Ski Mask

A resident of a program at Springfield Hospital Center was sentenced to 30 years in prison yesterday in Carroll County Circuit Court for the rape last year of a female patient. Circuit Judge Michael M. Galloway found Brian Franklin, 40, guilty of first-degree rape in the July 22, 2001, attack after hearing an undisputed statement of facts from a prosecutor. The judge suspended 10 years of a 40-year sentence, and ordered five years of probation. Franklin, who also used the last name Houston, lived in New York and Alabama before visiting relatives in the Washington suburbs, where he admitted himself to the hospital, said Assistant State's Attorney Natasha M. Byus.

FOR A LIVING, Larry Noto works for the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association. For a laugh, he joined 14 other folks, some of them snapping one-liners like wet towels in a locker room, some of them wading through Comedy Vietnam, all of them finalists downtown at The Improv the other night to determine The Funniest Person in Baltimore. "This is a lot like the first time I had sex," Noto said, gazing at the packed crowd sitting out there in the dark. "Except, tonight, I actually want the laughs.

Police have released composite sketches of two suspects in an armed robbery of an Eldersburg bank. Witnesses saw the faces of two of four men in the robbery of FCNB Bank in the 6200 block of Sykesville Road at 3:22 p.m. Friday. Two of three men were briefly seen before they pulled large hooded sweat shirts over their heads as they entered the bank. The third man wore a ski mask, and a fourth drove the getaway vehicle, described as a small green sedan. Anyone with information in the case should call 410-386-3000.

A Manchester man was arrested late Wednesday in connection with an armed robbery soon after a witness gave state police information about a suspect and a getaway car. A man armed with a knife and wearing a black ski mask robbed the Hanover Country Crown station in the 200 block of Hanover Pike in Hampstead about 10 p.m., according to court documents. A witness told troopers that the robber had run from the station to the back of an adjoining building and driven away in a brown Cavalier.

Howard County police are investigating an armed robbery at a High's store in the 5300 block of Phelps Luck Road. Shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday, two men entered the store and ordered two clerks to empty cash from registers into a bag. The clerks were forced into a bathroom, and the two men fled with an undetermined amount of money, phone cards and cigarettes. Police are seeking two men in their late teens to early 20s, both about 5 feet 8 and about 150 pounds. One was wearing a green ski mask, black jeans and gloves and was armed with a long-barreled rifle, and the other was wearing a black ski mask and shorts.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore City Eastern District Shooting: A boy, 16, was sitting on the front steps of a house in the 1600 block of N. Port St. about 6 p.m. Sunday when two gunmen demanded his money. When the youth tried to run, both men shot at him, wounding him at least once in the lower back. The victim was in stable condition last night at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Central District Bank robbery: An apparently unarmed man robbed Liberty Federal Savings & Loan in the 400 block of N. Howard St. of an undisclosed sum about 1 p.m. yesterday.

A robber wearing a ski mask held up two clerks at a clothing store in Snowden Square Shopping Center yesterday morning, police said.About 9: 45 a.m., a robber entered The Men's Wearhouse and brandished a handgun, police said.The robber stole money from a clerk and forced him into the rear of the store, said Sgt. Morris Carroll, a police spokesman. The gunman then forced another employee to hand over his wallet before fleeing.Carroll said police were trying to determine how much money was taken.

A man wearing a ski mask and carrying a toy pistol didn't get what he expected when he entered the Towson Shell station and confronted Michael Z. McCarthy: Instead of money, he got assorted minor hurts in a free-for-all that spilled out of the station into the parking lot -- and ended with an arrest, police said.McCarthy, 19, of the 8900 block of Mount Patapsco Court in Ellicott City and his roommate, 20-year-old Hyoun T. Kim, entered the station about 2 a.m. yesterday, according to a police report.

A man wearing a ski mask and a suit jacket robbed a Glen Burnie gas station Sunday of an undisclosed amount of money, county police said.The man entered the Crown station in the 7900 block of Quarterfield Road about 6 a.m. with his hand shoved under his jacket and demanded money while gesturing as if he had a weapon, police said.The clerk complied, and the robber ran away.Pub Date: 9/03/97

A Linthicum man who was trapped inside a gas station by the attendant he was trying to rob pleaded guilty yesterday to the crime and was sentenced to 13 years in prison."