Assault

Two teenage boys have been charged in connection with an armed robbery Wednesday afternoon behind the Jonathan Hager House in Hagerstown City Park. The 15-year-old teenagers, whose names were not released, were charged with one count each of armed robbery, robbery, second-degree assault, theft and other related charges, according to a Hagerstown Police Department news release. One of the juveniles was picked up at his home Wednesday night, Lt. Tom Langston said. The second juvenile surrendered at Hagerstown police headquarters Thursday morning.

A Hagerstown man accused of stabbing a dog and threatening its owner Wednesday was being held on $75,000 bail following a bond hearing Thursday in Washington County District Court. Robert Julian Scheidegger, 58, was charged by the Washington County Sheriff's Office with first-degree assault, mutilating an animal and reckless endangerment in the incident, which occurred at the State Line Motel on Mason-Dixon Road, court records said. A witness told police that Scheidegger and a woman had argued and that when she left his room, his dog got out, the statement of probable cause said.

A Falling Waters, W.Va., man accused of shooting a couple twice in the head at their home in November 2009 was sentenced Thursday to five to 23 years in prison in Berkeley County Circuit Court. Donald Mark “Donnie” Seibert Jr., 24, who entered an Alford plea in February to two counts of second-degree attempted murder and two counts of malicious assault, had faced a maximum of six to 26 years behind bars. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgment by a defendant that the state has enough evidence to get a conviction.

A Frederick, Md., man was found not guilty by a jury this week in Washington County Circuit Court of second-degree attempted murder, but guilty of the armed robbery of three women at Motel 6 last year. Judge Daniel P. Dwyer ordered a presentence report be prepared before sentencing for Tony Anthony Jones, 24, formerly of 1153 Orchard Terrace. In addition to three counts of armed robbery, Jones was also convicted of first-degree assault for stabbing one of the women during the May 21, 2012, incident.

A man found guilty of unlawful assault in the March 2011 shooting death of a man at a Martinsburg-area apartment building was sentenced Monday in Berkeley County Circuit Court to at least two years in prison. Jonathan Frederick Bennett, 41, of Charlottsville, Va., was found not guilty in January of felony murder in the March 6, 2011, shooting death of Geronimo Garcia-Cruz. Bennett's prison sentence was enhanced as a result of an agreement in which he admitted to a previous felony conviction in Charlottesville, Va., according to court documents.

Two more former correctional officers at Roxbury Correctional Institution south of Hagerstown have pleaded guilty in connection with an assault on an inmate at the prison in March 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The pleas of Lanny Harris, a former correctional sergeant, and former correctional officer Walter Steele bring to five the number of former RCI correctional officers who have pleaded guilty in connection with the 2008 beating of an inmate at RCI, and 10 others face charges in the assault, according to a news release from the Justice Department.

A Hagerstown woman charged with attempted murder in the stabbing of her boyfriend last year entered a guilty plea to first-degree assault Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court and received a suspended sentence. A battered spouse syndrome defense was planned for Renee Nicole Benjamin had there not been a plea agreement, Assistant Public Defender Loren Villa told Judge Daniel P. Dwyer during the plea hearing for the 19-year-old woman. Photos of Benjamin taken after her arrest after the Oct. 23, 2012, stabbing of her boyfriend showed bruising and other injuries to her face and body, Villa said.

The last of three teenagers charged in a robbery last summer - one of them a previous North Hagerstown High School football star - had his case transferred to juvenile court Thursday during a hearing in Washington County Circuit Court. Judge Dana Moylan Wright granted a request from the attorney for Iydae Anthony Bostic be transferred from adult to juvenile court, a recommendation in line with a report prepared by the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. Bostic, 17, whose address was listed at Mount Vernon, N.Y., was charged as an adult with armed robbery, criminal conspiracy, assault, carrying a handgun and other offenses in a July 27, 2012, robbery near the North Hagerstown High School football field, according to charging documents filed by Hagerstown police.

A 30-year-old man was being held on $80,000 bond after being accused of assaulting two men over the weekend in a dispute over marijuana, according to Washington County District Court records. Joshua Aaron Kershner, no fixed address, was charged Saturday with three counts of simple assault and two counts of false imprisonment, court records said. Originially detained on $100,000, Kershner's bond was lowered to $80,000 during a bond review hearing Monday before District Judgfe Ralph H. France II. Shortly after midnight on Saturday, Hagerstown police responded to an assault report at an apartment on the first block of East Baltimore Street, the charging document said.

A man was charged with assault early Saturday after a brief standoff with police on East Baltimore Street in Hagerstown, according to a Hagerstown Police Department news release. Joshua Aaron Kershner, 30, address not provided, also was charged with false imprisonment, police said. Police said they were called Saturday at about 1:30 a.m. for a report of an assault at a residence in the first block of East Baltimore Street. When officers arrived, they discovered that Kershner and two other people were inside the home, but refused to answer the door, police said.