There were seven homicides in Howard County in 2011, two more than in 2010. Police have made arrests in five of those cases.
The April death of Elijah LaJeuness, a 3-year-old Oakland Mills boy, was ruled a homicide months later after an autopsy by the Maryland medical examiner's office determined he had been asphyxiated. And the February oxycodone overdose death of Kevin Patrick Molony, 51, of Ellicott City, was declared a homicide in November, citing the medical examiner's final autopsy report. Those cases remain open.
Arrests have been made in the three other homicides investigated in 2011 by the Howard County Police Department and the two homicides handled by Maryland State Police.
Xavier Trevon Bates, 18, is scheduled to go to trial on March 6 for allegedly stabbing and killing 17-year-old Christian Lendell Hall in July at a Long Reach apartment complex.
Dominique Davon McDonald, 21, has a trial set for April 3 in the shooting death of 42-year-old bail bondswoman Nichole Bernadette McNair in Long Reach in October.
Anthony Patrick Parker, 51, has a trial scheduled for April 23 in the fatal stabbing of Phillip Edward Wise, 46, in Harper's Choice in October.
Vitali Davydov, 24, is scheduled to go to trial on April 30 for allegedly killing fellow inmate David Rico-Noyola, 22, in October at the Clifton T. Perkins state psychiatric hospital in Jessup.
No trial date has been set yet in the case of Andre Mayo, 46, who is accused of killing fellow inmate Rogelio Mondragon, 40, in October at the state psychiatric hospital.
All five homicides in 2010 were closed at year's end, four of which were investigated by county police, the other by state police.
Damon Willie White was found guilty last year of stabbing and killing his ex-wife, Thelma Wynn, in Long Reach. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Richard Allen Rodola, 50, has a trial set for Feb. 13. He is accused of setting his girlfriend, 37-year-old Pamela Myers, on fire in the woods in North Laurel. She died about a month later.
El Soundani Elwahhabi, 51, has a Feb. 27 trial date in the death of Susan Sachs, a 45-year-old fellow inmate at the state psychiatric hospital.
Two homicides were ruled murder/suicides.