Argument

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Several gunshots were fired at four people on Ramer Court early Sunday during an argument, the Martinsburg Police Department said in a news release. No one was hit by the gunfire but some bullets struck a neighbor's house at 105 Ramer Court, which is off West Burke Street near the intersection with North Samuel Street, police said. Four people were standing outside at 103 Ramer Court when two people walked past and started the argument, police said. One of the people who walked past fired several shots at the other four people, said police, who responded at about 1:15 p.m. The two men then fled toward Franklin Manor, police said.

Odds and ends from a columnist's notebook: In the special session of the Maryland General Assembly that began this week, Republicans may have staged a rally opposing new taxes, but they're unlikely to prevail unless they change their message. Repeating the mantra of "no new taxes" may excite the party faithful, but it doesn't leave the GOP will any room to compromise, even though they have a good argument to make. In August, Del. Christopher Shank, R-Washington, and the House minority whip, talked about the House Republican Caucus plan to close the $1.7 billion budget gap. As presented then, the plan relied on legalizing slot machines, but its key feature was slowing - not stopping - the growth of the state budget for two years, until revenues catch up with expenditures.

A Hagerstown man has been charged with breaking a car window during an argument Thursday afternoon in Fulton County, Pa., Pennsylvania State Police said. Terrell Dawon Bass, 23, was charged with criminal mischief, according to a state police news release. Troopers said Bass got into an argument with a 24-year-old woman at about 5 p.m. in the 400 block of Heritage Drive in Todd Township. Officers allege Bass used his arm to break the rear window of the car when the argument escalated.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A 34-year-old Inwood, W.Va., man is accused of setting another man's home on fire after having an argument last month, according to Berkeley County Magistrate Court records. Ernie Lewis Moubray Jr., of 67 Harranda Court, was arraigned Friday on one count of arson by Magistrate JoAnn Overington, who set a $25,000 bond. After having an argument with the home owner the evening of Sept. 2, Moubray was seen after midnight running from the victim's house, which was on fire, according to a complaint filed by Assistant State Fire Marshal Patrick J. Barker.

W.Va. man indicted in September murder MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A Martinsburg man was indicted Wednesday on a first-degree murder charge in the shooting death of an Inwood man last September. A Berkeley County grand jury indicted Terry Lee Edwards in the shooting of Steven Ray Post II, 20, said Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Games-Neely. Edwards and Post, who were friends, were drinking near W.Va. 9 in the vicinity of the Golden Horseshoe Club when they began arguing, according to police.

A Hagerstown man allegedly threatened to burn down his sister's house and chased her with a knife during an argument on Wednesday, the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office said. Randy L. Sigler, 49, was charged with first- and second-degree assault, disorderly intoxication and two counts of threatening arson, the fire marshal's office said in a news release. The fight happened at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday at Shirley Ann Finniff's home at 13610 Grandview Drive, which is off Maugans Avenue, north of Hagerstown.

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. -- A Shippensburg man was charged Friday with criminal homicide in the Thursday night shooting death of his neighbor. Chad Kirby, 37, was being held without bond Friday, after the shooting in the 2300 block of Lindsay Lot Road in Southampton Township, Pennsylvania State Police said. Franklin County Coroner Jeffrey Conner pronounced Andy Santo Buttermore, 35, dead at the scene of the shooting at 7:57 p.m. Thursday Police said Buttermore was shot once with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Ga. woman charged with child abduction An Atlanta woman being held at the Washington County Detention Center Tuesday evening was charged with child abduction a year after she allegedly did not relinquish her daughter to the girl's father. Jonita Lasean Anderson Walker, 32, is charged with abducting a child younger than 12, harboring a child younger than 12 and six other related charges. She had a prior address listed in Hagerstown. Raymond L. Deas, of Hampton, Va., filed for the charges in August, a year after a Washington County Circuit judge awarded him custody of Deas and Anderson Walker's child together, according to documents filed in Circuit and District courts.

Two Salisbury, Md., men were taken to Washington County Hospital after an argument Saturday night escalated into a stabbing, Washington County Sheriff's deputies said. Deputies said they received reports at 10:49 p.m. that the men were stabbed by a man at the Motel 6 near Hagerstown. Deputy Arnold Cerezo said Robert Jordan, 42, of no fixed address, was charged with two counts of first- and second-degree assault and one count of possession of controlled dangerous substances.

Police log in 12/20 Morning Herald Pa. man arrested, faces three charges ST. THOMAS, Pa. - A Mercersburg man was placed in Franklin County Prison Saturday night on assault and harassment charges stemming from an argument that evening, Pennsylvania State Police report. The 23-year-old man, whose name was not available, was charged with simple assault, harassment and providing false information to a law enforcement officer Saturday. He was placed in the county jail in lieu of $35,000 bail, police said.

A Hagerstown man has been charged with breaking a car window during an argument Thursday afternoon in Fulton County, Pa., Pennsylvania State Police said. Terrell Dawon Bass, 23, was charged with criminal mischief, according to a state police news release. Troopers said Bass got into an argument with a 24-year-old woman at about 5 p.m. in the 400 block of Heritage Drive in Todd Township. Officers allege Bass used his arm to break the rear window of the car when the argument escalated.

A Washington County Circuit Court jury will hear closing arguments Friday morning in the case of Darrell Hicks, a Hagerstown man accused of fatally stabbing his roommate and leaving the body lying in an apartment closet for days. Hicks, 54, did not testify, and the defense rested its case Thursday without calling any witnesses. Judge Daniel P. Dwyer dismissed the jury at about 3:30 p.m., telling its members that they will hear the closing arguments in the case Friday. Hicks is charged with first- and second-degree murder, manslaughter and carrying a dangerous weapon with intent to injure, according to court records.

While Berkeley Springs (W.Va.) High School seniors Tamar Sparks and Kayla Munday thought the defense attorney “stood up to the court really well,” his client “should have stayed in jail.” Sparks and Munday were among about 450 Eastern Panhandle high school students in the audience Tuesday in Jefferson County Circuit Court as the five justices of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals heard arguments from both sides in four actual criminal...

A jury of seven men and five women will resume deliberations today in Washington County Circuit Court in the case of Darrol Sands, a former Hagerstown man accused of the 2008 murder of Carol Marie Brown. In their closing arguments Thursday, Assistant State's Attorney Gina Cirincion and defense attorney James J. Podlas offered very different theories on what happened the night of April 19, 2008, when Brown was found strangled and stabbed in the bathtub of her Mitchell Avenue home.

Closing arguments are anticipated Tuesday afternoon in an involuntary manslaughter trial involving the death of a man with Down syndrome. Joseph Easton, 41, of Chambersburg, testified in his own defense Tuesday morning. He is criminally charged in the September 2010 death of Timothy Smith, who lived in a Guilford Township, Pa., group home. Smith, 37, died of traumatic asphyxiation after Easton sat on him to restrain him, according to testimony. Judge Douglas Herman is presiding over the trial in the Franklin County (Pa.)

Hagerstown police spent a good part of the day Wednesday trying to piece together a home-invasion case that Police Chief Arthur Smith called "illogical" and one of the most "unusual" crimes he has ever seen. Three Hagerstown residents who police allege forced their way into a Chestnut Street home at gunpoint Tuesday night have been charged with burglary and other counts, city police said. Jeremy Gundy, 19, of 128 Ray St., and Richard Glenn Arvin III, 30, and Sadie Harvey, 24, both of 127 Ray St., were charged with one count each of first-degree burglary, third-degree burglary, fourth-degree burglary, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment, according to police.

The most important virtue of limited government is the freedom it gives people to live life by their own values, preferences and circumstances. As I discussed in a recent column, limited government only intervenes in clear cases of “market failure” - a technical term meaning cases where people's voluntary decisions and agreements with each other are obstructed or distorted. Even in those cases, limited government only steps in when the benefits to citizens clearly outweigh the costs.

A preliminary hearing scheduled on Monday for a North Carolina man charged with voluntary manslaughter in the death of a coworker was postponed until the defendant gets an attorney, Jefferson County Magistrate Gail Boober said Friday.  Chris Blake Jacobs, 28, of Pembroke, N.C., is being held in Eastern Regional Jail on a $20,000 bond, according to Magistrate Court records.  He was charged by Jefferson County sheriff deputies Sunday following an April 30 incident at the America's Best Value Inn at 807 Willow Spring Drive, Charles Town, the court records said.

They tell me that we're all going to get a tax cut for Christmas -- which is fine, I suppose.    If it goes the way of other tax cuts, we'll get an extra $6 per pay period — and then no one will be able to figure out why this didn't spur an economic recovery.   It's a fact that for all the talk about tax cuts, we never seem to notice when we get them. In his first two years, Obama cut taxes, but polls show that a full third of the nation believes that he actually raised them.

For the second time in two weeks, a Washington County Circuit Court judge has recused himself from hearing pretrial motions in the case of a local bail bondsman indicted on explosives, firearms and drug charges. "I will err on the side of caution and recuse myself," Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone III said Tuesday before the hearing on defense motions began. Gregory Lehman Toms, 54, asked that Boone not hear the arguments because of comments the judge has made about Toms' bail bonds business in the past, Boone said.