Reckless Endangerment

FREDERICK, Md. - A man found sleeping in the same room with a loaded handgun and a 5-year-old child Thursday night was charged with reckless endangerment by Frederick Police. Jesus Gomez, 38, of 366 Prospect Blvd., Frederick, was also charged with leaving a loaded firearm within reach of a minor, police said. He was found in the home at 9:27 p.m. in a downstairs bedroom by police who were there on a call for service. The weapon was a .22-caliber handgun and it was loaded.

A Hagerstown woman has been charged with stabbing a man in the back with a rat-tail comb Thursday morning inside an apartment building at 211 W. Franklin St. Saundra Hewlett, 48, was charged with one count each of first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment, Hagerstown Police Lt. Chad Woodring said. “It was a domestic incident,” said Woodring, noting the wound didn't appear to be life-threatening. Woodring said 54-year-old Wayne Duvall was taken to Meritus Medical Center to have part of the comb removed from his back.

A Washington County Circuit Court judge on Tuesday denied a defense motion to suppress statements Eric Shaquille Baymon made to police following an April incident in which a shot was fired and Baymon sustained a concussion in a struggle for the gun. Baymon, 19, of 42 E. Washington St., Apt. 3, is charged with first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and discharging a firearm in the April 11 incident on East Lee Street. Baymon is a defendant and an alleged victim in the shooting, in which another man, Giancarlos Badia, is charged.

The mother of an abandoned infant lived only two blocks from the spot where police say she left her son to die Saturday. A 25-year-old Hagerstown woman was charged Wednesday with attempted first- and second-degree murder, reckless endangerment, child abuse and contributing to the condition of a child, according to Hagerstown Police Department Capt. Charles Summers. Read the full story in Thursday's Herald-Mail newspapers.

Funkstown man charged in threat A Funkstown man who threatened to blow up his home during a six-hour standoff with police Monday was charged with reckless endangerment Thursday, Washington County Sheriff's deputies said. Dennis Wayne Shank, 51, of 106 E. Maple St., was being held Thursday evening at Washington County Detention Center on $15,000 bond. Shank was armed with a gun when he barricaded himself inside his home, which was full of an unknown amount of natural gas, police said.

Police log for 2/5 The man accused of threatening another patron with a 13-inch knife during a fight at Buck's Bar and Grill Sunday night was being held Monday on $5,000 bond at the Washington County Detention Center. Lucio Morales, 22, of 40 Manor Drive, Apt. 1A, was charged with first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and carrying a concealed weapon, said Det. Steve Hoover of the Hagerstown City Police. Hoover said two men entered the bar at 76 Madison Ave. just before 10 p.m. and argued with several patrons inside.

FREDERICK, Md. ? A Frederick woman was charged in a warrant with attempted murder in an alleged attack on an elderly man Monday. Frederick Police said Mary Patricia Kerr, 53, was charged with attempted first-degree and second-degree murder, first-degree and third-degree burglary, first-degree and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and using a deadly weapon with the intent to injure. Kerr allegedly cut an elderly man with a kitchen knife in an apartment in the 110 block of Burgess Hill Way in the Creekside Apartment complex, police said.

A Hagerstown man involved in a January shooting in the 400 block of Park Place was sentenced in Washington County Circuit Court Tuesday to five years in prison for reckless endangerment. Durrell M. Blackmond, 26, of the 100 block of West Church Street, faced attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault charges in the incident. Those charges were dropped in exchange for his Tuesday plea to a reckless endangerment charge. Hagerstown City Police said an unidentified woman called police on the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 12, to tell them she heard shots at around 4 p.m. Officers who checked out the call stopped a man who was fleeing the scene, police said.

A man wanted in connection with a Feb. 13 shooting on North Jonathan Street in Hagerstown was apprehended early Wednesday at Motel 6 near Valley Mall, Hagerstown Police Department Sgt. Curt Wood sai. Wood said Jamal Elijah Lawson, 27, whose last known address was 310 N. Cannon Ave. in Hagerstown, was found Wednesday shortly after midnight in Room 316. Wood said that prior to Lawson's arrest, police distributed fliers at area hotels and...

A Boonsboro woman is facing child abuse charges after her 8-month-old daughter suffered fractures to both arms and legs, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office. Stacey Renee Reese, 25, of 7821 Sharpsburg Pike, has been charged with first-degree child abuse resulting in serious physical injury, second-degree child abuse, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, neglect of a minor and reckless endangerment, according to a news release from sheriff's department spokeswoman Carly Hose.

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 Sharpsburg man accused of setting fire to his foreclosed home was acquitted Wednesday in Washington County Circuit Court of arson after a two-day trial in which several witnesses testified they saw him passed out at a picnic table at about the time the fire started. A jury deliberated about half an hour before finding Max Eugene Godlove, 50, not guilty of first- and second-degree arson, second-degree malicious burning of property, threatening arson and reckless endangerment. Godlove's Remsburg Road home had been foreclosed upon and the deed held by Fannie Mae since June 2011, although he still lived in the house when it was destroyed by fire on Sept.

A woman whose 7-month-old baby drowned in the bathtub while she slept after taking prescription medication pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless endangerment Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court and was given a suspended state prison sentence. “I will never get past this,” Taria Michelle King, 27, said before Judge Daniel P. Dwyer gave her a suspended sentence of 2 1/2 years and placed her on three years of unsupervised probation. A Washington County grand jury in October indicted King on charges of manslaughter and reckless endangerment in the death of 7-month-old Ronald Oliver Jr. at her apartment at 309 E. Ridge Drive, Assistant State's Attorney Brett Wilson told Dwyer.

A Washington County Circuit Court jury on Thursday found a Hagerstown man guilty of assault and weapons charges for attacking a man during a 2012 drug deal. Judge Dana Moylan Wright ordered a presentence investigation for Eric Shaquille Baymon, who was found guilty of first- and second-degree assault, use of a handgun in a crime of violence, reckless endangerment and two other gun charges. First-degree assault carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and use of a handgun in a crime of violence has a mandatory minimum sentence of five years, under Maryland law. Baymon, 19, of 42 E. Washington St., was charged in an April 11, 2012, incident near the intersection of Lee and Potomac streets in which he was accused of assaulting Giancarlos Badia, 22, of 272 S. Potomac St., according to Hagerstown police charging documents.

A Hagerstown woman accused of stabbing and seriously injuring her boyfriend Tuesday morning was ordered to remain in the county detention center without bail during a bond review hearing Wednesday in Washington County District Court. Renee Nichole Benjamin, 19, of 720 W. Franklin St., appeared before District Court Judge Ralph H. France II via closed circuit television from the detention center. Benjamin is charged with first- and second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and carrying a dangerous weapon with intent to injure in the incident at her home.

A Hagerstown woman has been indicted by a Washington County grand jury on a charge of manslaughter in the drowning death of her infant son earlier this year, according to Circuit Court records. Taria Michelle King, 27, of 309 E. Ridge Drive, also was indicted last week on charges of reckless endangerment and neglect of a child in the death of 7-month-old Ronald Oliver Jr. on March 7, court records said. When ambulance personnel arrived at King's home that day, Oliver was lying on his back on the bathroom floor and was immediately taken to Meritus Medical Center, according to the incident report from the Hagerstown Police Department.

A Hagerstown woman has been charged with stabbing a man in the back with a rat-tail comb Thursday morning inside an apartment building at 211 W. Franklin St. Saundra Hewlett, 48, was charged with one count each of first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment, Hagerstown Police Lt. Chad Woodring said. “It was a domestic incident,” said Woodring, noting the wound didn't appear to be life-threatening. Woodring said 54-year-old Wayne Duvall was taken to Meritus Medical Center to have part of the comb removed from his back.

A man seeking to have his 2002 arson conviction set aside was in Washington County Circuit Court this week for a post-conviction hearing, even though retrying the case could mean a longer sentence. Donald Lee Edwards Jr., 28, formerly of Hagerstown, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2002 after pleading guilty to second-degree arson and two counts of reckless endangerment. He was in court Tuesday seeking to have the plea set aside because it was not freely and voluntarily entered into, his attorney Melissa McDonnell told Judge Daniel P. Dwyer.

A Hagerstown man charged with being at the scene when a gun was pulled on two men Tuesday night in an alley near Jonathan Street appeared Thursday in Washington County District Court for a bond review hearing. Michael L. Edwards, 18, of 246 N. Mulberry St., is charged with one count each of first-degree assault, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. If convicted on all counts, Edwards faces 65 years in prison. His preliminary hearing was set for Oct. 16 at 1 p.m. Judge Oliver John Cejka Jr. reduced Edwards' bond from $60,000 to $40,000 on Thursday.