Bail was denied yesterday for a 22-year-old West Baltimore man charged with fatally shooting a Woodlawn woman as she walked to a bus stop 17 months ago on her way to a job-training program.
Troy Jermaine Allen of the 2600 block of Gatehouse Drive was arrested Friday at a friend's home in the city and charged with first-degree murder in the death of 24-year-old Janice Stephanie Jones.
Police said the victim and suspect did not appear to know each other and that the slaying probably resulted from a street robbery.
Mr. Allen had been a suspect since early in the investigation, after witnesses reported seeing two people -- thought to be teen-agers -- running from the scene, Baltimore County police said yesterday.
Ms. Jones of the 100 block of Mountbatten Court was shot in the chest on Essex Road, a block from her home, about 7 a.m. Oct. 14, 1993. Lying next to her body, police said, were her lunch and her pocketbook containing $51.88.
The gunshot was heard by Ms. Jones' mother, Carmen Robinson, who was at the young woman's apartment watching her two young children, a boy now 5 years old and a girl of 4.
Anonymous tips and several witnesses' accounts helped police place Mr. Allen at the scene, according to charging documents filed yesterday in Towson District Court. The suspect had been convicted previously of a handgun violation and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, the documents said.
District Court Judge Alexander Wright Jr. ordered Mr. Allen held without bail in the county Detention Center.
Oswald Robinson said he found slight comfort in knowing that a suspect was in custody but that but still wanted to know why his daughter was killed. "I'm still hurting," he said. "This is one thing that I can't get over. Even though it's good to know that they've caught one, I also know it still won't bring her back. I just hope they'll eventually catch the other one."