Police Search For Burned Body Suspect
(WJZ) Baltimore City Police are asking for the public's help locating a suspect linked to the discovery of a burned body last month.
Investigators say Shamvoy Smith, a member of the bloods gang, is connected to the Burned body found in a Baltimore city alley in April.
He is also wanted in California.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call Metro Crimestoppers at 1-866-7-LOCKUP.
Cali blood wanted in B-more murder
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Christina Marie
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May 16, 2006 10:52 pm US/Eastern
Baltimore Murder Suspect Captured In Las Vegas
(AP) LAS VEGAS Federal authorities say a suspected gang member wanted in a slaying in a Baltimore alley was arrested today near Las Vegas.
The U.S. Marshals Service says 34-year-old Shamvoy Smith is a suspect in the murder of Terrance Randolph, who was beaten and stabbed to death. His burned body, with hands duct taped behind his back, was found in a Baltimore alley on April 12th.
Authorities say Smith also goes by the names "Don Papa" and "Blake Shaidon," and is a high-ranking member of the Bloods street gang. He also is wanted in California for an armed robbery.
Officers arrested Smith during a traffic stop around 4 p-m in the southern part of the Las Vegas valley. He was booked in to the Clark County Detention Center pending extradition to Baltimore.
http://wjz.com/local/local_story_136225352.html
Baltimore Murder Suspect Captured In Las Vegas
(AP) LAS VEGAS Federal authorities say a suspected gang member wanted in a slaying in a Baltimore alley was arrested today near Las Vegas.
The U.S. Marshals Service says 34-year-old Shamvoy Smith is a suspect in the murder of Terrance Randolph, who was beaten and stabbed to death. His burned body, with hands duct taped behind his back, was found in a Baltimore alley on April 12th.
Authorities say Smith also goes by the names "Don Papa" and "Blake Shaidon," and is a high-ranking member of the Bloods street gang. He also is wanted in California for an armed robbery.
Officers arrested Smith during a traffic stop around 4 p-m in the southern part of the Las Vegas valley. He was booked in to the Clark County Detention Center pending extradition to Baltimore.
http://wjz.com/local/local_story_136225352.html
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Qdawg
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Fugitive, tied to killing in city, is seized in Nev.
Originally published May 18, 2006
A reputed Bloods gang leader who police say is connected to the murder of a 19-year-old man last month in West Baltimore was caught by U.S. marshals in Las Vegas this week.
Baltimore police provided information to the marshals that led to the arrest Tuesday of Shaidon Blake, charged in a warrant with murder. When authorities arrested Blake, they caught him with a 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun and 10 rounds, said Matt Jablow, a city police spokesman.
Police said Blake was one of the city's five most-wanted fugitives after investigators charged him in the April 12 killing of Terrance Randolph in the 1900 block of Division St.
Randolph was bound, beaten, stabbed and set on fire, authorities said. Police also have arrested Janet Johnson, 18, in Randolph's death.
City law enforcement officials said Blake was a high-ranking member of the Bloods, who had lived in Los Angeles until recently, and had been wanted on a warrant in a California armed robbery.
While in Baltimore this year, Blake was stopped by police, who conducted a field interview. But the man gave a false name, and a warrant check was unsuccessful, Jablow said. Blake apparently uses aliases, including Shamvoy Smith, authorities said.
City police said Blake is in custody in Las Vegas, awaiting extradition to Baltimore
Originally published May 18, 2006
A reputed Bloods gang leader who police say is connected to the murder of a 19-year-old man last month in West Baltimore was caught by U.S. marshals in Las Vegas this week.
Baltimore police provided information to the marshals that led to the arrest Tuesday of Shaidon Blake, charged in a warrant with murder. When authorities arrested Blake, they caught him with a 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun and 10 rounds, said Matt Jablow, a city police spokesman.
Police said Blake was one of the city's five most-wanted fugitives after investigators charged him in the April 12 killing of Terrance Randolph in the 1900 block of Division St.
Randolph was bound, beaten, stabbed and set on fire, authorities said. Police also have arrested Janet Johnson, 18, in Randolph's death.
City law enforcement officials said Blake was a high-ranking member of the Bloods, who had lived in Los Angeles until recently, and had been wanted on a warrant in a California armed robbery.
While in Baltimore this year, Blake was stopped by police, who conducted a field interview. But the man gave a false name, and a warrant check was unsuccessful, Jablow said. Blake apparently uses aliases, including Shamvoy Smith, authorities said.
City police said Blake is in custody in Las Vegas, awaiting extradition to Baltimore
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Qdawg
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Third suspect charged in killing
Originally published June 16, 2006
A third suspect has been charged with murder in the death of a man whose bound, beaten and burned body was found two months ago in a West Baltimore alley, city police said.
Jermile N. Harvey, 22, of the 1500 block of W. Lanvale St., was being held at the Central Booking and Intake Center awaiting trial for a drug offense when he was formally arrested Tuesday by homicide detectives and charged with first-degree murder, police said.
He is accused of killing Randolph Terrance, 19, of the 3800 block of Clarks Lane, whose body was found April 12 in the 1900 block of Division St. Also charged in the slaying are Shaidon "Don Papa" Blake, 34, who was arrested May 16, in Las Vegas and Janet Johnson, 18, of East Baltimore, who was arrested May 3.
Originally published June 16, 2006
A third suspect has been charged with murder in the death of a man whose bound, beaten and burned body was found two months ago in a West Baltimore alley, city police said.
Jermile N. Harvey, 22, of the 1500 block of W. Lanvale St., was being held at the Central Booking and Intake Center awaiting trial for a drug offense when he was formally arrested Tuesday by homicide detectives and charged with first-degree murder, police said.
He is accused of killing Randolph Terrance, 19, of the 3800 block of Clarks Lane, whose body was found April 12 in the 1900 block of Division St. Also charged in the slaying are Shaidon "Don Papa" Blake, 34, who was arrested May 16, in Las Vegas and Janet Johnson, 18, of East Baltimore, who was arrested May 3.
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Qdawg
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Defendant says drug 'gold mine' lured him to city
California man, 35, is on trial in Baltimore killing last year
By Annie Linskey
sun reporter
Originally published April 4, 2007
Don Papa's real name is Shaidon Emanuel Blake, and depending on whether one believes the police or him, he is either an out-of-town hit man for a gang or an opportunist lured by the city's desperate heroin users.
A portrait of the 35-year-old California resident, whose murder trial continues today in Baltimore Circuit Court, has emerged in interviews with homicide detectives found in the thick court file and in a letter he wrote to The Sun from his jail cell.
Blake denies that he bound, tortured, burned and suffocated Terrance Randolph, 19, in a West Baltimore house a year ago this month. But in court documents, he admits he was drawn to the city's lucrative drug culture.
"Pennsylvania Avenue is a freaking gold mine," he said to police, according to court papers. He boasted that he made $180,000 selling drugs there one night.
"This is the heroin capital of America, ain't no more dope sold nowhere than right there on Pennsylvania Avenue. It's the largest open air drug market in the world for heroin," he said.
As an out-of-town gang member, Blake's presence in the city signals a troubling development to police and prosecutors, who say they are worried about the growing gang activity in the city.
Authorities say more than 2,500 suspected gang members are in in Baltimore, hundreds of them affiliating themselves with groups more commonly found on the West Coast, such as the Bloods and the Crips.
Police documents describe Blake as a member of the Bounty Hunter Bloods, a fearsome group with roots in Los Angeles's Nickerson Gardens housing project whose members go into gang-infested areas and determine who on the streets is a real Blood and who is pretending.
The true Bloods pay tribute to California dons and know the required hand signals and gang codes. The impostors flash red bandanas, or "flags," but are not affiliated with a national group. Repeatedly claiming a false affiliation can be a death sentence.
Robert L. Dohony, a Baltimore homicide detective, referred in court papers to Don Papa as "Triple O.G.," which means "triple original gangster," a high rank among the Bloods.
Dennis J. Laye, Blake's court-appointed lawyer, said he doubts that his client is a high-ranking gangster.
"There are a lot of people who want to be big shots," he said. "If this guy is so trusted, and he gets so caught up in this [killing], the Bloods won't at least hire him a lawyer?"
Laye also disputed his client's own claims about involvement in the drug trade, pointing out that Blake does not have drug charges on his record. "When he says he's all this stuff, I don't believe him," Laye said.
Blake got in touch with The Sun by answering a letter written to another inmate at the Central Booking and Intake Center. A reporter showed the letter to Blake's lawyer during a break in court proceedings yesterday. The attorney handed it to Blake, who acknowledged having written it.
In that polite and neatly printed four-page letter, Blake said he is from the Watts section of Los Angeles and has been involved with gangs since 1981.
Through his lawyer, Blake clarified that is he originally from Baltimore and grew up in Watts and Miami. Since 1981, he said, he has lived mostly in Nickerson Gardens, a public housing development in Watts.
In 2004, about 400 Los Angeles police officers swarmed Nickerson Gardens looking for Bounty Hunter Bloods, according to the Los Angeles Times. George Gascon, then assistant police chief, is quoted in the article describing the Hunters as "one of the most violent gangs in the history of the city."
Raymond Kelly, a witness in the Baltimore murder case and the owner of the home where Randolph was killed, told police that Blake was sent to Baltimore to organize and collect dues from the Bloods. But Blake dismissed Baltimore gang members in the letter to The Sun.
"I can tell you that these gangs here are not even Bloods," the letter said. "These are a bunch of Internet surfers. What I'm saying is, none of these gangs are in allegiance with an official Blood set."
Blake determined that fake Bloods in Baltimore include a group called the Locust Park Piru, according to an account in court documents from Jordanna Wagner, another witness in the murder case.
Real Bloods in the city included groups called Family Over Everything and Insane Red Devils, she said in court documents.
In the letter to The Sun, Blake admits being "in association with the gangs" and describes a need for grassroots programs mediating between warring groups. Blake said he offered to be a street mentor to troubled youths but was rebuffed.
He wrote that he came to Baltimore because one of his nephews was "caught up in the false propaganda" regarding the Bloods.
Because he is from California, city homicide detectives mistakenly view him as the "King of the Bloods" and have charged him in a killing he did not commit, he wrote.
During the long interviews with the homicide detectives, Blake comes across as well-versed in the justice system. He threatens to file for habeas corpus, claiming that he is being illegally confined. He lectures Anthony Fata, the lead city homicide detective, on the difference between hearsay and admissible evidence and makes a nuanced argument about whether he is being held as a witness or a suspect.
"There's no physical evidence linking me to a crime bodies, motive, DNA, weapons, you feel me, and a witness," Blake wrote.
Prosecutors say they have at least two witnesses to the April 11 killing Blake and two others are accused of committing, although one of the witnesses is refusing to testify. The other two defendants, Jermile "Smiley" Harvey and Janet "Lock Load" Johnson, are also Bloods members, according to court papers.
Wagner told detectives that Randolph was killed after he argued - possibly about money - with his fellow gang members, according to court papers.
Kelly and Wagner told homicide detectives that Randolph was killed in the basement of Kelly's rowhouse in the 1900 block of Division St. The victim, a 19-year-old gang member whom Blake later said he has "some love for," was bound with duct tape, sliced with a box cutter, hit with a plank and stabbed in the neck twice with a sword, according to the autopsy.
Blake said he bought a one-way bus ticket to Las Vegas shortly after the killing, according to an interview with homicide detectives that is in court documents.
He told detectives that his luggage included an unsold parcel of heroin packed with such haste that he didn't have time to vacuum-seal the drugs.
"Man, that was the weirdest thing in the world, traveling back across the country with it," he said to a homicide detective.
Blake said he has traveled by bus across the country "for business" at least 10 times and can prove it.
"I don't throw away my receipts, my bus receipts, because I try to claim them at the end of the year," he said.
Police arrested him in Las Vegas six weeks after the Baltimore killing and charged him with first-degree murder. He was carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic Smith and Wesson handgun.
After the trial in Baltimore, he will face federal gun charges in Nevada, his lawyer said. He is also wanted on a robbery charge in California, according to court documents.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... -headlines
California man, 35, is on trial in Baltimore killing last year
By Annie Linskey
sun reporter
Originally published April 4, 2007
Don Papa's real name is Shaidon Emanuel Blake, and depending on whether one believes the police or him, he is either an out-of-town hit man for a gang or an opportunist lured by the city's desperate heroin users.
A portrait of the 35-year-old California resident, whose murder trial continues today in Baltimore Circuit Court, has emerged in interviews with homicide detectives found in the thick court file and in a letter he wrote to The Sun from his jail cell.
Blake denies that he bound, tortured, burned and suffocated Terrance Randolph, 19, in a West Baltimore house a year ago this month. But in court documents, he admits he was drawn to the city's lucrative drug culture.
"Pennsylvania Avenue is a freaking gold mine," he said to police, according to court papers. He boasted that he made $180,000 selling drugs there one night.
"This is the heroin capital of America, ain't no more dope sold nowhere than right there on Pennsylvania Avenue. It's the largest open air drug market in the world for heroin," he said.
As an out-of-town gang member, Blake's presence in the city signals a troubling development to police and prosecutors, who say they are worried about the growing gang activity in the city.
Authorities say more than 2,500 suspected gang members are in in Baltimore, hundreds of them affiliating themselves with groups more commonly found on the West Coast, such as the Bloods and the Crips.
Police documents describe Blake as a member of the Bounty Hunter Bloods, a fearsome group with roots in Los Angeles's Nickerson Gardens housing project whose members go into gang-infested areas and determine who on the streets is a real Blood and who is pretending.
The true Bloods pay tribute to California dons and know the required hand signals and gang codes. The impostors flash red bandanas, or "flags," but are not affiliated with a national group. Repeatedly claiming a false affiliation can be a death sentence.
Robert L. Dohony, a Baltimore homicide detective, referred in court papers to Don Papa as "Triple O.G.," which means "triple original gangster," a high rank among the Bloods.
Dennis J. Laye, Blake's court-appointed lawyer, said he doubts that his client is a high-ranking gangster.
"There are a lot of people who want to be big shots," he said. "If this guy is so trusted, and he gets so caught up in this [killing], the Bloods won't at least hire him a lawyer?"
Laye also disputed his client's own claims about involvement in the drug trade, pointing out that Blake does not have drug charges on his record. "When he says he's all this stuff, I don't believe him," Laye said.
Blake got in touch with The Sun by answering a letter written to another inmate at the Central Booking and Intake Center. A reporter showed the letter to Blake's lawyer during a break in court proceedings yesterday. The attorney handed it to Blake, who acknowledged having written it.
In that polite and neatly printed four-page letter, Blake said he is from the Watts section of Los Angeles and has been involved with gangs since 1981.
Through his lawyer, Blake clarified that is he originally from Baltimore and grew up in Watts and Miami. Since 1981, he said, he has lived mostly in Nickerson Gardens, a public housing development in Watts.
In 2004, about 400 Los Angeles police officers swarmed Nickerson Gardens looking for Bounty Hunter Bloods, according to the Los Angeles Times. George Gascon, then assistant police chief, is quoted in the article describing the Hunters as "one of the most violent gangs in the history of the city."
Raymond Kelly, a witness in the Baltimore murder case and the owner of the home where Randolph was killed, told police that Blake was sent to Baltimore to organize and collect dues from the Bloods. But Blake dismissed Baltimore gang members in the letter to The Sun.
"I can tell you that these gangs here are not even Bloods," the letter said. "These are a bunch of Internet surfers. What I'm saying is, none of these gangs are in allegiance with an official Blood set."
Blake determined that fake Bloods in Baltimore include a group called the Locust Park Piru, according to an account in court documents from Jordanna Wagner, another witness in the murder case.
Real Bloods in the city included groups called Family Over Everything and Insane Red Devils, she said in court documents.
In the letter to The Sun, Blake admits being "in association with the gangs" and describes a need for grassroots programs mediating between warring groups. Blake said he offered to be a street mentor to troubled youths but was rebuffed.
He wrote that he came to Baltimore because one of his nephews was "caught up in the false propaganda" regarding the Bloods.
Because he is from California, city homicide detectives mistakenly view him as the "King of the Bloods" and have charged him in a killing he did not commit, he wrote.
During the long interviews with the homicide detectives, Blake comes across as well-versed in the justice system. He threatens to file for habeas corpus, claiming that he is being illegally confined. He lectures Anthony Fata, the lead city homicide detective, on the difference between hearsay and admissible evidence and makes a nuanced argument about whether he is being held as a witness or a suspect.
"There's no physical evidence linking me to a crime bodies, motive, DNA, weapons, you feel me, and a witness," Blake wrote.
Prosecutors say they have at least two witnesses to the April 11 killing Blake and two others are accused of committing, although one of the witnesses is refusing to testify. The other two defendants, Jermile "Smiley" Harvey and Janet "Lock Load" Johnson, are also Bloods members, according to court papers.
Wagner told detectives that Randolph was killed after he argued - possibly about money - with his fellow gang members, according to court papers.
Kelly and Wagner told homicide detectives that Randolph was killed in the basement of Kelly's rowhouse in the 1900 block of Division St. The victim, a 19-year-old gang member whom Blake later said he has "some love for," was bound with duct tape, sliced with a box cutter, hit with a plank and stabbed in the neck twice with a sword, according to the autopsy.
Blake said he bought a one-way bus ticket to Las Vegas shortly after the killing, according to an interview with homicide detectives that is in court documents.
He told detectives that his luggage included an unsold parcel of heroin packed with such haste that he didn't have time to vacuum-seal the drugs.
"Man, that was the weirdest thing in the world, traveling back across the country with it," he said to a homicide detective.
Blake said he has traveled by bus across the country "for business" at least 10 times and can prove it.
"I don't throw away my receipts, my bus receipts, because I try to claim them at the end of the year," he said.
Police arrested him in Las Vegas six weeks after the Baltimore killing and charged him with first-degree murder. He was carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic Smith and Wesson handgun.
After the trial in Baltimore, he will face federal gun charges in Nevada, his lawyer said. He is also wanted on a robbery charge in California, according to court documents.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... -headlines
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Qdawg
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Shox112
Light Heavy Weight
Joined: 12 Sep 2006
Posts: 1390
Location: Watts
Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:50 am Post subject:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOLOLOLOLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!!!!!
MUCH LOVE AND RESPECT FROM WATTS TO B-MORE
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the homeboy shox
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Joined: 12 Sep 2006
Posts: 1390
Location: Watts
Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:50 am Post subject:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOLOLOLOLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!!!!!
MUCH LOVE AND RESPECT FROM WATTS TO B-MORE
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the homeboy shox
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Qdawg
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Gang leader found guilty
Victim was tortured for failing to follow rules of the Bloods
By Annie Linskey
Sun reporter
Originally published April 14, 2007
A top California Bloods member who was sent to the city to "straighten out" Baltimore's chaotic gang network and sell heroin was found guilty yesterday of second-degree murder and conspiracy to kill a 19-year-old who was not following gang rules.
Police believe the victim, Terrance Randolph, had mishandled money in a drug deal and gotten into a fight on North Avenue in violation of orders from gang leaders. Such offenses, in gangland culture, merit "DP," or discipline, and 35-year-old Shaidon Blake - also known as Don Papa - oversaw the punishment, prosecutors said.
Randolph was led to a West Baltimore basement where gang members bound his mouth and arms with duct tape, slashed his face with a box cutter, hit him with a sledgehammer, and finally killed him when they stabbed him in the neck with a samurai sword, according to prosecutors and trial testimony.
Then they dragged his body to an alley behind the Division Street house and lit it on fire, creating what a prosecutor described as one of the goriest killings he had ever seen. Two other gang members on trial for their roles in the slaying were also found guilty yesterday.
The police investigation of the case took detectives to California, where they searched Blake's mother's house, and Las Vegas, where they questioned him after U.S. marshals arrested him in May 2006. "Don Papa had control over people in this town, a lot of people knew who he was and a lot of people were afraid of him," said Anthony Fata, the lead city homicide detective on the case. "He didn't get to do what he came out here to do."
Jermile Harvey, who lived in the house where the murder occurred, and Janet Lee Johnson were both found guilty of first- and second-degree murder. Johnson also pleaded guilty yesterday to bringing a loaded gun into a holding cell in the city's homicide department after being arrested for a separate murder. She concealed the handgun in her panties.
Much of the five-day trial focused on Blake. He wore a button-down gray shirt and scribbled notes on a legal pad during the proceedings, often consulting with his lawyer. When the guilty verdict was read, he shook his head angrily and said "[expletive] him, [expletive] him." He mouthed "goodbye" to a girlfriend who was in court. Family members declined to comment afterward.
Dennis Laye, Blake's court-appointed lawyer, said in his closing argument that Blake's gang background should not be enough to convict him of the crime. It took the jury three days to return the guilty verdicts.
Blake reached out to the Baltimore police shortly after arriving in the city in late 2005 and told them that he was from California and had plans to straighten out the city's gangs, according to testimony.
"He was sent here because people were 'false flagging,' not representing Bloods the way they are supposed to be," said Detective Darrell A. Merrick, a member of the department's gang unit, who attended that meeting.
Blake told Merrick that he didn't want a rift between him and the law. He said he was organizing a meeting of the city's Bloods in Druid Hill Park and wanted some help getting a permit for the gathering.
Merrick said it rained on the day the big meeting was supposed to take place and that nobody gathered at the park. "A lot of the time Bloods say they are for uplifting the community," Merrick said. "They say they are not for violence or things of that nature."
The torture Randolph endured told a different story, police said. When the jury was selected, Chief Circuit Judge John N. Prevas said jurors who thought they would be too upset by bloody photos could be excused.
Despite the gruesome way in which Randolph was killed, detectives found only two droplets of the victim's blood on a washing machine in the basement - and a lot of bleach.
"They did a good job cleaning up," said Brian M. Fish, assistant state's attorney.
Instead of forensics, the key evidence in the trial was introduced by witnesses.
The first witness, Jiordanna Wagner, initially refused to cooperate. On the first day of the trial, she was charged with contempt of court, an offense Prevas told her could carry a 10-year sentence. She spent a night in jail and then agreed to take the witness stand.
Wagner testified with her lawyer sitting next to her because she is charged with other crimes. She insisted that she did not remember what happened on the night of the murder and refused to identify Don Papa as Shaidon Blake. Fish, the prosecutor, played an audio tape that homicide detectives made when they questioned her.
Jurors read transcripts of the tape as it played, and one juror covered her mouth with her hand as Wagner described how the victim was tortured. Wagner appeared bored on the stand, yawning a few times and looking down as her voice played on a portable stereo. As they deliberated, the jurors wore out one audio tape, and requested another copy of it.
The other witness, Raymond Kelly, owned the home on the 1900 block of Division St. where the murder occurred. The gang members came to his house on April 11, 2006, drinking and smoking marijuana with him. But he said he went to bed around 10:30 p.m. and was roused at 3 a.m. by someone named "Bangout" who police never found.
"They had a guy taped up in the basement," Kelly testified. "I didn't recognize him. He was taped across the chest. As soon as I saw it, I wanted it out."
Kelly said during cross-examination that he assumed the victim "was just getting disciplined."
"That is what they do," Kelly said. "I'm not ignorant about gang routine. I just assumed he was getting DPed."
Toward the end of the trial, an assistant medical examiner showed the jury graphic photos of Randolph's body. "It was burnt to a bloody crisp," said Fish, the prosecutor, in his closing arguments.
The defense called no witnesses, but tried to convince the jury that the state's witnesses were either coerced into talking or guilty of the crime.
This week, Blake was also indicted in Las Vegas for federal handgun charges that stemmed from his arrest in May, when he was found with a gun.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... -headlines
Victim was tortured for failing to follow rules of the Bloods
By Annie Linskey
Sun reporter
Originally published April 14, 2007
A top California Bloods member who was sent to the city to "straighten out" Baltimore's chaotic gang network and sell heroin was found guilty yesterday of second-degree murder and conspiracy to kill a 19-year-old who was not following gang rules.
Police believe the victim, Terrance Randolph, had mishandled money in a drug deal and gotten into a fight on North Avenue in violation of orders from gang leaders. Such offenses, in gangland culture, merit "DP," or discipline, and 35-year-old Shaidon Blake - also known as Don Papa - oversaw the punishment, prosecutors said.
Randolph was led to a West Baltimore basement where gang members bound his mouth and arms with duct tape, slashed his face with a box cutter, hit him with a sledgehammer, and finally killed him when they stabbed him in the neck with a samurai sword, according to prosecutors and trial testimony.
Then they dragged his body to an alley behind the Division Street house and lit it on fire, creating what a prosecutor described as one of the goriest killings he had ever seen. Two other gang members on trial for their roles in the slaying were also found guilty yesterday.
The police investigation of the case took detectives to California, where they searched Blake's mother's house, and Las Vegas, where they questioned him after U.S. marshals arrested him in May 2006. "Don Papa had control over people in this town, a lot of people knew who he was and a lot of people were afraid of him," said Anthony Fata, the lead city homicide detective on the case. "He didn't get to do what he came out here to do."
Jermile Harvey, who lived in the house where the murder occurred, and Janet Lee Johnson were both found guilty of first- and second-degree murder. Johnson also pleaded guilty yesterday to bringing a loaded gun into a holding cell in the city's homicide department after being arrested for a separate murder. She concealed the handgun in her panties.
Much of the five-day trial focused on Blake. He wore a button-down gray shirt and scribbled notes on a legal pad during the proceedings, often consulting with his lawyer. When the guilty verdict was read, he shook his head angrily and said "[expletive] him, [expletive] him." He mouthed "goodbye" to a girlfriend who was in court. Family members declined to comment afterward.
Dennis Laye, Blake's court-appointed lawyer, said in his closing argument that Blake's gang background should not be enough to convict him of the crime. It took the jury three days to return the guilty verdicts.
Blake reached out to the Baltimore police shortly after arriving in the city in late 2005 and told them that he was from California and had plans to straighten out the city's gangs, according to testimony.
"He was sent here because people were 'false flagging,' not representing Bloods the way they are supposed to be," said Detective Darrell A. Merrick, a member of the department's gang unit, who attended that meeting.
Blake told Merrick that he didn't want a rift between him and the law. He said he was organizing a meeting of the city's Bloods in Druid Hill Park and wanted some help getting a permit for the gathering.
Merrick said it rained on the day the big meeting was supposed to take place and that nobody gathered at the park. "A lot of the time Bloods say they are for uplifting the community," Merrick said. "They say they are not for violence or things of that nature."
The torture Randolph endured told a different story, police said. When the jury was selected, Chief Circuit Judge John N. Prevas said jurors who thought they would be too upset by bloody photos could be excused.
Despite the gruesome way in which Randolph was killed, detectives found only two droplets of the victim's blood on a washing machine in the basement - and a lot of bleach.
"They did a good job cleaning up," said Brian M. Fish, assistant state's attorney.
Instead of forensics, the key evidence in the trial was introduced by witnesses.
The first witness, Jiordanna Wagner, initially refused to cooperate. On the first day of the trial, she was charged with contempt of court, an offense Prevas told her could carry a 10-year sentence. She spent a night in jail and then agreed to take the witness stand.
Wagner testified with her lawyer sitting next to her because she is charged with other crimes. She insisted that she did not remember what happened on the night of the murder and refused to identify Don Papa as Shaidon Blake. Fish, the prosecutor, played an audio tape that homicide detectives made when they questioned her.
Jurors read transcripts of the tape as it played, and one juror covered her mouth with her hand as Wagner described how the victim was tortured. Wagner appeared bored on the stand, yawning a few times and looking down as her voice played on a portable stereo. As they deliberated, the jurors wore out one audio tape, and requested another copy of it.
The other witness, Raymond Kelly, owned the home on the 1900 block of Division St. where the murder occurred. The gang members came to his house on April 11, 2006, drinking and smoking marijuana with him. But he said he went to bed around 10:30 p.m. and was roused at 3 a.m. by someone named "Bangout" who police never found.
"They had a guy taped up in the basement," Kelly testified. "I didn't recognize him. He was taped across the chest. As soon as I saw it, I wanted it out."
Kelly said during cross-examination that he assumed the victim "was just getting disciplined."
"That is what they do," Kelly said. "I'm not ignorant about gang routine. I just assumed he was getting DPed."
Toward the end of the trial, an assistant medical examiner showed the jury graphic photos of Randolph's body. "It was burnt to a bloody crisp," said Fish, the prosecutor, in his closing arguments.
The defense called no witnesses, but tried to convince the jury that the state's witnesses were either coerced into talking or guilty of the crime.
This week, Blake was also indicted in Las Vegas for federal handgun charges that stemmed from his arrest in May, when he was found with a gun.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... -headlines
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Gang figure gets life in prison
Term for murder ends odyssey that put Blake in Nevada
By Brent Jones
sun reporter
Originally published May 31, 2007
A leader in the California Bloods gang was sentenced yesterday to spend the rest of his life in prison, ending a weeklong odyssey during which federal authorities pulled him out of jail and flew him across the country to answer a Nevada gun charge.
Shaidon "Don Papa" Blake made it only as far as Oklahoma City before he was returned to Baltimore after protests by city prosecutors, who noted he missed a sentencing hearing Tuesday. The hearing in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas was postponed until June 7.
As he entered the Baltimore Circuit Courtroom in handcuffs yesterday, Blake smiled and muttered to his fiancee that he had just come back from "a long road trip."
A city jury found Blake guilty in April in the 2006 killing of a 19-year-old Baltimore man. The victim, Terrance Randolph, was bound, bludgeoned and stabbed in the neck with a samurai sword in the basement of a West Baltimore rowhouse. His body was then burned.
Circuit Judge John N. Prevas, who sentenced Blake, called the murder so brutal that "it probably tops the chart for a generation."
Blake, addressing the court, denied having anything to do with the killing, saying he is being made a scapegoat for the city's rising gang problem.
Blake, 35, had told city homicide detectives that he was part of a gang called the Bounty Hunter Bloods and that he was sent to Baltimore to impose discipline and sell heroin, according to court testimony.
Blake's gang, known for going into gang-infested areas and separating real gang members from wannabes, has roots in Los Angeles's Nickerson Gardens housing project.
Police said they believe the Baltimore victim had mishandled money in a drug deal and gotten into a fight, a violation of orders from gang leaders. In a letter to The Sun, Blake denied being involved in the killing and said there are few real gang members in Baltimore.
Blake told Prevas in court that the city's gang situation is bigger than him. "No disrespect to the court, but this is a travesty of justice," he said.
Blake accused city leaders of using his story to justify big budgets to go after gangs. "I told ya'll where I was and that I didn't have nothing to do with it, period," he said.
Blake's fiancee, Lisa Smith, backed Blake's assertion that he is being made a scapegoat. The couple displayed little emotion during the 90-minute proceeding.
"He already knew what was going to happen, so he told me in advance. That's why he was calm and cool and I was calm and cool," she said in an interview. "We know he's the fall guy. He's not the leader. It's somebody up there bigger than him. He's a little fish, and they're trying to get the bigger fish."
Co-defendant Jirmile "Smiley" Harvey, 23, of the 1500 block of Lanvale St. was found guilty of first-degree murder and was also sentenced to life in prison yesterday by Prevas.
A third co-defendant, Janet "Lock and Load" Johnson of the 2000 block of Cecil Ave., was convicted of first-degree murder and is scheduled for sentencing tomorrow.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... timorecity
Term for murder ends odyssey that put Blake in Nevada
By Brent Jones
sun reporter
Originally published May 31, 2007
A leader in the California Bloods gang was sentenced yesterday to spend the rest of his life in prison, ending a weeklong odyssey during which federal authorities pulled him out of jail and flew him across the country to answer a Nevada gun charge.
Shaidon "Don Papa" Blake made it only as far as Oklahoma City before he was returned to Baltimore after protests by city prosecutors, who noted he missed a sentencing hearing Tuesday. The hearing in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas was postponed until June 7.
As he entered the Baltimore Circuit Courtroom in handcuffs yesterday, Blake smiled and muttered to his fiancee that he had just come back from "a long road trip."
A city jury found Blake guilty in April in the 2006 killing of a 19-year-old Baltimore man. The victim, Terrance Randolph, was bound, bludgeoned and stabbed in the neck with a samurai sword in the basement of a West Baltimore rowhouse. His body was then burned.
Circuit Judge John N. Prevas, who sentenced Blake, called the murder so brutal that "it probably tops the chart for a generation."
Blake, addressing the court, denied having anything to do with the killing, saying he is being made a scapegoat for the city's rising gang problem.
Blake, 35, had told city homicide detectives that he was part of a gang called the Bounty Hunter Bloods and that he was sent to Baltimore to impose discipline and sell heroin, according to court testimony.
Blake's gang, known for going into gang-infested areas and separating real gang members from wannabes, has roots in Los Angeles's Nickerson Gardens housing project.
Police said they believe the Baltimore victim had mishandled money in a drug deal and gotten into a fight, a violation of orders from gang leaders. In a letter to The Sun, Blake denied being involved in the killing and said there are few real gang members in Baltimore.
Blake told Prevas in court that the city's gang situation is bigger than him. "No disrespect to the court, but this is a travesty of justice," he said.
Blake accused city leaders of using his story to justify big budgets to go after gangs. "I told ya'll where I was and that I didn't have nothing to do with it, period," he said.
Blake's fiancee, Lisa Smith, backed Blake's assertion that he is being made a scapegoat. The couple displayed little emotion during the 90-minute proceeding.
"He already knew what was going to happen, so he told me in advance. That's why he was calm and cool and I was calm and cool," she said in an interview. "We know he's the fall guy. He's not the leader. It's somebody up there bigger than him. He's a little fish, and they're trying to get the bigger fish."
Co-defendant Jirmile "Smiley" Harvey, 23, of the 1500 block of Lanvale St. was found guilty of first-degree murder and was also sentenced to life in prison yesterday by Prevas.
A third co-defendant, Janet "Lock and Load" Johnson of the 2000 block of Cecil Ave., was convicted of first-degree murder and is scheduled for sentencing tomorrow.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... timorecity