A federal jury convicted the son of one of Baltimore's most notorious drug lords yesterday of carjacking a Department of Public Works van, a guilty verdict that came less than a week after the man was acquitted in state court on an attempted murder charge.
Anthony "Scooter" Grandison Jr., 23, also was charged with illegally possessing ammunition when police caught him at the end of a bizarre car and foot chase through West Baltimore last summer. The federal jury acquitted him on that count.
The chase on Aug. 12 started when a bounty hunter went looking for Grandison, who had skipped on a $250,000 bail by failing to appear in Baltimore City Circuit Court on the attempted murder charge. U.S. authorities said Grandison ran because he knew he also faced arrest and jail time on an unrelated federal drug warrant.
What followed, federal prosecutors said, was a getaway attempt that led Grandison -- the son of Maryland death-row inmate Anthony Grandison Sr. -- down a dead-end street and over a chain-link fence before landing in a Department of Public Works yard on Franklintown Road.
There, the younger Grandison ordered two DPW workers, Jimmy Comegna and Thomas "Turkey" Green, out of their city-issued Ford van, according to trial testimony. They initially refused. Later, though, Comegna stepped out of the van and Grandison moved in -- taking over the wheel as Green wrestled with him for control of the van.
Green fell off the van after it careened down a grassy slope, but suffered only minor injuries. Grandison was stopped when the city van collided with a Ford pickup at Catherine and Lombard streets.
Grandison didn't deny taking the van. But he told jurors that it wasn't carjacking because no one else was in the idling city vehicle when he climbed into it. Grandison also testified that police had beaten him after his arrest and tried to frame him by claiming he had six .38-caliber bullets in his pocket. Federal law prohibits convicted felons from possessing ammunition.
Defense attorney Anthony D. Martin of Greenbelt acknowledged Grandison's troubled past by telling jurors, "He's no altar boy." But Martin said police witnesses also were problematic: "Don't take everything they say as gospel just because they're wearing a uniform."
Assistant U.S. Attorneys John F. "Jack" Purcell and Andrew G.W. Norman said Grandison's testimony was a lie and his defense theory "preposterous and desperate."
Purcell said in closing arguments that Grandison was attempting to use jurors in order to keep running, just as he was when he grabbed the city van.
"Don't throw him a life ring," Purcell said. "Tell him: The running stops now."
Grandison faces a 15-year sentence on the federal carjacking conviction. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 19.
His father is one of Maryland's most infamous criminal figures of the past two decades. A drug lord, Anthony Grandison Sr. paid a hit man in 1983 to kill two federal witnesses scheduled to testify against him. His victims, one of whom was the sister of the intended target, were shot 17 times at point-blank range with a MAC-11 submachine gun.
The younger Grandison has had his own run-ins with the law, including convictions for cocaine trafficking.
Grandison Jr. was charged as an accomplice in a shooting April 10 on East Biddle Street that left a city man wounded in a burst of gunfire that also struck a passing school bus taking children home from school.
Grandison, who was accused of driving the getaway vehicle, was acquitted last week of all charges, state prosecutors said.