Westminster Home

Police said a Hanover, Md., man died Saturday after being shot while lying on the couch at a home he was visiting in Westminster. Westminster police said Vygants Tomas Campe, 46, died after being struck by a bullet from a gun that may have discharged accidentally. Police said on March 16 at about 11:45 a.m., officers and emergency medical personnel responded to a residence in the 400 block of South Hills Court in Westminster for the report of a shooting. When they arrived they found a man, later identified as Campe, on the first floor of the home suffering from a single gunshot wound.

Federal investigators began examining Monday the wreckage of a two-seater, home-built airplane that crashed Sunday in Virginia, killing a man from Davidsonville and his son from Westminster, the father of 10 children. On Saturday, experimental airplane owner and pilot Barry Raymond Newgent, 73, and his passenger and son, Thomas Barry Newgent, 51, were bound for the Virginia Regional Festival of Flight, a weekend air show. The other small airplanes in a group of four traveling from Maryland arrived safely.

Fire destroyed a camping trailer parked outside a home in th 2200 block of Bluebird Drive in Westminster late Friday night.The trailer's owner, Rafael Muriel Jr., and a passer-by discovered the fire at 11:46 p.m., said Faron Taylor, a deputy state fire marshal.No one was injured.Thirty-three firefighters from New Windsor, Winfield and Union Bridge brought the blaze under control within 15 minutes, Mr. Taylor said.The 1987 Skyline truck camper, valued at $10,000, had been sitting on jacks next to the garage and was unoccupied, Mr. Taylor said.

It's a sunny morning in Westminster, and the pulleys are squeaking, the weights clinking as a half-dozen members of a small gym give the equipment a workout. Bouncy music comes though a stereo's speakers. A trainer encourages a client on a treadmill. A large banner on the wall reads, "Believe In Miracles!" Gina Gilligan-Della said she has seen more than her share of those. Gilligan-Della, 48, is the founding president of TheraFit Gym, a fitness center designed to serve individuals with severe physical disabilities from spinal-cord injury to the after-effects of stroke.

A 47-year-old Westminster man was charged yesterday with buying beer and liquor for a sleepover party attended by members of the Westminster High School girls basketball team - and with having sex with one of the girls at the gathering. Randall S. Matthews, who surrendered at the Maryland State Police barracks in Westminster yesterday morning, is charged with 16 counts of providing alcohol to underage drinkers - a charge called "contributing to the condition of a child." Nine girls who attended the party were suspended from the basketball team for the balance of the season for allegedly violating the Carroll school system's alcohol policy.

Federal investigators began examining Monday the wreckage of a two-seater, home-built airplane that crashed Sunday in Virginia, killing a man from Davidsonville and his son from Westminster, the father of 10 children. On Saturday, experimental airplane owner and pilot Barry Raymond Newgent, 73, and his passenger and son, Thomas Barry Newgent, 51, were bound for the Virginia Regional Festival of Flight, a weekend air show. The other small airplanes in a group of four traveling from Maryland arrived safely.

It's a sunny morning in Westminster, and the pulleys are squeaking, the weights clinking as a half-dozen members of a small gym give the equipment a workout. Bouncy music comes though a stereo's speakers. A trainer encourages a client on a treadmill. A large banner on the wall reads, "Believe In Miracles!" Gina Gilligan-Della said she has seen more than her share of those. Gilligan-Della, 48, is the founding president of TheraFit Gym, a fitness center designed to serve individuals with severe physical disabilities from spinal-cord injury to the after-effects of stroke.

A state police veteran of 13 years accidentally shot himself in the leg as he tried to holster his 9 mm service handgun while getting dressed at his Westminster home about 6: 45 a.m. yesterday, a state police spokesman said.Cpl. Timothy B. Selby, 38, was treated at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore and released, said 1st Sgt. Robert Windsor of the Westminster barracks.A preliminary investigation determined that the strap of Selby's holster became lodged in the trigger guard, causing the pistol to discharge, Windsor said.

A Littlestown, Pa., man who prosecutors say led a six-member theft ring in Carroll County last summer has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on robbery and burglary charges.A Carroll County jury took two hours Tuesday evening to convict Robert Carter Shore II in the crime at a Westminster home last year. Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. suspended two years of the sentence and placed Shore on five years of probation, to take effect upon his release. The judge also ordered restitution of $2,750 to be paid to Sterling and Kathleen Watson, whose Westminster home was robbed by Shore.

Dr. Craig Nichols Schmall, a Carroll County chiropractor, died of lung cancer Aug. 19 at his Westminster home. He was 70. Dr. Schmall was born in Baltimore and raised in Reisterstown, where he graduated from Franklin High School in 1951. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1955 from what was then Western Maryland College. He served in the Army for two years as a medical officer in Korea and attained the rank of captain. After his discharge in 1957, he attended the National College of Chiropractic in Chicago and earned a degree in chiropractic medicine.

Police said a Hanover, Md., man died Saturday after being shot while lying on the couch at a home he was visiting in Westminster. Westminster police said Vygants Tomas Campe, 46, died after being struck by a bullet from a gun that may have discharged accidentally. Police said on March 16 at about 11:45 a.m., officers and emergency medical personnel responded to a residence in the 400 block of South Hills Court in Westminster for the report of a shooting. When they arrived they found a man, later identified as Campe, on the first floor of the home suffering from a single gunshot wound.

Two juveniles were arrested in the burning of a wooden cross in the driveway of a Westminster home late Sunday night, according to the Carroll County Sheriff's Office. Detectives and representatives of the Fire Marshall's Office responded to the 500 block of Ravenshead Run Road just after 11 p.m., when the burned religious symbol was found, the sheriff's office said. Meanwhile, sheriff's deputies were conducting an investigation in the area for a separate call and were able to identify and locate two juvenile suspects in the cross burning, the sheriff's office said.

As you drive up to the Beckers' front door in Carroll County's Sun Valley development, large front yards and a good chunk of land between homes create a warm feeling of country living amid open fields. Dave Becker, 44, and his wife Nancy, 42, have invested heavily on landscaping, and it shows. Trees include crape myrtle, blue spruce and cherry. They share the lawn with a red-twig dogwood, a Southern magnolia and a prickly pear. All are as beautifully and thoughtfully placed on the land as the neighboring houses are carefully staggered.

Charles Osborne Fisher, a World War II veteran and prominent Carroll County attorney whose legal career spanned more than six decades, died Friday at his Westminster home from complications of a broken hip. He was 95. "Charles was a real gentleman and an old-time lawyer with modern ideas. He was always steady and consistent," said Herbert S. Garten, a partner in the firm of Fedder and Garten. "He was like an older brother to me and many other lawyers. He was a role model. " The son of a Ford dealer and a homemaker, Mr. Fisher was born in Washington and in 1921 moved to a house on North Court Street, across from the Court House in Westminster, where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Judge Francis Miller Arnold, who had a first career as an employee relations director and later became a lawyer and then a judge of the District Court and the Circuit Court, died Wednesday of esophageal cancer at his Westminster home. He was 83. "Judge Arnold was a wonderful human being and a superb jurist. He was the kind of judge that any judge would want to emulate," said Howard County Circuit Judge Lenore R. Gelfman. "I'm so sad. It's a great personal loss for me. We were like a father and daughter.

Frances K. "Kay" Colley, a retired Howard County mathematics teacher and volunteer, died Monday of breast cancer at her Westminster home. She was 83. Frances Kathleen Sparling, the daughter of a Lehigh Valley Railroad engineer and a homemaker, was born in Bethlehem, Pa. Mrs. Colley was raised in Hazelton, Pa., and Leighton, Pa., where she graduated in 1945 from Leighton High School. She was a 1949 graduate of what is now East Stroudsburg University in East Stroudsburg, Pa., where she majored in both math and English.

Two juveniles were arrested in the burning of a wooden cross in the driveway of a Westminster home late Sunday night, according to the Carroll County Sheriff's Office. Detectives and representatives of the Fire Marshall's Office responded to the 500 block of Ravenshead Run Road just after 11 p.m., when the burned religious symbol was found, the sheriff's office said. Meanwhile, sheriff's deputies were conducting an investigation in the area for a separate call and were able to identify and locate two juvenile suspects in the cross burning, the sheriff's office said.

A man broke into a Westminster home Sunday night, demanded money from a female resident while wielding an unknown tool and then fled, state police reported yesterday. The intruder broke in through a rear sliding door of the house in the 1000 block of Humbert Schoolhouse Road about 10:30 p.m., police said. After walking up the basement stairs and demanding money from the woman, the suspect fled on foot. The woman was not injured, police said. The robber might be linked to another crime in which vehicles were ransacked about a half-mile down the road in the 5000 block of Biemiller Road, police said.

Charles F. "Chuck" Fowler, a retired Maryland state trooper who later was a Carroll County bailiff and sheriff's deputy, died Saturday of cancer at his Westminster home. He was 72. Mr. Fowler was born in Baltimore and raised on Stonington Avenue. He later moved with his family to Westminster, where he graduated from Westminster High School in 1954. He served in the Marine Corps as a flight equipment officer and parachute rigger from 1954 to 1958, when he was discharged with the rank of sergeant.