A 36-year-old Westminster man was being held without bail yesterday after being charged with fatally beating a woman he believed had caused him to be arrested on a drunken-driving charge, city police and court documents say.

Police found the body of Sharon Ruth Yelton, 47, of no fixed address about 6:30 a.m. Sunday in Winters Street, behind 94 W. Main St.

Donald Lee Robertson of the 100 block of Pennsylvania Ave. was charged with first-degree murder, manslaughter and battery, and with assaulting two city police officers who arrested him about 8 p.m. Sunday at a Taneytown-area tavern, according to police and charging documents.

Robertson was treated at Carroll County General Hospital. Detective Sgt. Christopher Ilyes and Lt. Wayne Mann were not injured, said Maj. Dean A. Brewer, a city police spokesman.

According to charging documents, Yelton was killed in "a particularly brutal assault," suffering injuries to her body and head. A shoe print was left on her face, documents show.

Robertson had been arrested Friday night and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, Brewer said. Robertson, who was described as an acquaintance of Yelton, "expressed to several people that he was upset with her because he believed she was the one that had reported him to police for DUI," Brewer said.

Robertson was ordered held without bail at the Carroll County Detention Center early yesterday. He gave up his right to a bail hearing later in the day.

Yelton's brother Steven Yelton and son Shawn Yelton appeared at the courthouse yesterday to find out what had happened.

"My mom was a loving mother. She did a great job raising me," said Shawn Yelton, 20, who has been living in Carroll County for the past several years. He said family members are trying to reach Yelton's daughter and must raise money for a funeral.

One of Robertson's relatives called police Sunday afternoon and said Robertson, upon hearing that Yelton had been shot, said, "That's funny. I stomped her head in," according to the charging documents.

The relative's husband later told police that he and Robertson were driving in the suspect's 1995 white Ford Windstar van Sunday when Robertson stopped in the 3500 block of Fringer Road and got two plastic garbage bags containing a blood-stained pair of shoes and khaki pants from the woods, charging documents say.

After returning to the relative's home, Robertson put the trash bags into a concrete pit, poured gasoline in and lighted them, according to the charging documents. Records said that Robertson said he planned to go back to Pennsylvania Avenue and kill a female associate of the victim.

A woman who lives on West Main Street told police Robertson was at her apartment after they went to a bar early Sunday. Sometime after 2 a.m. he said he was going to a convenience store to buy cigarettes, according to the charging documents. He returned with blood on his hands, and told her, "This is what happens if somebody messes with me," court records state.

Police found Robertson's van at the Steele Horse Grill and Saloon on the outskirts of Taneytown on Sunday evening and arrested him at the bar, according to charging documents.

Yelton had some history of drug violations and disorderly conduct, Brewer said, but "from every indication, it does not appear to be drug-related."

But residents in the neighborhood who held a block party Saturday night to reclaim their streets are skeptical, said Mary Hallman, who lives on Pennsylvania Avenue.

"A lot of things are happening on Pennsylvania Avenue," she said. The police are "saying it's alcohol, not drug-related, but we know who the dealers are."

"They sugarcoat everything," Hallman said. "A lot goes on back there, Winters Alley and Wantz Alley. I'm glad that this is bringing stuff to the daylight."

Westminster has not had a homicide since the unsolved killing in 1999 of a Best Pizza employee about a half-block from where Yelton was found, Brewer said. Chad Lee Weller, 36, died March 2, a month after he was found in Wantz Alley with head injuries.

The Weller killing has haunted residents in the neighborhood, an area with a history of drug trafficking, vandalism and prostitution. Government officials and concerned residents of the area - it stretches from the fork at Pennsylvania and Main Street to Union Street - have organized the Lower Pennsylvania Avenue Initiatives advisory committee in hopes of turning around the neighborhood.

Sun staff writer Athima Chansanchai contributed to this article.