Washington County

A jury began deliberating late yesterday in the capital murder trial of Brandon T. Morris, who is accused of shooting a Washington County correctional officer in the face while attempting to escape from a hospital in 2006. During closing arguments, a prosecutor told the jury in Howard County Circuit Court that Jeffery Wroten died for no "good reason" and described Morris as exceptionally "desperate" and "callous" to kill someone in the presence of caregivers. Prosecutors sought to prove that Morris killed Wroten as part of his planned hospital escape, a felony murder that would make the defendant eligible for the death penalty.

Escaped inmate found in W. Baltimore house An inmate at the state's Metropolitan Transition Center in downtown Baltimore who escaped Monday was captured yesterday morning while hiding in a West Baltimore rowhouse, authorities said. Shortly after 8 a.m., members of the Regional Warrant Apprehension Task Force entered a house in the 900 block of Arlington Ave. and arrested Gerard Damon, 25, without incident. Damon had about 18 months left on three-year sentence for distributing drugs. Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said Damon was returning from a road crew assignment Monday afternoon when he walked away after getting out of a van at the minimum-security complex on Forrest Street between East Madison and Eager streets.

The Howard County Sheriff's Office will take extra security measures for the capital murder trial this week of Brandon T. Morris, who attempted to flee a Howard County courtroom in May during jury-selection proceedings. His trial is scheduled to begin tomorrow in Howard County Circuit Court. Morris, 22, of Baltimore is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of corrections officer Jeffery A. Wroten in January 2006 during an attempted escape from Washington County Hospital in Hagerstown, where Morris had been taken for treatment of self-inflicted wounds.

Judge bars escape attempt as evidence in inmate's trial, A judge ruled yesterday that a state prison inmate's attempted escape from a Howard County courtroom this year will not be admitted as evidence when he goes on trial in Ellicott City next month in the shooting death of a correctional officer who was guarding him at a Hagerstown hospital. Brandon T. Morris, 22, of Baltimore is charged with killing Officer Jeffery A. Wroten during an attempted escape from Washington County Hospital in January 2006.

A 73-year-old man may face drunken driving charges after a Thanksgiving Day accident in Northwest Baltimore left a motorcyclist dead, city police said yesterday. The victim was identified as William Carter Jr., 47, of the 6200 block of Robin Hill Road in Gwynn Oak, Baltimore County. Police said Carter was pronounced dead at the scene of the 11:30 a.m. accident in the 3700 block of W. Belvedere Ave. Officer Donny Moses, a city police spokesman, said Carter was driving a Harley Davidson motorcycle west on Belvedere near Pimlico Race Course when an eastbound pickup truck made a sudden left turn onto Litchfield Avenue.

Tax revenues are coming in more slowly than expected, leaving Maryland about $132.5 million short of its projections for the current fiscal year, Comptroller Peter Franchot said in a letter yesterday. Based on data gathered since the fiscal year began in July, Franchot's office expects sales tax receipts to increase 2.5 percent this year, well short of the 4.8 percent estimate Gov. Martin O'Malley used when preparing his budget. That disparity amounts to $115.5 million, Franchot wrote.

A Washington County man was arrested yesterday for trying to sell cigarettes over the Internet, a practice that has been illegal in the state since 2005, the Maryland comptroller's office announced. Agents with the comptroller's office found an online ad for the cigarettes and set up a meeting with the suspected seller, James Kevin Morgan. It's the first time someone has been arrested in Maryland by comptroller's agents for trying to sell cigarettes over the Internet, the comptroller's office said.

The day after a man with a history of escape attempts tried to flee a courtroom as his murder trial was getting under way, a Howard County Circuit Court judge dismissed the entire jury pool and asked the lawyers whether he should recuse himself from the case. Brandon T. Morris, 21, tried to escape from Judge Dennis M. Sweeney's courtroom during jury selection Thursday. Two sheriff's deputies and two potential jurors received minor injuries during the ruckus, which resulted in Morris being wrestled to the floor by security officers.

I could be wrong, but I'm having a hard time believing that Brandon T. Morris was smart enough to see that if he tried to escape from the Howard County circuit court building, then his trial would be postponed. But that's what's happened. Yesterday, Howard County Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney told Washington County prosecutors and Morris' defense attorneys that, in the next several weeks, he would issue his ruling on whether he should continue to preside over the case. That information comes from Washington County Deputy State's Attorney Joseph S. Michael, who was to be the prosecutor at Morris' trial.

A state prison inmate from Baltimore accused of killing a correctional officer, kidnapping a hospital visitor and carjacking a taxi driver leaped from his courtroom chair yesterday in an escape attempt before security personnel tackled him. The midafternoon ruckus erupted in front of dozens of potential jurors and rocked the Howard County Circuit Court as sheriff's deputies and plainclothes prison guards raced to stop Brandon T. Morris' bid for freedom....