Probation

A Washington County Circuit Court judge gave a Williamsport man 24 hours of unsupervised probation for grabbing one of four boys who he alleged was vandalizing his home. Vincent Allen Strewsewski, 45, entered an Alford plea to second-degree assault, a misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgment that the state has enough evidence to gain a conviction. Judge Daniel P. Dwyer accepted the plea and gave Strewsewski probation before judgment and one day on probation.

A woman charged with stabbing her boyfriend in the back with a plastic rattail comb pleaded guilty Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court to reckless endangerment and received a suspended four-year sentence. Saundra Hewlett, 49, of 211 W. Franklin St., was charged by Hagerstown police with stabbing Wayne Duvall at their home during an argument on Oct. 18, 2012,  Assistant State's Attorney Brett Wilson told Circuit Court Judge John H. McDowell. The couple was arguing when Duvall pushed her and she responded by stabbing him with the comb, Wilson told the court.

A Hagerstown man who pleaded guilty last month in Washington County Circuit Court to sexually molesting a boy was sentenced Monday to six years in prison for violating probation on a 2001 attempted-rape conviction. David Wayne McNamee, 48, of 145 E. North Ave., pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree rape in 2001, court records show. The case involved a 13-year-old female whom he molested between 1999 and 2000, court records show. McNamee was sentenced to 18 years in prison with six of those years suspended on that conviction, according to court records.

A Hagerstown man who killed one of his neighbors' 17 cats with a BB gun was placed on probation Wednesday in Washington County District Court after pleading guilty to animal cruelty. "He never intended to hit the cat," defense attorney Erika Peteranecz told Judge Mark Thomas of her client, Patrick King, 48, of 1126 Outer Drive. The cat was sitting on a back fence on Aug. 25 when King shot it with a BB gun in an attempt to frighten it away, she said. King's shot, however, struck the cat in the head, killing it, according to the charging documents filed by Hagerstown police.

Facebook images of Robbie Eugene Liggett standing near a bottle of rum were insufficient to find him in violation of probation for his conviction for homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, a Washington County Circuit Court Judge ruled Tuesday. In 2009, a jury found Liggett, 38, of Hagerstown, guilty in the April 26, 2008, death of Roy James Gordon, court records show. Gordon died when his vehicle was hit from behind by Liggett’s on Interstate 70 west of Big Pool.

A former local band director who was charged in May in a domestic dispute that ended in a three-vehicle crash near Philadelphia pleaded guilty on Monday to three counts of recklessly endangering another person, a Pennsylvania court official said. John Edward Eckstine Jr., 55, whose last address was listed as 388 Key Circle in Hagerstown, was sentenced to four years of probation and 60 hours of community service, according to a Montgomery County (Pa.) Court of Common Pleas clerk. The clerk said Eckstine also must take anger management counseling and cannot have contact with the co-defendant.

A Washington County Circuit judge Monday extended the probation period of a man who admitted to violating his probation by drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. Howard Russell Stepler, 21, the son of Frederick County Circuit Judge Mary Ann Stepler, had pleaded guilty to charges of distribution of marijuana and possession of cocaine on Oct. 7, 1998. Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone III had sentenced Stepler to three years on each of the two charges, to be served concurrently, but suspended the sentence, according to court records.

A Hagerstown contractor was given probation before judgment after he pleaded guilty Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court to performing construction without an approved sediment control plan. Dominick Joseph Perini, 64, of 13601 Paradise Church Road, was ordered by Circuit Judge Donald E. Beachley to pay a $2,000 fine and, as a condition of his one-year unsupervised probation, to pay a $2,000 fine to the Maryland Department of the Environment and $10,000 to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, according to court records.

A man who is charged with killing the mother of his children and a Smithsburg police officer in December 2007 was scheduled to appear Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court on a violation of probation charge in an unrelated 2004 assault case. Douglas Wayne Pryor's hearing was postponed, however. Pryor, 30, faces the death penalty if convicted in the Dec. 19, 2007, shooting death of Smithsburg Police Officer Christopher Shane Nicholson. He also is charged with the stabbing death of his estranged girlfriend, 31-year-old Alison Munson.

Man gets probation in standoff CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - A Chambersburg man involved in a standoff with borough police last summer was sentenced Wednesday by Judge John Walker in Franklin County Court to three years probation. Terry L. Brown, 51, of 439 W. Queen St., pleaded guilty Feb. 4 to recklessly endangering other people and resisting arrest in the July 15, 1997, incident at his home. Charges of unlawful restraint, false imprisonment and simple assault were dropped in exchange for the plea.

A Washington County Circuit Court judge Monday added 10 more years to the prison term of a Hagerstown man sentenced last month to eight years in state prison for a 2012 assault involving a handgun after he was found in violation of probation in a 2011 assault case. Eric Shaquille Baymon, 20, formerly of 42 E. Washington St., Apt. 3, was convicted by a jury in January of first-degree assault, use of a handgun in a crime of violence and other offenses for an April 11, 2012, incident near the intersection of Lee and Potomac streets in which a gun was fired, according to court records.

A Sharpsburg man whose home and property were searched last fall by dozens of Maryland State Police and other law enforcement officers looking for illegally possessed firearms received a one-year suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to two charges Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court. Terry A. Porter, 46, of 4433 Mills Road, also was placed on unsupervised probation for two years by Judge Dana Moylan Wright. She ordered him to pay $175 in court costs, but did not fine Porter.

A woman charged with stabbing her boyfriend in the back with a plastic rattail comb pleaded guilty Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court to reckless endangerment and received a suspended four-year sentence. Saundra Hewlett, 49, of 211 W. Franklin St., was charged by Hagerstown police with stabbing Wayne Duvall at their home during an argument on Oct. 18, 2012,  Assistant State's Attorney Brett Wilson told Circuit Court Judge John H. McDowell. The couple was arguing when Duvall pushed her and she responded by stabbing him with the comb, Wilson told the court.

A Waynesboro (Pa.) Borough Council member who was charged in a 2011 bar fight in Martinsburg that left a man with severe injuries was ordered to serve 200 hours of community service Monday and placed on probation for five years. Craig L. Newcomer, 48, who also was ordered to pay $2,900 in restitution, was sentenced in Berkeley County Circuit Court moments after he entered an Alford plea to one misdemeanor count of battery. A one-year jail sentence was suspended by 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes, who accepted a plea agreement that was presented to the court in February to resolve what had been a felony case.

A Bunker Hill, W.Va., woman who was convicted of domestic battery in connection with allegations that she and her husband abused children in their custody was placed on probation for five years Thursday in Berkeley County Circuit Court. Christina A. Snyder, 44, was found to be an abusive parent by 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge John C. Yoder, who ordered her to register with the child-abuse registry for 10 years, but suspended a one-year jail term for the probation.  Snyder was acquitted of five felony counts of child abuse resulting in injury at the conclusion of a lengthy trial in February.

A New York City man charged with trying to smuggle 805 cartons of cigarettes through Maryland forfeited the $30,000 worth of smokes and received a $5,000 fine after pleading guilty Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court to transporting unstamped cigarettes. In addition to the forfeiture and fine, Judge Donald E. Beachley placed Henry Avigail Badia, 34, on probation before judgment and a year's supervised probation. Under probation before judgment, Badia, who had no criminal record, could have his record cleared if he successfully completes probation.

A Hagerstown man entered a written guilty plea Monday in Washington County Circuit Court to a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment as part of a plea agreement related to the case against another man in a 2012 shooting incident. Giancarlos Badia, 22, of 845 N. Mulberry St., was sentenced by Circuit Judge Daniel P. Dwyer to three years in state prison, but Dwyer suspended the sentence and placed Badia on three years' probation. The first eight months of the probation are to be supervised, Dwyer ruled.

A Shepherdstown, W.Va., man who pleaded guilty last year to taking part in the 2010 armed robbery of Beck's Kennels in Berkeley County was placed on probation for five years Tuesday at his sentencing hearing in Berkeley County Circuit Court.   Ian Michael Derr, 23, who pleaded guilty in February 2012 to first-degree robbery and felony burglary, successfully completed a rehabilitative education-based program at the Anthony Correctional Center for...

A man who was convicted of two counts of sexual abuse in a case involving a 9-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl was ordered to serve prison and jail sentences Monday after his probation was revoked in Berkeley County Circuit Court. James E.B. Michael, 35, of North Carolina, was ordered by 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Gray Silver III to serve a five- to 25-year prison sentence and a 90-day jail sentence concurrently or at the same time. Michael had been placed on probation for five years at his sentencing hearing in May 2011 and the sentences were suspended on the condition that he complied with certain terms and conditions, according to court documents.  In 2011, Michael pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of third-degree sexual abuse and one felony count of first-degree sexual abuse to resolve abuse allegations involving the children, according to court documents.

A Chambersburg man charged in a 2011 traffic crash that claimed the life of a Shippensburg woman will not serve jail time following Wednesday's sentencing in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. President Judge Douglas W. Herman sentenced Jeffrey David Davies, 22, to 72 months to be divided between wearing an electronic monitoring device and probation. Davies was charged with homicide by vehicle and aggravated assault in connection with the Jan. 4, 2011, crash that killed Kristi L. Myers, 18, of Shippensburg, Pa., Pennsylvania State Police said.