Veney

An 18-year-old Pasadena man was charged yesterday in the death of a child in Glen Burnie last spring, police said. DeAndre Anthony Jones of the 7900 block of Liberty Circle turned himself in to police Tuesday afternoon, one week after a grand jury issued a warrant for his arrest in the killing of 3-year-old Jaysia Lana Larue. The girl was found unconscious in her mother's Glen Burnie apartment on May 13. Three days later, the child died at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she had been treated for injuries to her head and neck.

Starting today, Baltimore police officers armed with ticket books and pens will start cracking down on minor violations in an effort to ease residents' fears that crime is spiraling out of control.Police are not promising a panacea, but they hope the new initiative will bring substantive changes to neighborhoods troubled by loiterers, prostitutes and other lawbreakers whose seemingly trivial offenses often go unchallenged.By writing tickets -- which require recipients to appear in court a month later -- officers can punish petty criminals and not spend time booking a prisoner, which can take them off the street for at least two hours.

Alma Taylor Thomas, a physical education teacher at several city public schools for nearly 50 years who was born and lived in the same East Baltimore rowhouse for 85 years, died Sunday of cancer at Good Samaritan Nursing Center. She was 92.Mrs. Thomas was an instructor in the city school system from the mid-1920s until 1972, teaching at Frederick Douglass High School, Dunbar High School and the former Cherry Hill Junior High School.As a physical education teacher, Mrs. Thomas believed in making her students as well conditioned as possible.

A 65-year-old convicted murderer with failing health was being sought as a fugitive yesterday after walking away from his work-release job at a Jessup warehouse, state correctional officials said.L. V. "Lonny" Wade, serving life plus 20 years for the 1963 murder and robbery of a Baltimore grocer and an additional 10 years for a prior escape, was last seen at the warehouse about 3 p.m. Wednesday."He does not have great health. . . . He's clearly a senior citizen," said Thomas R. Corcoran, warden of the state's prerelease system.

Saying it is unfair to remove inmates serving life sentences from the state prerelease program, a prisoners' rights group plans to protest the action tonight outside Division of Correction headquarters in Northwest Baltimore.Members of the Maryland Prison Renewal Committee said they were appalled by the division's action last month to temporarily remove lifers from the family-leave and work-release components of the prerelease program."It's not just any Tom, Dick or Harry who they allow in the prerelease program, and most lifers on work-release have done quite well," Beverly Nur, one of the committee's 150 members, said yesterday.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore City Southeastern District Arrest: Members of the Warrant Apprehension Task Force entered a house in the first block of Fernsell Court in Rosedale early yesterday and arrested resident Troy Veney on a charge of first-degree murder. Veney, 19, is charged in a warrant with shooting Terry Street, 23, of the 1200 block of Appleleaf Court on Jan. 29 as the victim and another man sat in a car outside a recreation center in the 200 block of Aisquith St. Burglary: A laptop computer, DVD player and bicycle - all valued at $1,600 - were stolen Monday from an apartment in the 100 block of N. Broadway.

A state trooper pulled three people from a burning Lexus early Saturday morning, likely saving the life of one man, police said, while another man and a teenage girl died from their injuries. Police said the crash that set the vehicle ablaze on I-95 at Route 24 near Abingdon might have been caused by road rage. Around 2 a.m. a Lexus, driven by Veney B. Tanner Jr., 31, of Abingdon, was hit by a box truck traveling north on the highway. Off-duty Maryland State Police Cpl. Kevin Watkins came upon the accident just after it had occurred, pulling Tanner and his two passengers out of the car. Watkins performed CPR on an unresponsive Tanner, who was later pronounced dead at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, according to police.

FROSTBURG -- Towson Catholic (25-11) found itself in a 12-0 hole just 3:31 into the game and could not dig itself out in losing the Alhambra Consolation Championship game 62-55 to Archbishop Carroll (19-13) of Washington here last night.Timothy Washington scored eight of Carroll's first 12 points and was the game's leading scorer with 25, as the Owls could get no closer than five points, which came with 15 seconds left in the game. Carroll maintained a 12- to 15-point lead through much of the game.

BaseballAngels: Designated P Pep Harris and IF Justin Baughman for assignment. Sent P Steve Mintz outright to Triple-A Edmonton.Brewers: Named Gary Hansen minor-league pitching coordinator.Reds: Added P Pat Flury, P John Riedling and 1B D. T. Cromer to 40-man roster. Promoted Terry Abbott to area scouting supervisor. Named Butch Baccala special assignment scout.Tigers: Sent IF Jason Wood, IF Jose Macias and P Beiker Graterol outright to Triple-A Toledo.BasketballNBA: Named Mike Bantom VP and group manager, player and basketball development.

Holiday pictures, with the kids decked out in their red and green finest, might be one of the first things to go by the wayside as parents attempt to care for a critically ill child. But a trio of photographers brought the photo studio to the children Saturday at Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital, where nurses and moms primped and fussed over the children, hiding breathing tubes and the wires from heart monitors in order to get that perfect holiday portrait. And, thanks to the generosity of a program called Help Portrait, the finished pictures will be free.