Second Degree Murder

Trayvon Martin's mother Sybrina Fulton on Sunday morning emotionally addressed Baltimore's Empowerment Temple, the church of the Rev. Jamal Bryant who has been at her side as national outcry has built over her son's death. "It's so easy for me to cry right now but I can't because I have work to do," she told the congregation. "I was forced into this position, but I believe God is using me. " Martin, 17, was shot to death in February in Sanford, Fla., returning home after a trip to get snacks at a 7-Eleven.

An inmate serving a 10-year prison sentence for second-degree murder walked out of a Baltimore detention facility on Friday morning, never reported to his scheduled work-release job and was considered escaped by Friday afternoon, according to Maryland State Police. Jermaine Jeter, 30, left the Baltimore Pre-Release Unit at about 10:30 a.m., and was supposed to arrive for work at an area Checkers restaurant at 12:30 p.m., according to police. He never did, nor did he arrive back at the unit at 3 p.m., as he was scheduled to do, police said.

George Huguely V sits in the corner of a narrow, white room, at the end of a long wooden table, looking every bit the college athlete who just rolled out of bed after a normal night out — but for the bloody scratches ringing his right ankle. Hours earlier, he had used that leg to drunkenly kick in his girlfriend's bedroom door, he tells Charlottesville detectives, during a 64-minute recorded interrogation into the fatal beating of Cockeysville native Yeardley Love. The public got its first look at the video Tuesday, two years after it was made, on the morning of May 3, 2010, and nearly three months after Huguely was convicted of second-degree murder in Love's death at her University of Virginia off-campus apartment.

A 29-year-old Baltimore man was convicted of second-degree murder for stabbing another man to death at a Walbrook High School reunion nearly two years ago, the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office announced Monday. A city jury found James L. Dixon, of the 900 block of Kevin Road, guilty on Wednesday. It was his second trial on murder charges in the death of 23-year-old Carrington McNutt, who was stabbed in the neck and torso at the Patapsco Arena, where the reunion - attended by by roughly 900 people from the 1995 through 2005 graduating classes - was held.  Dixon's first trial ended with a hung jury in November 2011.

An inmate serving a 10-year prison sentence for second-degree murder walked out of a Baltimore detention facility on Friday morning, never reported to his scheduled work-release job and was considered escaped by Friday afternoon, according to Maryland State Police. Jermaine Jeter, 30, left the Baltimore Pre-Release Unit at about 10:30 a.m., and was supposed to arrive for work at an area Checkers restaurant at 12:30 p.m., according to police. He never did, nor did he arrive back at the unit at 3 p.m., as he was scheduled to do, police said.

A 15-year-old Baltimore girl pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder and related assault, handgun and robbery charges for shooting two men in the head last year after they laughed at the sight of her brandishing a silver Smith & Wesson revolver. Arteesha Holt, who was 14 when she killed one man and injured the other as they sat outside on an August night, faces between 15 and 50 years in prison at her sentencing, scheduled for Sept. 21 in Baltimore Circuit Court. She was led into court in handcuffs and chains Tuesday, baby-faced and smiling in the direction of her family.

A man whose wife disappeared five years ago was found guilty Friday of second-degree murder by a Baltimore County jury. The case is believed to be the first of its kind in the county to be tried without a body, and family members said they will persist in trying to find the remains of Tracey Leigh Gardner. Dennis J. Tetso, 45, who had been free on bail since his arrest in June 2009, was led away in handcuffs and faces a 30-year term when he is sentenced on Nov. 23. Tetso and his 32-year-old wife had been having marital problems when she vanished in March 2005 on her way to a Motley Crue concert in Washington, according to testimony.

City police have charged a 42-year-old man in the killing of a woman in East Baltimore last month. Daryl Cloude, of the 1200 block of Ashland Ave., was taken into custody Monday and charged in the killing of Patsy Person, 43, who was found dead July 10 inside her home in the 200 block of N. Belnord Ave. Police said she was suffering from trauma to her head and was pronounced dead on the scene. The relationship between Cloude and Person, if any, was unclear, though Person pressed assault and theft charges against Cloude in May. Court records show Cloude was on probation for an assault conviction in 2008.

Police in Anne Arundel County were looking for a 19-year-old man in connection with a stabbing Monday evening at a Taco Bell restaurant in Edgewater. A girl, 17, who police say was with him at the time of the incident, was arrested shortly afterward. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Tyrell Markell Dailey of the 100 block of Tydings Drive in Edgewater. The warrant charges Dailey with attempted second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment.

A 38-year-old stockbroker was convicted of second-degree murder yesterday for killing his girlfriend in her Glen Burnie apartment by stabbing her two dozen times, slashing her throat and smashing her on the head with a hammer.Thomas General Jr. of the 1600 block of N. Capitol St. in Washington was convicted by a jury that deliberated three hours before finding him guilty of murder in the death of Mary Gadson in her apartment in the 7800 block of Tall Pines Court on June 5 but also finding that the crime lacked the premeditation required for a first-degree murder conviction.

A Baltimore grand jury indicted a 29-year-old woman Monday on attempted murder and seven other charges in connection with the brutal stabbing of her 8-month-old daughter during a supervised visit at a city social services office in April. Kenisha Thomas, who is being held without bail in the incident, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in district court Tuesday, but the indictment will move the felony case into circuit court. An arraignment on the new charges is set for July 17. According to police, Thomas smuggled a large kitchen knife into a Baltimore social services office April 24 and repeatedly stabbed the infant, named Pretty Diamond, in the head and neck as office staff fought back, with one man throwing a chair at her. The baby, who previously was removed from Thomas' care, survived.

Trayvon Martin's mother Sybrina Fulton on Sunday morning emotionally addressed Baltimore's Empowerment Temple, the church of the Rev. Jamal Bryant who has been at her side as national outcry has built over her son's death. "It's so easy for me to cry right now but I can't because I have work to do," she told the congregation. "I was forced into this position, but I believe God is using me. " Martin, 17, was shot to death in February in Sanford, Fla., returning home after a trip to get snacks at a 7-Eleven.

George Huguely V sits in the corner of a narrow, white room, at the end of a long wooden table, looking every bit the college athlete who just rolled out of bed after a normal night out — but for the bloody scratches ringing his right ankle. Hours earlier, he had used that leg to drunkenly kick in his girlfriend's bedroom door, he tells Charlottesville detectives, during a 64-minute recorded interrogation into the fatal beating of Cockeysville native Yeardley Love. The public got its first look at the video Tuesday, two years after it was made, on the morning of May 3, 2010, and nearly three months after Huguely was convicted of second-degree murder in Love's death at her University of Virginia off-campus apartment.

Most homes along Claire Road in a middle-class Elkridge neighborhood have a backyard shed, but underneath one of them, authorities say, a family secret has been buried for more than two decades. Robert A. Jarrett, 57, has been charged with murder after what police believe are the remains of his wife, Christine, were found under floorboards and concrete in the shed behind his home. Christine Jarrett vanished in 1991. Police said at the time that she apparently kissed her two children goodbye, took $4,000 and left because of marital problems with her husband of 16 years.

The arrest of George Zimmerman on charges of second-degree murder in the killing of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin does not mean that justice has been done. But it does provide the opportunity for justice - for a full presentation of the facts before a judge and impartial jury. It was the denial of that opportunity by local officials in Sanford, Fla., who chose not to arrest Mr. Zimmerman immediately after the shooting six weeks ago, that had so inflamed the nation. It led to inevitable questions about whether race was a factor in how the case was handled - Trayvon was black, and Mr. Zimmerman is white and Hispanic - and to outrage at the notion that a young man could be killed without anyone being forced to publicly account for it. Now the Sanford community and the entire nation can get answers about what happened that day, and that is what our criminal justice system is supposed to do. Angela B. Corey, a special prosecutor brought in from Jacksonville to handle the case, said Wednesday evening that her decision to bring charges was not based on public pressure but on the evidence she had gathered.

A Middle River man pleaded guilty Monday in the stabbing death of his girlfriend last year, Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger said. Sam Davis, 61, pleaded guilty in Circuit Court to first-degree murder in the death of Jacqueline Denise Paul. Prosecutors said Davis stabbed Paul, who was 35, in the chest last April as she lay in bed at the home they shared at 355 Grovethorn Road. Davis left the home and called others to say he had hurt Paul, prosecutors said.

A 19-year-old man charged in a Monday evening stabbing at an Edgewater Taco Bell turned himself in Tuesday to the Anne Arundel County Police Southern District, officials said. Tyrell Markell Dailey of the 100 block of Tydings Drive in Edgewater faces attempted second-degree murder and related charges in the stabbing of a 21-year-old Annapolis man. Officers were called at about 7:45 p.m. Monday for a reported stabbing at a Taco Bell at 3091 Solomons Island Road in Edgewater, where, on the parking lot, they found a man wounded in the torso.

A former Anne Arundel County police informant who confessed to stabbing another woman in a fit of anger was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison for the murder.Emily Marie Fulcher, 35, described by county prosecutors as "somewhat of a pathetic character" and by her defense lawyers as a mentally ailing cocaine addict, said nothing to Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner other than that she was sorry "it had to happen at all." The victim's family had hoped for words of remorse.Fulcher had pleaded guilty in April to second-degree murder in the death April 23, 1997, of Linda Sue Dickey, 43, from the Curtis Bay area of Baltimore.

Sixteen-year-old Robert C. Richardson III was indicted Tuesday on murder charges in the January death of his father. The Harford County Grand Jury indicted the Bel Air teen, who has been held without bond in the Harford County Detention Center. Richardson has been charged with first- and second-degree murder as well as the use of a handgun during the commission of a crime. Harford County State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly would say little about the case late Tuesday. "A lot of speculation about a motive has surrounded this case from the outset; [it]

A 21-year-old man will spend 45 years in prison after a jury convicted him of second-degree murder for shooting his lifelong friend during an argument in August 2010, according to the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office. Isaiah Crowder, of the 1100 block of Brentwood Ave., was identified by a witness who picked his picture from a photo array, according to prosecutors. Police said Crowder shot 20-year-old Isaiah Gordon several times in the chest and lower body on Aug. 15, 2010, in the 400 block of East Chase St. Prosecutors did not say what the argument, which occurred about 4:15 a.m., was about.