He heard guilty 30 times for crimes that could keep him locked up for 100 years, but Ronald Jerome Presco didn?t show any emotion.
After less than two hours of deliberations Thursday, a Carroll County Circuit Court jury found Presco guilty of 30 out of 31 counts of kidnapping, armed robbery, assault, false imprisonment and other charges in connection with a Dec. 7 home invasion that left his accomplice dead and a state trooper wounded.
The jury found Presco not guilty of theft over $500 when it learned that a little less was stolen, said David Daggett, chief deputy state?s attorney. Presco?s sentencing is slated for Sept. 10.
An Eldersburg family testified this week that they were watching “Survivor” on TV just after 8 p.m. one Thursday when Presco and his cousin, Steven Tyrone Jones, burst downstairs, wearing black ski masks and wielding a handgun.
The pair tied up Jamisson South, 23, her fiancé, Christopher Joel Sokol, and her brother, Garrett South, 20, with duct tape, computer wires and handcuffs, the family testified.
They hit Jamisson South and Sokol and stole an engagement ring, cell phones, money, necklace and a PlayStation, all the while demanding to know where “he” was.
“This isn?t random,” the burglars said. “We?ve been following him.”
Then Levi South, 26, came home.
Presco, 37, of Baltimore, forced Levi South to drive to Levi South?s place of work, Village Services, a check-cashing, lottery and poker machine joint in Randallstown.
Jones, 39, of Woodlawn, remained behind at the house to make sure Levi South cooperated, but then escaped as the Souths? father, Russell, came home and called police.
A week later, Maryland State Trooper 1st Class Eric Workman was wounded when Jones shot him during an attempted arrest. Police returned fire and killed Jones.
