Jury Trial

HAGERSTOWN - A Washington County man who represented himself during a jury trial Thursday morning in Washington County Circuit Court was taken into custody by lunchtime. Norman Taylor, no age available in court documents, was charged with theft in the case of a missing 1996 Volkswagen Passat that a woman took to USA Transmissions on Maugans Avenue for repair. Taylor appeared in court without a lawyer but requested a jury trial. A jury deliberated for less than half an hour before finding Taylor guilty.

Attempted murder trial postponed The jury trial of a Fairplay man charged in June with attempted murder and arson was postponed Tuesday despite objections from the man's lawyer during a hearing in Washington County Circuit Court. Eddie Preston Holmes, 48, lived at 7825A Sharpsburg Pike when fire investigators said he set fire to his mobile home while his wife was inside the home. Shelly Holmes escaped serious injury. Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office investigators charged Holmes with attempted first-degree murder and first-degree arson.

An alleged accomplice was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for armed robbery, but a Hagerstown man charged in the same incident had his case placed on the inactive docket Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court. Jean L. Colas, 21, of 19030 Longmeadow Road, was charged with armed robbery, robbery, reckless endangerment, second-degree assault, theft, and possession of cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia in connection with a holdup at his home May 14, court records said.

A Hancock teen on Wednesday requested a trial in a case in which he and his father were charged in connection with a scuffle inside Washington County Circuit Court in April. The boy's father allegedly swung his fists at two Washington County Sheriff's Office deputies after being ordered to be removed from an April 14 Department of Social Services hearing. The boy then allegedly jumped into the fray. The teen, who was 15 at the time of the incident, was charged with second-degree assault and resisting arrest.

The trial of a Sharpsburg woman charged with 77 animal-cruelty charges was continued until March 19, Washington County District Judge Mark Thomas ordered Thursday. Barabara Reinken, 61, appeared without a lawyer Thursday afternoon in District Court. Four of the charges Reinken faces are felonies. The 73 misdemeanor animal-cruelty counts allege Reinken failed to provide for 72 horses and one cat at her 4040 Mills Road farm in Sharpsburg. The four felony aggravated animal-cruelty counts allege Reinken failed to provide for four horses that died.

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. -- Opening statements in the jury trial of Vernon L. Kerns are expected to be offered today in Morgan County Circuit Court. Kerns, 26, of Berkeley Springs, is one of three men charged with killing Keese Bare, 27, and burning his body in 2004. Bare's remains were discovered in 2006 at a Potomac River campsite. Morgan County Prosecutor Debra MH McLaughlin and Sherman L. Lambert, Kerns' attorney, will begin after 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Gina M. Groh gives instructions to the jury.

Washington County voters will be asked on Nov. 2 to consider three statewide ballot questions: o Should Maryland have a convention to change its constitution? o Should Baltimore City's orphans' court judges be required to be lawyers? o Should jury trials be allowed only in civil cases when the amount in question is more than $15,000, instead of more than $10,000, the current minimum? Those items will be on general-election ballots along with numerous county, state and federal races.

Four of the six men charged by Hagerstown City Police in a two-day reverse prostitution sting June 12-13 were in Washington County District Court Tuesday. All were charged with solicitation for prostitution. - Charles Henry Harris, 30, of 1085 Lincoln Way West in Chambersburg, Pa., pleaded guilty and was fined $100, court records said. - David Eugene Butler, 35, of 554 Frederick St., entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, court records said. - Michael Owen Miller, 43, of 621 W. Franklin St., pleaded guilty and was fined $100, court records said.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - The trial for a man charged in the 2002 shooting death of his cousin has been postponed because of the snow, according to the Berkeley County prosecutor. John Jenkins Jr., 37, of Bunker Hill, W.Va., was to appear in court today for the first day of his jury trial, but Circuit Judge Christopher Wilkes postponed the trial, citing weather concerns, Berkeley County Prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely said. Games-Neely said both she and Jenkins' attorney, Kevin Mills, have witnesses traveling in from out-of-state.