A suspect’s provably false statements — combined with DNA evidence — helped police crack the high-profile murder of Nicole Sesker, the stepdaughter of former Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm.
Joseph Antonio Bonds, 35, gave a tape-recorded statement to police that directly contradicted the DNA evidence in Sesker’s death, police said.
“The DNA recovered from Sesker’s body matches that of Joseph Antonio Bonds,” homicide detective Todd Corriveau wrote in charging documents.
Homicide detectives arrested Bonds around 10 a.m. Thursday and charged him with the first-degree murder of Sesker, 37 — accusing him of strangling her and leaving her half-naked body under the porch of an empty row home at 3509 W. Garrison Blvd.
Bonds’ address is listed in court records as 3511 W. Garrison Blvd. — next door.
“DNA evidence ultimately tied this suspect to this homicide,” said Sterling Clifford, the Baltimore police spokesman.
DNA indicates ‘direct involvement’
Sources familiar with the case said Bonds had reportedly found Sesker’s body early June 27 and called 911. But police became suspicious when he told them he happened upon Sesker’s body after taking out the trash on a day the garbage pick-up was not scheduled for the northwest Baltimore neighborhood, the sources said.
According to charging documents, Bonds’ DNA was recovered from Sesker’s body. After being taken in for questioning, Bonds gave statements to police that were inconsistent with the physical evidence in the case, police said.
“The DNA was recovered from an area[s] of Sesker’s body, that in combination with information obtained at autopsy, is indicative of Bonds’ direct involvement in her murder,” Corriveau wrote. “… He provided a tape-recorded statement containing information that is directly contradicted by the presence of DNA evidence corroborating his culpability in the murder of Nicole Sesker.”
Body found at block’s only empty house
Margaret Jefferson, who also lived at 3511 West Garrison Blvd., had told The Examiner that she thought it was suspicious that the body was left behind the only unoccupied house on the block.
“The person who lived in that house is in a convalescent home; she moved there after her husband died,” Jefferson said the day after Sesker’s body was found.
Sesker was one of five women with records of prostitution strangled last summer, causing Baltimore police to form a task-force to investigate the killings. Sesker’s case is the only one of the five cases to be closed, but police say they believe her death was unrelated to prostitution.
Sources said investigators believe Sesker was killed over a dispute with drug dealers about a stash.
Sesker’s struggle with drug addiction made national news after a 2005 story in The New York Times recounted the personal toll on Hamm, who was the police commissioner at the time.
“When she gets sick and tired of being sick and tired, I’ll be there for her,” Hamm told The Times. “She’s not there yet.”
A long struggle with drugs
Hamm told The Times that “a person has to be ready to change” to kick addiction. He said he refused to give her money because he said she would use the money to buy drugs.
In the article, Sesker seemed to understand her stepfather’s position. “I know he loves me and that when I need him he’ll be there,” Sesker told The Times. “I love my family that much that I wouldn’t move in with them and require them to go through the struggle with me.”
Sesker continued to struggle with addiction for years, court records show. Last year, Sesker was convicted of one count of prostitution and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. In 2002, she pleaded guilty to drug possession and was given a month behind bars. In 1999, she was convicted to drug possession with the intent to distribute and given a suspended sentence.
Bonds has a history of violent behavior, according to court records. He has been arrested at least nine times and convicted of assault and burglary.
Examiner staff writer Stephen Janis contributed to this story.
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