Police find man shot fatally in East Baltimore
City homicide detectives were investigating the death of an unidentified man found shot in East Baltimore early yesterday evening.
Eastern District police responding to a report at 5:43 p.m. of a shots fired in the 1100 block of N. Chester St. in the Middle East community found the man bleeding from at least one gunshot wound to the head, police said.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene by Fire Department medics, and his body was taken to the state medical examiner's office, where efforts would be made to identify him through fingerprints, police said.
Officer Troy Harris, a Police Department spokesman, said the killing was the city's 22nd this year as of yesterday, compared with 40 during the corresponding period last year.
Metro Crime Stoppers at 410-276-8888 is offering a reward of up to $2,000 for information leading to an arrest and an indictment in the killing.
Richard Irwin
Man pleads guilty to murder
A 33-year-old Baltimore man has pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and a handgun violation in the shooting death of Darren Mebane, 21.
Police officers were patrolling in the 1800 block of Walbrook Ave. in West Baltimore on the afternoon of Oct. 18 when they saw Lorenzo Speight chasing after and firing at Mebane, who was hit twice in the chest, city prosecutors said.
Police then watched Speight get into a waiting silver Acura, pursued the vehicle and caught him in an alley near Dukeland and Baker streets.
Under the deal with prosecutors, Speight faces life in prison with all but 30 years suspended. Sentencing is scheduled before Circuit Judge W. Michel Pierson on Feb. 28.
Melissa Harris
Man gets 30 years in killing
An Annapolis man was sentenced yesterday to 30 years in prison for his role in the death of a Glen Burnie man who was bound with duct tape and beaten in his home.
Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Michael E. Loney gave the maximum term to Ranardo Molton, 27, of the 2000 block of Forest Drive, who entered an Alford plea to second-degree murder in the killing of Joseph Charles Cortina Jr., 49, in May 2006.
Molton's plea in December allowed him to maintain his innocence while admitting that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him.
Cortina, of the 700 block of Old Stage Road, had been bound and hit at least 30 times on the head and upper body with a hard, blunt object. His estranged wife found his body two days later.
Molton's DNA matched that on the tip of a latex glove left at the crime scene, police said, and records from Cortina's stolen cell phone showed that Molton's brother had made calls on it.
Investigators also looked at Molton's cell phone records and found that he had been in the Glen Burnie area about the time of the killing, despite his claims to the contrary.
David Zenlea