Murders This Week: 9
Murders in 2008: 234
Murders in 2009: 7

As 2008 ended and 2009 began, Baltimore City continued its backslide. Though the city's 2008 homicide total was its lowest since 1988, there was an uptick in murders during the last two months of the year. The trend continues into the new year, with seven murders on record for 2009 by Jan. 5, compared to just two at the same time last year.

Even though 2008's final homicide tally was markedly lower than that of 2007--234 homicides in 2008 vs. 282 in 2007--Baltimore's per capita homicide rate exceeds that of many neighboring cities. If Baltimore had Washington, D.C.'s homicide rate, there would only have been 202 murders here this year; if it had Philadelphia's, there would only have been 146; and if Baltimore had New York City's homicide rate, only 40 of its citizens would have lost their lives to violence this year. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 5
Murders This Year: 232

The death of Andre Gay Jr., a 31-year-old African-American man, has been removed from Baltimore City's homicide tally. Gay and a 21-year-old African-American man were found shot on the front porch of a rowhouse in the 4900 block of Gunther Avenue. The two men were not shot on the porch, however; they were driven there after the shooting. On Dec. 10, the surviving victim took police to the location where the shooting actually took place, an alley in the 6000 block of Barstow Road in Baltimore County. Gay's homicide is now being counted toward Baltimore County's homicide total.

Tuesday, Dec. 23 [MORE]

Murders This Week: 5
Murders This Year: 228

The death of a newborn boy was added to the homicide rolls this week. On Oct. 4, Melanie Blevins, a 22-year-old Caucasian woman from Westminster, went to Union Memorial Hospital at 8:30 p.m. complaining of urinary pain. Doctors examined her and discovered that she had given birth that day. Blevins allegedly admitted to giving birth, but said the baby was stillborn. She was living at St. John's Methodist Church at 2640 St. Paul St. in Charles Village. She was part of the missionary program there, doing outreach in the community. Police went to the church to look for the baby. A white bag containing the baby's dead body was found in a Dumpster out back.

According to charging documents, Blevins told police that she had concealed her pregnancy and had not sought prenatal care. Between 2 and 3 a.m. on Oct. 4 she went to the bathroom inside the church and gave birth. She allegedly told police that she didn't think the baby was alive because he wasn't crying, so she put him in a plastic trash bag and threw him away. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 2
Murders This Year: 223

After three bloody weeks in a row, homicides slowed down again this week. As of Dec. 15, there have been 49 fewer homicides this year than the same time last year. Despite the decrease, Baltimore continues to have a very high per-capita homicide rate compared to many other cities. So far this year Baltimore has had 35 murders per 100,000 residents. Washington D.C.'s rate is 31 per 100,000, Philadelphia's is 22. If we had Philadelphia's homicide rate there would only have been 140 murders so far this year. If we had Boston's homicide rate there would be just 64 homicides. And if we had New York City's homicide rate that number would be 38.

The man found shot to death inside a car in the 2500 block of Garrett Avenue on Dec. 5 has been identified as Michael Harris, a 37-year-old African-American. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 7
Murders This Year: 221

Four homicide victims from last week have been identified. Adrian Andrews was the 17-year-old African-American male shot in the head behind Doris M. Johnson and Heritage high schools the day before Thanksgiving. The three males shot to death in the quadruple shooting on Nov. 30 in 4000 block of Oakford Avenue in Northwest Baltimore were Perrish Parker, a 14-year-old African-American male; Troy Brown, a 45-year-old African-American man; and Darren Davis, a 26-year-old African-American man.

Monday, Dec. 1 [MORE]

Murders This Week: 8
Murders This Year: 214

The man shot to death in the 1100 block of Abbott Court on Nov. 18 has been identified as Donte Graham, a 21-year-old African-American man.

Frederick Ward, a 25-year-old African-American man, died 20 days after he was shot in the head. Ward was found lying on the sidewalk shot in the 2300 block of Barclay Street on Nov. 5. He was taken to a local hospital in critical condition and died on Nov. 25. [MORE]

Murders Nov. 10-16: 6
Murders This Week: 12
Murders This Year: 206

Due to last week's early deadline, this week's column covers homicides from Nov. 15 to Nov. 23. Larry Franklin Jr., the 22-year-old African-American man murdered in the 2000 block of Robb Street on Nov. 12 was actually shot in the back and right arm, not in the head as previously reported.

The names of two murder victims have been released. The man shot to death on Nov. 3 in the 200 block of North Carrollton Avenue was Ernest McFadden, a 38-year-old African-American man. The man shot to death on Nov. 7 in the 600 block of Sewell Avenue was Leroy Taylor, a 45-year-old African-American man. [MORE]

Murders Nov 10-14: 4
Murders This Year: 192

Due to early deadlines for this week's Holiday Guide issue, this installment of Murder Ink only covers homicides between Nov. 10 and 14.

Two deaths that occurred earlier this year were added to the homicide rolls this week. On April 14, 1996, Valando Goodman, an African-American man who was 20 at the time, was standing in the 2200 block of Jefferson Street in East Baltimore when he got into an argument with another man. The man shot Goodman several times, paralyzing him from the waist down. Goodman died on June 29 of this year, 12 years after the shooting. His death was ruled a result from the 1996 shooting. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 3
Murders This Year: 188

Monday, Nov. 3

5:32 p.m. An African-American man was running across the 200 block of North Carrollton Avenue in Poppleton. He was being chased by two African-American men wearing dark clothes. One of his pursuers was shooting at him and struck him repeatedly. He died at a local hospital at 6:01 a.m. Police are waiting until the man's family has been notified of his death to release his name. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 4
Murders This Year: 185

The person stabbed to death during a domestic dispute on Oct. 21 was incorrectly identified in last week's column. His name was Kenneth Ringgold, not Keith Ringgold. City Paper regrets the error.

The person shot to death on Oct. 25 in the 2400 block of Loyola Southway has been identified as Jason Betts, a 25-year-old African-American man. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 7
Murders This Year: 181

The death of Kenneth Ringgold, a 34-year-old African-American man, is not being counted as a homicide, according to police. Ringgold was found stabbed in the chest in his living room in the 100 block of Janney Street in the Kresson neighborhood Oct. 21. Ringgold was allegedly stabbed by his girlfriend during an argument, but the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office has decided not to charge her with a crime because Ringgold was allegedly brutally beating her at the time. The girlfriend suffered internal injuries from the assault.

Monday, Oct. 20 [MORE]

Joel Bradley, a 39-year-old African-American man, was beaten to death at a bus stop in the 700 block of Cumberland Street on Oct. 22, 2006. On Dec. 6 of that year, Donavan White, a then-17-year-old African-American man, was charged with Bradley's murder, after being arrested in North Carolina the month before. White pleaded guilty on Jan. 24, 2008 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

On Oct. 28, 2006, two men entered the house of Arnilo Handy, a 30-year-old African-American man, in the 2700 block of Tivoly Avenue. The men wielded a shotgun and demanded money. During the robbery, Handy was fatally shot. Dean Carter, an African-American man who was 20 at the time of the shooting, was indicted for Handy's murder but was found not guilty on all charges on Oct. 7, 2008. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 2
Murders This Year: 174

The man shot to death in the 700 block of Alleghany Place on Oct. 2 has been identified as Modesto Smith, a 21-year-old African-American man. The 38-year-old African-American man found dead on a playground in the 500 block of South Catherine Street on Oct. 6 has been identified as Darrell Gulliver. He had been shot in the back of the neck.

Tuesday, Oct. 14 [MORE]

Cory Harrison, a 27-year-old African-American man, was shot repeatedly and killed in the 2000 block of Robb Street on Sept. 23, 2006. Derrick Wallace, an African-American man who was 19 at the time, was charged with Harrison's murder in December of that year. He was found not guilty on all charges on Nov. 28, 2007.

On Sept. 28, 2006, Sultan Matthews, a 19-year-old African-American male, was in his home in the 1200 block of North Dukeland Street. Two men came in and Matthews got into an argument with them. One of the men shot Matthews in the head, killing him. Kevin Parker, a then-24-year-old African-American man, was charged with Matthews' murder on Dec. 6, 2006. Parker pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on March 18, 2008 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Alton Brown, an African-American man who was 30 when Matthews was shot, was also charged with the homicide. Brown pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the statute on March 19, 2008 and was sentenced to two years in prison. All the other charges against Brown were dropped. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 6
Murders This Year: 172

The death of Cyprian Jackson was added to the city's homicide rolls this week, seven years after he was shot and over a year since he died. On Feb. 15, 2000, Jackson, an African-American man who was 21 at the time, was getting out of his car in the 2500 block of Madison Avenue in Reservoir Hill when he was shot in the face. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition and remained under medical care until he died on Aug. 20, 2007. The city medical examiner took Jackson's body but did not rule his death a homicide resulting from the 2000 shooting until Oct. 6 of this year, according to police.

Monday, Oct. 6 [MORE]

On Sept. 7 2006 Darrell Artis, a 25-year-old African-American man, was drinking with a group of people in a parking lot in the 7100 block of McClean Boulevard near the Perring Parkway Shopping Center. Artis got into a fight and was shot repeatedly. He died in the parking lot while the rest of the group fled. According to police, LaTosca McCullough, a then-26-year-old African-American woman, and Marquise Brown, a then-27-year-old African-American man, were arrested eight days later for Artis' murder. A month later police arrested Tavon Tyner, a then-22-year-old African-American man.

All the charges against Brown were dropped on Oct. 6, 2006 and there is no record in the Maryland Judiciary database of McCullough being charged with the homicide. Tavon Tyner, now 24, and his brother Donte Tyner, a 22-year-old African-American man, were both found guilty of the homicide and were sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years on April 4, 2008. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 5
Murders This Year: 166

Monday, Sept. 29

3:15 p.m. Helen Reightler, a 43-year-old Caucasian woman, died 11 days after she was stabbed. On. Sept. 18, at 9:50 p.m., Reightler, who was homeless, was sitting on a bench near the intersection of Pratt and Charles streets in the Inner Harbor when a man came up to her. They got into an argument, and the man stabbed her in the neck. Edward Thornton, a 54-year-old African-American man, was seen running from the scene and was arrested and charged with Reightler's murder. Including Reightler's death, more women have been murdered in 2008 so far than were murdered in all of 2007, a year with a significantly higher homicide rate overall. [MORE]

Wayne Morris, a 22-year-old African-American man, was found guilty of 18 charges on Aug. 27, 2008 including second-degree murder, robbery, and assault. According to the State's Attorney's Office Morris kicked down the door of Robert Lee Atkinson's home in the 1400 block of Kuper Street on April 20, 2006. During the course of the robbery, Morris pistol-whipped one person in the house and assaulted two others including a pregnant woman, and shot and killed Atkinson, a 47-year-old African-American man.

On Sept. 25, 2008, Morris was also convicted of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit assault on Sept. 25, 2008. He was found not guilty on charges of witness intimidation and assault. Morris made calls from jail that "commanded and directed persons to take action against the witnesses in the murder case in an attempt to prevent their testimony in his trial, including a pregnant witness," according to a statement from the State's Attorney's office. [MORE]

Murders This Week: 3
Murders This Year: 161

The person found shot on the sidewalk in front of the Royal Farms store in the 3300 block of East Fayette Street on Aug. 8 has been identified. The man, who had been shot repeatedly and died, was Rudy Guzman, a 22-year-old Hispanic man from the Ellwood Park/Monument neighborhood.

The death of Delawntae Finley, a 22-year-old African-American man, has been removed from the Baltimore Police Department homicide rolls. Finley was fatally shot on Aug. 29 in the 4200 block of Wabash Avenue. According to police, Finley and another man were trying to rob Joe's Garage at the time of the shooting. They allegedly approached the garage's owner and pulled out a gun. The owner pulled out his own gun and fired at Finley and the other man. Finley was shot in the chest and died. The other man ran away. The shooting has been ruled justified, according to police. There is no longer a discrepancy between Murder Ink's homicide number and the Baltimore Police Department's number. [MORE]

On July 31, 1983 police found William Gibson, a 57-year-old Caucasian man, stuffed inside a metal trash can inside a wooden clothes locker with a mattress propped against it. (The police said the locker was in Gibson's apartment in the 2200 block of East Pratt Street in Butcher's Hill. The State's Attorney puts the locker outside the building.) Gibson was dead and his remains were in such an advanced state of decomposition that police had to wear gas masks. Twenty-three years later, on Aug. 2, 2006, police were informed that Gibson's death had been ruled a homicide. Five days after that, Dennis Wallace, a then-54-year-old Caucasian man, was arrested for the murder. Wallace pleaded guilty to Gibson's murder on Dec. 12, 2006 and was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Mary Page, a 63-year-old African-American woman, didn't show up for her shift as a security guard on Aug. 19, 2006. Police went to her home in the 200 block of N. Culver Street and found her dead at the bottom of the stairs. On March 20, 2007, Page's daughter, Carolyn Redd, an African-American woman who was 41 at the time, was indicted for her mother's murder. Redd's boyfriend, Lawrence Gee, a 33-year-old African-American man, was also indicted for the homicide. All the charges against Redd were dropped on July 14, 2008. On the same date, Gee's trial was postponed. He has been charged with rape and sex offenses as well as murder for this case. [MORE]