Trial Judge

A 23-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to consecutive life terms plus 40 years in prison for fatally shooting two people in 2007 who were attacked in broad daylight after they emerged from a Dollar Store in the city'sBelair-Edisonneighborhood. Larry Livingston Joseph had been convicted of the crimes in August 2008 but the state's Court of Special Appeals threw out the verdict two years ago. The judges ruled that the trial judge had failed to ask Joseph why he wanted to fire his attorney.

The judge presiding over the trial of two brothers accused of assaulting a teen in Northwest Baltimore plans to give her ruling in the case Thursday afternoon. Baltimore Circuit Judge Pamela J. White has heard a week of arguments in the bench trial of Eliyahu Werdesheim, 24, and his brother, Avi Werdesheim, 22. After the prosecutor and defense attorneys completed their closing statements Wednesday afternoon, White told them that she expects to issue her verdict at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Prosecutors are facing a series of hurdles in their second try at convicting two brothers accused of setting a pit bull on fire in 2009, day after day losing key witnesses and testimony that nearly won them their case in the first trial a year ago. Since Tuesday, blows to the prosecutors' case have included one witness refusing to testify, another giving contradictory statements and, most recently, an officer being barred by Judge Emanuel Brown...

A Maryland appeals court has ruled that the state violated the rights of two men who were found incompetent to stand trial and were then held in state institutions beyond the legal time limit without going through proceedings for commitment to a mental hospital. In a case that state officials say would affect a small number of people now in state hospitals and community treatment, the Court of Special Appeals ruled Wednesday in favor of the men, who have been indicted and re-indicted on the same charges in Harford and Baltimore counties.

A man who has been tried three times in the death of a 3-year-old girl has been denied a chance at a fourth trial with a ruling by the state's highest court affirming his latest conviction for involuntary manslaughter and child abuse. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that 31-year-old Erik Stoddard's conviction and 40-year prison sentence will stand in the 2002 fatal beating of Calen Faith Dirubbo in her Northeast Baltimore home. Police said the suspect was angry because he had been unable to toilet train the girl.

The oversized windows of Hans Wilhelmsen's house in Jacksonville command a view to the east of hills dotted with baled hay and stands of oak, maple and pine on the 70 acres he owns a mile south of where an Exxon station unleashed an underground flood of unleaded gasoline five years ago. Thirteen bison patrolled the fields then, but they're gone now, and Wilhelmsen is sure he knows why. "We saw six die at one time" about two years ago, Wilhelmsen said....

Within the last 10 days, the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned the first-degree murder convictions of two Mexican men in the gruesome murders of three children in Baltimore in 2004; the manslaughter conviction of Ricky Savoy in the death of Marvin Watts in Baltimore in 1993; and the second-degree murder conviction of Raymond Lupfer in the shooting death of Jeremy Yarbray in Cecil County in 2007. In each case, the state's highest court said, the trial judge made mistakes. One judge failed to tell attorneys about five "substantive" notes that came from the jury during trial.

While decrying their actions Tuesday as "cowboy tactics," a Baltimore circuit judge acquitted the last of three city police officers who had been charged with kidnapping and misconduct for picking up two West Baltimore teens and stranding them far from their homes. Officer Gregory Hellen, 31, whose name was rarely mentioned during two weeks of testimony, was spared a misconduct conviction only because the case had essentially been mischarged, Judge Timothy J. Doory told him. "You should be ashamed of your participation in what was done that night," Doory said in handing down his decision.

When a police detective tells a suspect that their conversation "is between you and me, bud," it needs to stay that way, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled Monday, overturning a murder conviction in Baltimore County. The judges ruled unanimously that Christian Darrell Lee's admission that he shot and killed a man during a home invasion in North Point in 2006 should not have been used at his trial, at which he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life plus 110 years in prison.

Mayor Sheila Dixon's attorneys signaled Friday that they plan to ask for a new trial in her gift card misappropriation case, while the state prosecutor said he would not "at this time" retry the one count that hung the jury this week. In a filing hand-delivered to Baltimore Circuit Court, Dixon attorney Dale P. Kelberman requested 10 more days to prepare his motion for a new trial, saying he needed time "to obtain certain transcripts of testimony and other evidence." Presiding Judge Dennis M. Sweeney denied the request.