Sentence

Circuit Judge Francis M. Arnold upheld the prison sentence of a Baltimore man convicted in the county's largest residential break-in.On Tuesday, Arnold declined to reduce the sentence of Byron P. Pantazonis, saying that the crime was too serious and that Pantazonis' rolein the crime merited keeping him in jail for seven years.Pantazonis and his girlfriend, Julie R. Wilt, were convicted lastyear of theft as part of a scheme to steal more than $260,000 worth of antiques from the Westminster home of Emily Fink.

By giving Annapolis lobbyist Bruce Bereano a light sentence involving no prison time, U.S. District Judge William Nickerson has delivered a slap on the wrist to Bereano and a slap in the face of the jury that convicted him of fraud related to illegal campaign contributions.The jury made it perfectly clear it thought Bereano had done something quite wrong. The judge had said before the verdict that he doubted if a crime had been committed, and in his sentencing he seemed determined to second guess -- perhaps even rebuke -- the jurors.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Delegate Richard C. Matthews, R-Carroll, said he willre-introduce legislation to keep a public record of sentences imposed by each Appeals, Circuit and District Court judge for serious and violent crimes. His proposal requires the Administrative Office of theCourts to compile and maintain a register (available to the public) that contains a record of sentences: for the Court of Appeals, votes on death penalty cases; for Circuit Court, the sentence imposed for crimes of violence in non-jury trials; for District Court, the sentence imposed for drunken driving offenses.

A Pasadena woman who pleaded guilty to hiring an undercover detective to kill her boyfriend's ex-wife was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in the county jail and an equal amount of time under house arrest.Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. ordered Kathryn E. McLane, 30, of the 8700 block of Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd. to begin serving her sentence at 6 p.m. Friday. When she completes the sentence, she will be on five years' probation. She is forbidden to have any contact with her intended victim.

An article in The Sun Saturday reported incorrectly the length of the suspended prison sentence received by Christopher Suter after he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in Baltimore Circuit Court. It was six years.+ The Sun regrets the errors.Robert Hooe Sr. and his wife and children can't understand why Robert Hooe Jr.'s killer was sentenced yesterday to 90 days of house arrest and 40 hours of community service.The Hooe family heard the judge and the prosecutor defend the deal that allowed Christopher Suter to avoid going to jail after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the younger Hooe's death in April.

There was a time when it seemed that John Walker Lindh was the lucky one. He actually had a chance to defend himself, in an American court, against terrorism charges (which were dropped). He wasn't locked up in Guantanamo or held incommunicado in a Navy brig. He wasn't tortured. He pleaded guilty in open court to lesser charges stemming from his service in the Afghan army - that is, the army of a government controlled by the Taliban - and was sentenced in October 2002 to 20 years in a federal prison.

A 24-year-old man was sentenced yesterday to 2 1/2 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in a car accident in December 2006 that killed a passenger in his car, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Antonio Washington of Hyattsville was driving south on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at 3 a.m. in a Ford Taurus with its headlights turned off when it passed an Acura just south of Route 175 in Howard County, cut across several lanes of traffic and went airborne into the woods.

As a federal judge sentenced a Maryland businessman Friday to three years in prison for defrauding two banks of millions of dollars, calling the sentence a substantial penalty levied on a man who previously never had so much as a speeding ticket. U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg's sentence for Brian I. Satisky, 56, followed federal sentencing guidelines. Satisky could have received up to 51 months in prison for his role in writing bad checks to Carrollton Bank and Baltimore County Savings Bank, falsely inflating his account balances in a scheme known as check kiting.

A state appeals court dismissed yesterday an appeal by Carroll County prosecutors, ruling that they have no right to challenge a change in a criminal's sentence though the defense asked a judge for the change after the 90-day limit. That is because the time limit was created under state court rules, not state law. Rulings by the state's highest court on when prosecutors can appeal do not address a violation of court rules, the Court of Special Appeals said in a 2-1 decision. The opinion was issued in the case of Calvin Lamont Warfield, sentenced in 1997 to 10 years on a drug conviction.

Convicted murderer Timothy Cumberland has filed a motion for a shorter sentence, calling his 40-year prison term "inappropriate, unseemly, unjust and unfair."Cumberland, 24, of Reisterstown was sentenced to life in prison with all but 40 years suspended for the murder of Gregory Lamont Howard, who was shot in the chest at close range on South Center Street on Jan. 28, 1993, after a soured drug deal.Cumberland filed the shorter sentence motion Friday in Carroll Circuit Court. His is the longest term imposed on any of the three men convicted in the case.