Career criminal sentenced to 18 months

Prosecutors sought 9 years for man's 39th conviction

By SCOTT DAUGHERTY, Staff Writer

Published 10/23/09

A career criminal who amassed 38 convictions over the past 30 years was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in jail after walking away from a court-ordered drug-rehabilitation program.

The sentence is more than seven years shorter than what prosecutors had sought while arguing that Michael Barksdale, 49, of Edgewater, already had violated the conditions of his probation once and didn't deserve any more chances.

"He is very much a threat to society," Assistant State's Attorney Anastasia Prigge said in county Circuit Court in Annapolis before asking a judge to order Barksdale to serve the final 91/2 years of a 15-year sentence he received in 2004. But Circuit Court Judge Ronald A. Silkworth sided with the defense and Barksdale's probation officer.

He said that while Barksdale was wrong in January to leave Second Genesis in Crownsville after one month, the rehab facility may not have offered him all of the support he required.

The judge noted that Barksdale was doing well in the Jennifer Road Detention Center in Parole and ordered him to continue working with a jail psychiatrist.

Prigge and Assistant Public Defender Stacy McCormack declined to comment about the case and sentence.

According to prosecutors and court records, Barksdale was convicted at least 38 times between 1979 and 2004 for crimes ranging from misdemeanor theft to simple battery to burglary. He has 10 prior convictions for violent crimes and has served five separate sentences in state prisons.

Barksdale's last conviction stems from a May 23, 2002, incident at 434 Londontown Road, where he rented a room in the basement.

Sheriff's deputies went to the house to serve seven outstanding warrants, prompting Barksdale to run upstairs, break through an interior door and arm himself with several of the homeowner's guns.

Police surrounded the house and evacuated the neighborhood. A nine-hour standoff ensued, ending only when police fired tear gas into the home and Barksdale was forced to come out.

A jury convicted Barksdale in 2004 of first-degree burglary, two counts of reckless endangerment, threatening arson and three handgun charges in connection with the standoff.

Silkworth then sentenced him to 15 years in prison, but he left the door open to rehab at a later date.

In 2006 and 2007, Barksdale repeatedly asked Silkworth to cut his sentence, but the judge rebuffed the requests until late 2008, when officials with the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene evaluated Barksdale and recommended Second Genesis.

Prigge objected at the time - saying she didn't believe Barksdale would be able to successfully complete a program - but Silkworth decided to try. He suspended the last 10 years of Barksdale's sentence and ordered him to rehab.

Barksdale moved to Crownsville on Dec. 23, when a bed opened at the in-patient facility. But, as prosecutors feared, he didn't last a month.

Prigge said Barksdale threatened two patients and one staff member at Second Genesis during his first couple of weeks and that he walked off in mid-January. She said he moved to a homeless encampment in the Annapolis area.

McCormack said yesterday that her client left Second Genesis because the program was not providing the psychological help he needed and that the court ordered. She noted that he was doing well in the Jennifer Road jail - where he has been incarcerated for nine months - and asked the judge to keep him in a county jail so he can continue to work with his doctor.

"He is doing much better. He is learning how to control himself," said McCormack. "I don't think he was given a very good opportunity (at Second Genesis)."

Elizabeth Nevil, Barksdale's probation agent, seconded that.

"He never really has had a chance to get psychiatric help and psychiatric medicine," she said, saying that if Barksdale is allowed to stay in the county jail "there is a good chance (he) will make it."

Silkworth sentenced Barksdale yesterday to 91/2 years in prison, but suspended all but 18 months to be served at the Ordnance Road Correctional Center in Glen Burnie.

Barksdale told the court that, upon his release from jail, he hopes to move to Delaware to be near his mother.

He said he didn't want to be in Anne Arundel County anymore, and that if he stayed he would end up in trouble again.

"Sooner or later the police and I are going to clash again," he said.

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Career Criminal Sentenced to 18 Mon - 2009-10-25 07:09:20

I have appeared before Judge Silkworth many times and find him to be a thoughtful and fair judge. The sad fact is that our discussion about justice has been framed such that "justice" equals "lots of incarceration." We conveniently forget that WE the taxpayers pay for incarceration which doesn't make things better, it makes them WORSE. Our prison population exploded when we began incarcerating addicts and now the mentally ill. There are no throw away people and our country can do much better than warehousing our citizens.

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Chris Flohr - Severna Park, MD - Karma: Neutral

Speechless - 2009-10-24 00:53:41

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A. Barham - crownsville, MD - Karma: Excellent

Career criminal sentenced to 18 mon - 2009-10-23 22:05:09

It's because of judges like Silkworth and lawyers like public defender Stacy McCormack that we have the crime problem that we read about daily.

Why is it that if I do something that causes injury to others, I am held accountable. But if a judge (like Silkworth) or a lawyer (like McCormack) made the kind of decision that we see in this case, and someone gets injured or killed, then it's "So what?". I think that they should be held accountable like everyone else.

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William H. - SEVERN, MD - Karma: Neutral