Baltimore police made an arrest Thursday in the high-profile slaying of the stepdaughter of former Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm.
Homicide detectives arrested Joseph Antonio Bonds, 35,of the 3500 block of Garrison Avenue, around 10 a.m. and charged him with the first-degree murder of Nicole Sesker, 37 — accusing him of strangling her and leaving her half-naked body under the porch of an empty row home at 3509 West Garrison Boulevard.
Bonds’ address is listed in court records as 3511 West Garrison Boulevard, next door to the porch under which Sesker’s body was found.
“DNA evidence ultimately tied this suspect to this homicide,” said Sterling Clifford, the Baltimore police spokesman.
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 down to homicide to be interviewed, Bonds gave statements that were inconsistent with the physical evidence in the case, police said.
Margaret Jefferson, who also lived at 3511 West Garrison, had told the Examiner shortly after Sesker was slain that she thought it was suspicious that Sesker’s 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,” said Jefferson 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.”
Hamm told the Times that “a person has to be ready to change” to kick addiction. He said he rejected her demands for 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.”
For years, Sesker continued to struggle with addiction 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’s been arrested at least nine times and convicted of assault and burglary.
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