge dismissed charges last week against a 36-year-old Montgomery County man who was accused of violating his probation, which stemmed from a 1992 conviction for fatally injuring a Catonsville man in a car accident.William Scott Marcellino of Germantown was convicted last year in Howard County District Court of violating his probation by forging attendance slips at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings -- and was ordered to spend three years in prison.Marcellino appealed that verdict to Circuit Court.

For the Catholic Worker peace activists who live there, West Baltimore's Jonah House is a place of community, prayer and good works, but to federal probation officials, it is a place of crime.Two former members of the Jonah House community, Susan Crane and Michele Naar Obed, have returned there in defiance of the U.S. Department of Probation, which ordered them not to live in the house after their release from federal prison, where they served terms for civil disobedience.About 20 people, including Crane and Obed, protested yesterday outside the downtown building that houses the federal probation offices, demanding that the probation terms be changed.

A retired, decorated Navy captain was sentenced yesterday to house arrest and probation while he finishes repaying more than $300,000 he embezzled from the Annapolis company that trusted him as its chief financial officer.Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Ronald A. Silkworth sentenced Victor A. Karcher, 60, of the 300 block of Martins Cove Road, outside Annapolis, to a year of house arrest, five years on probation and 300 hours of community service. Silkworth also fined Karcher $1,000 and ordered him to write an apology and repay the nearly $120,000 remaining of the $353,000 he stole from Tritech Field Engineering.

Maryland officials have agreed to double the number of probation officers supervising juvenile offenders in high schools next fall, expanding on a fledgling program aimed at helping troubled students and improving school safety."

A Glen Burnie man was placed on 10 years' probation yesterday for sexually abusing a friend's teen-age daughter and having child pornography on his home computer.In a plea arrangement, Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Pamela L. North sentenced Thomas R. Long Jr., 35, to two five-year terms of probation that Long's lawyer said would allow him to get the counseling he needs.North said she wants Long, who lives in the 8000 block of Phirne Road East, to receive treatment for his sexual offense and alcoholism.

Morgan State University has made no official response to last week's ruling by the NCAA's Committee on Infractions that gave the school's football program a one-year probation for secondary rules violations.The probation, stemming from a series of rides given Morgan State football players by an assistant coach and the failure to report them to then-athletic director Garnett Purnell, was assessed Friday. It is retroactive to June 5 and requires the school to implement an educational rules program on NCAA legislation.

A Hampstead man, who must serve consecutive life terms without parole if released from a secure state mental health facility, was sentenced yesterday to 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to violating probation and possessing firearms while on probation.The sentences concurrent to the life terms were imposed yesterday by Carroll Circuit Judge Francis M. Arnold and mean that Smith Harper "Skip" Dean III, 40, would serve no added time, if he is transferred from Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, said State's Attorney Jerry F. Barnes.

Nine years later, the pain hasn't subsided. Laurie Platt's mind won't allow it. Neither will the judicial system. On Oct. 14, 2000, Laurie Platt lost her husband, her preschool-age children lost their father and the city lost two of its officers, Sgt. John D. Platt and Kevin McCarthy, when a drunk driver going 63 mph ran a stop sign in Hamilton and rammed their police car. In the nine years since, the driver, Shane Daniel Weiss, was convicted of...

A 26-year-old man was ordered jailed in lieu of $1.5 million bail Monday after Annapolis police charged him with raping a teenager at a party early Sunday. Police charged John Walter Jennings III of the 800 block of Carrollton Ave., Annapolis, with 11 counts. Court records say he is on probation for assaulting his fiancee and awaiting a court hearing in January for a possible probation violation. On Sunday, Annapolis police were called to Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore about a rape.

Jerrod Rowlett is counted among Baltimore's worst criminals. He's racked up dozens of arrests in his 25 years, including at least four murder charges (one of which is still pending). He has a handful of gun, drug and assault convictions, and he's classified as a "violent repeat offender" by the state. He's also never served any significant time. But he's about to. After cutting Rowlett a generous break in 2007, setting him free under probation via a plea deal on assault and drug charges, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lynn Stewart ruled Thursday that he would have to serve the rest of his previously suspended 15-year sentence because he violated probation.

A 19-year-old East Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to 25 years in prison for executing his 14-year-old girlfriend, whom he had known for only a few weeks, by shooting her in her right temple at close range. During the emotional hearing, in which Charles Jakes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a gun charge, the victim's mother pounded her fists on a bench and screamed at the defendant: "Nothing you say will bring my child back. ... Read the Bible. You reap what you sow." Jakes apologized to Shaundretta Griffin's family but his face conveyed no emotion.

Arrest made after stabbing of juveniles City police arrested a suspect in connection with the stabbing of two juveniles early Saturday morning in the West Arlington neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore, police said. The two youths were in the 4700 block of Navarro Ave. about 1 a.m. when they were stabbed, a police spokeswoman said. Their injuries were not life-threatening, police said. No additional information was available on the person arrested in the incident or on the two youths hurt.

The owner of a Harford County plumbing company was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for offering to pay a worker at a job site $20,000 to beat and kill his wife, angering the victim who walked out of the courtroom crying and in fear of her life. "I'll be dead by the end of the year," said Amanda Thompson as she stepped into the courthouse hallway. Relatives circled around Thompson, hugging her while sharing her outrage. "Michael Vick got more time for killing dogs," the victim's sister, Susan Watson, said.

Even in Baltimore, the judge noted, the murder of a child still shocks. So when Frankie L. Taylor stood before Baltimore Circuit Judge Gale E. Rasin last month and told her he had missed his very first meeting with his probation agent on March 24, 2008 - the day after she gave him a break from prison on a drug charge - because his 1-year-old son had been hit in the head by a stray bullet and killed, it "sucked all the oxygen from this courtroom."...

The Baltimore sheriff's department teamed up with Maryland State Police, parole and probation officers and the city police canine unit Friday to serve Circuit Court bench warrants for probation violations, a new partnership in a continuing effort to target repeat violent offenders. Officials focused on parts of West and Southwest Baltimore, and 21 people were taken into custody, with 27 warrants cleared. One of the suspects arrested was Donya Tunstall, 36, who is on probation after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in 2005, officials said.

The "Homicide Victim and Suspect Analysis Report 2008" is a clinical dissection of violent death in Baltimore - a grim tally stripped of tears, blood and anger. It comes as no surprise that 186 people were killed with handguns and 137 people were killed on the streets (that doesn't include the dozen killed in alleys). All but 20 of the 234 victims were black and all but 31 were male. Among the slain, 126 were shot in the head. Of the 107 people arrested on murder charges last year, 94 had prior criminal records - most for drugs, guns and violent crime.

Shot in the face and back Tuesday night, 19-year-old Leroy Boxdale became Baltimore's 24th homicide victim in 18 days. Boxdale, who was on supervised probation after pleading guilty to a drug charge in September, was found lying in the 3400 block of Park Heights Ave., just north of Park Circle near Druid Hill Park shortly before 7:30 p.m., police said. He was taken to Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His death continued a spate of violence starting in November, which was the deadliest month of the year, with 31 killings.