Stabbing Death

A 17-year-old Baltimore boy agreed to a plea of second-degree murder Friday in the 2007 stabbing death of Alfred Smith, 56. Marquel Gaffney of the 1900 block of Harlem Ave. had been charged as an adult in Baltimore City Circuit Court, but under the plea arrangement, Judge David W. Young transferred him to juvenile court for sentencing. - Tricia Bishop

A 17-year-old girl was fatally stabbed in an attack Thursday morning that also left her 59-year-old mother, a double amputee, in critical condition, one of three violent incidents in Northeast Baltimore over a 12-hour span, according to police. In a second incident, police said a man interrupted an apparent home invasion at his 66-year-old friend's residence, pulling a gun on two suspects and detaining one of them until police arrived, only to find the friend bound and unconscious inside the home.

A man who had been charged with dousing his 85-year-old grandmother with alcohol and setting her on fire in an argument over money in March is now being charged with first-degree murder, three months after the woman died at a hospital, a Baltimore police spokesman said. Tyron Markit Mason, 29, of the 2800 block of Frederick Ave., had been charged with attempted murder. Ethel Henderson died June 17 in the burn unit of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. The attack occurred about 5:20 p.m. on March 8, when police said Mason went to Henderson's home on Poplar Grove Street, demanded money and then set her on fire.

A man was being held Friday in the stabbing death of a 26-year-old acquaintance in Woodlawn. A Baltimore County police spokesman said the suspect would be charged with first-degree murder on Friday evening, and that the department would release both his name and that of the victim at that time. The spokesman, William Toohey, said the two men got into a fight shortly before 1:30 a.m. Friday outside an apartment building in the 3300 block of Aurora Lane. "We don't know what they were fighting about," Toohey said.

A 21-year-old man who police say is in the country illegally was arrested yesterday and charged in the stabbing death of a man last month in East Baltimore. Police also made an arrest in another fatal stabbing that occurred at a Hampden bar over the weekend. Eddy M. Castillo-Diaz, a native of Honduras who lists an address in the 100 block of N. Ellwood Ave., is charged with first-degree murder, assault and a weapons count in the death of Jose Escobar-Pena, who was stabbed in the abdomen just after 2 a.m. Feb. 22 in the 3500 block of Eastern Ave. Police arrested Lewis Brock, 27, of the 900 block of Bethune Road in an incident Sunday in which one man was killed and another injured.

A 17-year-old pleaded guilty yesterday to being an accessory after the fact in the stabbing death of a 15-year-old girl whose body was found by her mother last summer in her Southwest Baltimore home. Lloyd Chase of the 2100 block of McHenry St. faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, prosecutors said. The victim, Christine Richardson, was killed July 10 in her home in the 300 block of S. Fulton Ave. She suffered multiple stab wounds and her throat was slashed after an argument, according to the city state's attorney's office.

Joppa man was found fatally stabbed early yesterday in a parking lot in Edgewood, Harford County sheriff's deputies said. About 2 a.m., two passers-by saw the wounded David Arnold Byrd, 30, lying in the 1900 block of Edgewater Drive, said Sgt. Chris Presberry, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office. Byrd, of the 400 block of Latimer Road, had been stabbed in the torso. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, where he was pronounced dead, Presberry said. Presberry said police have no suspects in Byrd's killing.

A 49-year-old man died late Wednesday after he was stabbed inside a home in Southwest Baltimore, and a woman was arrested in the killing, city police said yesterday. About 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, police officers found Michael Stuckey on his back on the living room floor of a home in the 100 block of Diener Place, police said. Stuckey, of the 700 block of N. Augusta Ave., died about 11:45 p.m. at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Police said that detectives arrested Robin A. Weaver, 50, of the 6000 block of Radecke Ave. She has been charged with first-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon.

Baltimore police arrested a 15-year-old boy in the stabbing death yesterday of his older brother inside an East Baltimore rowhouse, a department spokesman said. The youth was being questioned yesterday afternoon and had not been charged, said the spokesman, Officer Troy Harris. He did not identify the suspect or the slain youth, a 17-year-old. Harris said officers were called to a rowhouse in the 1100 block of N. Chester St., near Collington Square, about 10:20 a.m. and found the victim suffering from a stab wound to the side.