Stepfather

A 33-year-old man was sentenced yesterday to three years in the county jail for sexually abusing his 14-year-old stepdaughter beginning on her sixth birthday.Carroll Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. said, as he did March 29 when he convicted the man on multiple sex abuse counts, that he believed the girl and that the man's crimes cried out for punishment.He sentenced the man to nine years each on two counts of child abuse, two counts of third-degree sexual offense and one of second-degree child abuse.

Dayvon Green, Stephen Rane and Neal Oa didn't know one another before becoming roommates last fall, sharing a modest split-level house in a subdivision across from the University of Maryland, College Park. But Oa came to regard Green as a friend, making Tuesday's events at the house even more shocking. Early that morning, Green opened fire, shooting Oa in the leg and killing Rane, police said. The violence stunned the community and those who knew Green. Police said the 23-year-old graduate student who had interned at NASA set fires in and around the home to lure his roommates outside before he shot them.

A 20-year-old Pennsylvania woman remained in jail yesterday on an assault charge in the stabbing of her stepfather at his home, apparently because the stepfather had argued with her boyfriend, Westminster police said. Robyn Lee Garrison of Hanover was charged Tuesday night with first-degree assault in the stabbing of Charles Joseph Hamilton, 42, of the 700 block of Young Way in Westminster, police said. Hamilton, who refused medical treatment, had a small puncture wound in his stomach and a cut over his eye from a kitchen knife that broke after the first blow, police said.

Perry Hall High School shooting suspect Robert Wayne Gladden Jr. knew his stepfather owned a cache of powerful guns but was unable to gain access to them because they were locked in a safe, Baltimore County police said Friday. "This shooting, as devastating as it was, could have been a lot worse," Police Chief James Johnson wrote in a blog entry posted on a county news website Friday. Police have obtained evidence that Gladden was "well aware of the guns" but knew he couldn't get to them, according to the blog.

A 21-year-old Annapolis man was sentenced yesterday to 30 years in prison for the murder of his stepfather last year. Deploring the fatal shooting of Joseph Theodore Brown Sr., 66, Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Nancy L. Davis-Loomis told Timothy Marcus Medley that she could not possibly ease the devastation caused by the death of Brown, with whom Medley lived. "Those are the choices you have made," she said, referring to Medley's admission that he was on PCP at the time of the shooting Oct. 30 at the home in the 1900 block of Copeland St. Medley pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

A 21-year-old Jessup man is being held without bail in the Howard County Detention Center on charges of stabbing his stepfather during the weekend.Howard County police arrested Montel Demain Gross in the 8300 block of Ashwood Court and charged him with first-degree assault after the Saturday night stabbing.Police said Gross got into an argument with his stepfather, Benjamin Thomas, 41, who lives at the same address, when Thomas accused Gross of not paying rent.According to a police report, Gross repeatedly stabbed Thomas the lower chest and right hand.

I recently married a woman with 10- and 12-year-old daughters, and I need to know how to win their respect and love. Does anybody out there know how to do it?W.E., Opa-locka, Fla.It can easily take up to three years for a stepfather to truly bond with his new family, says James H. Bray, a family-medicine professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who has tracked 200 stepfamilies since the mid-1980s.The older the children, the longer the bonding takes, adds Emily B. Visher, of Lafayette, Calif.

A 17-year-old who has alleged he was sexually abused by his stepfather had put his sister up to making similar allegations, the accused man's attorney said yesterday.As the youth was on the stand testifying against his stepfather, Assistant Public Defender Samuel Truette zeroed in on the sister's allegations, which she later recanted."She said it never happened, isn't that right?" Mr. Truette yelled. "She said that because you put her up to it," he declared before the alleged victim could answer.

A 25-year-old Annapolis woman told a Circuit Court jury yesterday that years of being forced to have oral sex with her stepfather changed their relationship until she became like a wife to him.A 47-year-old Chadds Ford, Pa., man faces charges of sexual child abuse, second-degree rape and other sex offenses in a trial expected to last two days before Judge Eugene M. Lerner.The victim said that when she was seven, her stepfather came into the bathroom while she was taking a bath and instructed her to fondle him. Soon after that, it became a part of herstepfather's routine to fondle her when he came into her bedroom to tuck her into bed every night.

A 44-year-old man surrendered to police last night on charges of raping the 12-year-old daughter of his girlfriend, city police said today.The victim also was raped three years ago by her stepfather, police were told.Police spokesman Sam Ringgold said Nathaniel James Jackson was being held on $100,000 bail today after he came in to the Western District police station about 10:40 p.m.The suspect was scheduled to have a bail review hearing before a district court judge later today.Mr. Jackson had been charged in a warrant with raping the girl about 7:30 a.m. Thursday in a second-floor bedroom of a house on North Carrollton Ave. in West Baltimore.

On January 3, 2010, ELWOOD V. "Bud" LYON, 83 died peacefully after a long illness with Parkinson's and Alzheimer diseases. Beloved husband of Virginia "Presh" Lyon (nee Offutt). Brother of Richard A. Lyon and his wife Patricia. Brother-in-law of Noah E. and Cecil S. Offutt and of Roberta E. Offutt. Loving stepfather of Virginia "Ginger" and Michael Hild and of Mike and Laura Shaneybrook. Grandfather of Adam and Jason Howard, Raven S. Sharp, Sommer Shaneybrook and Michael and Jeffrey Hild.

Chris Tillman wanted more eggs for breakfast but couldn't communicate the thought from his high chair. So he grabbed an orange and flung it across the kitchen, hitting his grandmother flush in the back of the head. Tillman wasn't quite 2, yet he had thrown his first strike. "He's got an arm," joked Tillman's stepfather, David Sterrenburg. "Even then." The orange-tossing incident goes down in family lore as the first time Tillman's right arm drew attention. Nearly two decades later, it still is turning heads.

Suddenly on April 3, 2009, KEITH T. GROSS, age 34; beloved son of Charles Gross and Debbie Waggy. Also survived by one daughter, Courtney Castro, stepfather Henry Waggy, one sister Heather Waggy, and three brothers, Charles, Christopher, and James Gross. Friends may call on Wednesday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. at the family owned BRADLEY-ASHTON FUNERAL HOME, P.A. Interment private.

Soon after he turned 18, Charles Yi Barnett told his mother he wanted to join the Army. "I said 'No, you're not going anywhere,' " said his mother, Ipun "Yvonne" Dashiell. She forced one military recruiter to leave her home, but the teenager was determined to enlist. He left for basic training almost exactly a year ago, and in May he was sent to Iraq. Late Thursday, military officials went to his mother and stepfather's Bel Air home with grim news: The 19-year-old had died that day of injuries he received in Tallil in a noncombat incident.

A 27-year-old Anne Arundel County man pleaded guilty yesterday to fatally shooting his mother and attempting to kill his stepfather in 2006, but he was found not criminally responsible, the state's equivalent of an insanity defense. Zachary T. Neiman was delusional and had been hearing voices in the weeks leading up to the July 8, 2006, murder of his mother, Rae Bajus, 53, at their Pasadena home, said prosecutor Pamela Alban at a hearing in county Circuit Court before Judge Paul A. Hackner.

When Sgt. Ryan P. Baumann told his family five years ago that he wanted to join the Army, relatives say they knew it was coming. Sergeant Baumann spent eight years of his childhood in Germany, where he picked up a foreign language and learned the ins and outs of Army life. "Ryan grew up around the miliary," said his mother, Cindy Lohman, who worked as a civilian nurse on a base in Germany. "It didn't surprise me. His heroes were guys in the 82nd [Airborne Division]. And he was a post 9-11 child, so he felt very committed to doing something to protect this country."

A Baltimore patrolman who reluctantly served as a lookout for a deadly arson-for-hire ring after he was recruited by his stepfather, also a city officer, was sentenced to 15 months behind bars yesterday -- less time than prosecutors and even his own attorney had requested.Chief U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz said the case involved special circumstances because of the terrible position Ian Budny had been placed in by his stepfather, which the judge said prompted him to hand down the relatively light prison term in federal court in Baltimore.

Marine Cpl. Andre D. Boone, who was shot to death at his family's Howard County home Friday, had a bright future in the Marine Corps and had recently earned a coveted post as a noncommissioned officer assigned to the White House.Boone's stepfather, James M. Harding Jr., 39, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after the shooting, which took place in Harding's home on Goodin Circle in Columbia.It was Howard's first homicide this year, county police said.Harding is a former Maryland state trooper who was "found to have violated administrative policies and state criminal laws" and was fired in June 1994 after 18 months on the job, said Capt.

On July 16, 2008, DEBORAH D.; beloved daughter of James Matthew Lee. She is also survived by her mother Audrey Blake, stepfather Frank Blake, aunt, uncles, cousins, other relatives and friends. Friends may call at the family owned Howell Funeral Home, P.A., 4600 Liberty Heights Avenue, on Sunday, 1 to 5 P.M. Family will receive friends at the chapel on Monday, 11 to 11:30 A.M. with funeral services immediately following.

Even a baseball novice could've told you which high school pitcher would make the majors. At a lean 6 feet 4 with a fastball that crossed 95 mph and uncommon poise for a teenager, McDonogh's Brandon Erbe could have been cast by Hollywood as a young Jim Palmer. Chorye Spoone? Well, the player from Northeast High was a chunky kid with an unruly temper whose fastball topped out at 87 mph. But a funny thing has happened since the two local pitchers were picked by their hometown Orioles in the 2005 draft.