Detectives arrested three men and confiscated more than $6,500 worth of drugs Thursday in Churchton, Anne Arundel police said.
Ending a monthlong investigation, police executed a search warrant at 5707 Shady Side Road and seized two firearms and $576 in cash in addition to marijuana and prescription pills, police said.
The men arrested all lived at the Shady Side Road house:
- Eric Wenzler, 29, was charged with possession of a gun, marijuana, methadone, morphine and drug paraphernalia.
- Brian Hardy, 27, was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
- Rion Gaston, 36, was charged with possession with intent to distribute morphine and methadone as well as possession of Tylenol codeine, morphine and methadone. –Carrie Wells
Commission seems to lean against death penalty
The new death penalty commission holds its first hearing Monday in Annapolis.
The 23-member commission might be stacked in favor of abolishing capital punishment, but at least seven or eight members — mostly current or former cops and prosecutors — appear to favor executions.
In New Jersey, where a similar commission recommended abolition of executions this past year, one of its strengths was only one of its 13 members dissented from its strong recommendations.
Achieving such consensus on Maryland’s panel would appear to be a lot more difficult. – Len Lazarick
Annapolis teen charged as adult in robberies
An Annapolis teen was arrested this past week in connection with two assaults, including a botched armed robbery in which he allegedly shot a man in the knee, Annapolis police said. Jaren Smith, 17, was charged as an adult with armed robbery, first-degree assault and a handgun violation for trying to rob a group of people about 12:30 a.m. June 30 on Center Street. A man tried to grab the gun from Smith, but a struggle ensued, and Smith shot him, police said. The second incident in which Smith is charged with robbery and assault occurred June 17 on Forest Drive, where Smith struck a man, who was sitting in a car in a driveway, and fled after taking the man’s money. Smith was being held Friday at the detention center in lieu of a $1 million bond. — Carolyn Peirce
Shooter identified in Annapolis homicide
A Brooklyn man, who is in a Prince George’s jail, has been charged as the shooter in a May homicide in Annapolis, police said Friday. Deonte Desmund Boyd, 24, is charged with first- and second-degree murder in the death of Michael Lee Thompson Sr., 31, of Annapolis, police said. Boyd recently was arrested in Prince George’s on drug possession charges and Annapolis police expect him to be returned to Anne Arundel and served with the charges in the shooting.
Boyd was identified as the shooter by multiple witnesses, police said.
Thompson, who was shot May 3 on Pleasant Street, was Annapolis’ sixth homicide in 2008. —Carolyn Peirce
Drive-by shooting, crash leave two men dead
Two men in a sport utility vehicle were killed in Northwest Baltimore when a gunman in a car fired shots at them and their SUV plowed into another car, Baltimore City police said.
The shooting was reported Friday morning after a white compact car pulled alongside the SUV at a light on Northern Parkway. The shooting continued as the SUV traveled through the intersection and hit a Ford Taurus and a light pole near Rogers Avenue.
One man in the SUV died at the scene, and a second was pronounced dead at a hospital. A 75-year-old woman in the Taurus suffered non-life-threatening injuries. — AP
Harford man charged in credit card thefts
State police arrested an Edgewood man for credit card thefts that dated to April 2006.
Bradley Lee Handy, 43, would befriend women on the Internet, gain access to their credit card information and make purchases on the cards without their knowledge, police said.
He was apprehended this pas week at an Exxon gas station in Edgewood.
He is being held on $100,000 bail at the Carroll County jail. — Mike Silvestri
