CRIME WATCH

The Baltimore Sun

Store shooter sentenced

One of three men alleged to be involved in a bloody Baltimore convenience store robbery that left the manager with multiple bullet wounds was sentenced yesterday to 40 years in prison.

Richard Keith Hardy III, 19, of the 300 block of East 25th St. pleaded guilty in April to attempted first-degree murder and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. He agreed to testify against a co-defendant, Devin Lamont Crawford, 20, in exchange for a sentence of between 25 and 40 years. After listening to statements by the injured store manager and his wife - and hearing that the defendant did not take full responsibility - Circuit Judge Charles Bernstein sentenced Hardy to the maximum under the agreement.

At Crawford's trial last month, Hardy refused to testify against him, and Crawford was acquitted. The third co-defendant, Darryl Z. Thames Jr., 20, pleaded guilty and also agreed to testify against Crawford. He testified and is to receive a sentence of no more than 20 years, when he is sentenced this summer.

During the robbery, John Killian, the manager of Keeper's Market in Belair-Edison, shot at the defendants, two of whom held guns to store employees' heads, he testified. Killian and his wife, the owner of the store, identified Hardy as the man who pumped 11 bullets into him, three of which passed through his body.

Julie Bykowicz

Fatal shooting in Rosedale A 38-year-old man was fatally shot last night in Rosedale, a Baltimore County police spokesman said.

Police responded to a report just before 9 p.m. of shots fired in the 8000 block of Philadelphia Road, said Cpl. Mike Hill. The victim, found in the street, was taken to Franklin Square Hospital, where he later died, Hill said.

The victim's identity was not released pending notification of relatives.

"We are talking to many witnesses at the scene, trying to piece together events that took place," Hill said.

There have been 21 homicides in Baltimore County this year, compared with 18 at this time last year.

Convicted murderer guilty of bank robbery

A Baltimore killer whose claims of illness helped persuade a state judge to sentence him to time served pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to a bank robbery he committed little more than a month after his release from custody.

In U.S. District Court, George Robert Chaney III, 45, of Baltimore admitted holding up the Provident Bank branch in the 2100 block of E. Monument St. in April. He now faces up to 20 years in prison when he appears before U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake on Sept. 10.

"Mr. Chaney was granted probation in state court for murder. He will serve much more time in federal prison, with no parole, for committing a bank robbery one month later," Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement.

Authorities say that Chaney walked into the bank April 11 and handed a teller a holdup note demanding cash. After Chaney left the bank, a city employee followed him onto the street until officers arrived, police say.

Chaney has a history of violence, including convictions for second-degree murder in 1979 and a string of bank robberies in 1995. The murder case was revived in 2005 when authorities received a DNA hit on Chaney from evidence recovered from the crime scene in 1993, police said.

When he appeared in Baltimore Circuit Court last fall for a plea deal in a second-degree murder case, Chaney was in a wheelchair because of an apparently serious illness, and sentencing was postponed. In March, he received a suspended sentence and probation in the killing so he could receive hospice treatment.

Matthew Dolan

Man slain in Woodlawn

Police yesterday were investigating a fatal shooting over the weekend in the parking lot of the Windsor Inn.

About 2:15 a.m. Sunday, officers were called to the parking lot of the restaurant in the 7200 block of Windsor Mill Road in Woodlawn and discovered two men who had been shot, one fatally with a gunshot wound to the head, said Baltimore County police spokesman Cpl. Michael Hill. The dead man was identified as Taavon Chambers, 23, of the 2700 block of Ridge Road in the Gwynn Oak area of the county.

The second victim, a 22-year-old man, was taken to a nearby hospital, Hill said. The man's name and condition were not released. The shooter fled in a white Lincoln Continental with a soft top, with a Maryland tag that included the letters LNL, police said.

Julie Scharper

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