Annapolis homicides down in 2008

Nicole Cully still can't bring herself to pack up her husband's things, nearly a year after he was killed.

In the closet are DVDs he never got to watch, outfits he never wore. They were Christmas presents from last year, she said.

"Everything is still in its place … " she said. "I don't feel ready to pack it up. I guess I'm not really ready to let go all the way."

Her husband, Charles "C.J." Cully, was killed in January in a friend's apartment. He was one of seven people killed in Annapolis in 2008.

That's two fewer victims than in 2007, when nine people were killed in the city, including one officer-involved shooting. Three of those nine homicides remained unsolved.

For 2008, five of the seven homicide cases remain open. Police said the clearance rate depends on lots of factors, including timing, location, reason behind it, who victims are and what the motivation is, said Chief Michael A. Pristoop, who took over the city department in April.

"A lot of this is good fortune," he said.

By comparison, in 2008, there were 10 homicides in the county, and county police have arrested seven people in connection with those deaths.

Five of last year's homicides in city remain unsolved, but the reasons detectives are having difficulties vary.

Sometimes, the time of day plays a factor, as in the double shooting of Mr. Cully and Cecelia Brown. Mr. Cully and Ms. Brown were found shot to death inside her apartment at 11 a.m. Jan. 19.

Detective Sgt. Jessica Hertik said investigating the case is challenging because the shooting was in the morning when a lot of neighbors were at work. And because it was inside, the sound may have been muffled, and might not have sounded like a gunshot to other residents. Some people said they didn't know anything had happened until police cars arrived, Sgt. Hertik said.

Time also is a factor slowing progress on the case of a February shooting in Robinwood. Police said they suspect Timothy Hayes Marsh, 48, was in the neighborhood to buy drugs on Feb. 17 when he was shot and killed at 12:30 a.m. His family said at the time that he was bipolar and used illegal drugs to "self-medicate."

Other problems arise when the victim is not well-known in the area, such as in Mr. Marsh's case, she said.

And in some cases, police just don't know for sure what happened.

One such case is the killing of Russell M. Lockett III. Mr. Lockett, a homeless man, was beaten and robbed in March on West Street. Initially, he didn't report the robbery and didn't feel his injuries were that severe. But the next day, Mr. Lockett went to a bank near where he was staying on Bestgate Road, and employees there called county police. He was rushed to the hospital and was able to give a brief statement to a county police officer, but he died from his injuries weeks later.

City police said they were never able to interview Mr. Lockett because of his medical problems. Detectives said they didn't know exactly where and when the robbery happened, and weren't able to find witnesses.

Police circulated fliers and said they hope someone will come forward with information. Police also said they hope a person who is arrested for something else may know something about an open case.

"When we stumble upon the right person that has the information, that's what's going to break the case for us," Sgt. Hertik said.

In the Sept. 13 killing of Ricardo Humberto Rivera, language and cultural barriers created problems for detectives. Mr. Rivera and a woman were both shot inside a car on Janwall Street at about 12:30 a.m. The woman recovered from her injuries. Police said they believe the killing was somehow related to prostitution.

Locating and communicating with witnesses has been difficult because many are Hispanic and do not speak English, Sgt. Hertick said. Spanish-speaking officers and Hispanic liaisons have been working on the case.

"A lot of Hispanics don't have trust for police," she said. "That's the kind of hurdle we have to deal with, (letting them know that) we're here to try and help you, we're not here to try and get you in trouble."

Though some residents saw the aftermath - the car, its horn blaring, rolling down the hill - not many people saw anything else.

"This is going to be a witness case for the most part," Chief Pristoop said.

Case closed

Police point to the two closed cases this year as examples of good detective work and community involvement.

In the killings of Kwame Travon Johnson, 17, and Michael Lee Thompson, 31, the victims were well-known, local people. That fact alone sometimes makes a difference, police said.

"When a victim is liked in a community, the community actually does rally together to help us for the person that had done this," Sgt. Hertik said.

Mr. Johnson's March 16 killing in Robinwood prompted a community outcry. Church and community leaders formed peace walks and other events to say they'd had enough of the violence on the streets. It was the fourth killing in the first three months of the year, and it looked like the city was on pace to set a new record for homicides.

But about a month after the killing, police arrested Tyron Montray McGowan, an 18-year-old who lived in Robinwood. Mr. McGowan pleaded guilty to the murder and will be sentenced Jan. 26. His plea agreement included life in prison with all but 30 years suspended.

"We could not have solved that case without the community," Sgt. Hertik said.

Good detective work helped lead to an arrest in Mr. Thompson's killing, Chief Pristoop said.

Initially, police had some difficulty because he had a criminal history and was known to commit armed robberies, he said. But detectives were able to come up with a nickname of a possible suspect, and used it to track down the man they later arrested, Deonte Desmund Boyd, 24.

Mr. Boyd is charged with murder and is set for a criminal jury trial in May.

Picking up pieces

To the victims' families, homicides have nothing to do with numbers.

Nell Marsh remembers vividly the night her son Timothy was killed. Her son came home from work at about 7 p.m. in a good mood. He had been building cabinets; he worked as a woodworker.

Mrs. Marsh went to bed later, and woke up at about midnight to find all the lights downstairs left on. It was something they argued about, him leaving lights and other electric appliances on at night. But when she went down to talk to him about it, her son wasn't there. Shortly after, police officers came to her house to tell her that her son had been killed.

Since her son died, she's been lonely, she said. Sometimes she finds herself buying things at the store that he used to like. On holidays, the two of them ate together in their dining room, just the two of them. This year, she spent the holidays alone.

"I had lots of invitations, but I didn't want to feel like I was pretending I was happy," Mrs. Marsh said.

She did get lots of calls from family and friends checking in with her. The day after Christmas, she was out raking leaves.

"This is my way of handling things," she said.

She said she has no big plans for celebrating the anniversary of her son's death, she said.

"I'll sit and thank God for the time I had him," Mrs. Marsh said.

Waiting for answers

Mrs. Cully said she still holds out hope that her husband's killer will be brought to justice. She and her two daughters have tried to keep busy, and they all receive counseling. The death was a huge shock to Mrs. Cully, who described her husband as "wonderful" and said his murder "came out of nowhere."

"To know him was to love him," she said. "He didn't bother nobody, he didn't raise his voice to nobody. He was just wonderful."

Not knowing what happened, or why, has been very difficult. Mrs. Cully said she is trying to move out of Bay Ridge Gardens, and out of Annapolis altogether.

"There are too many memories in this area, period," she said. "Sometimes I get frustrated, because it seems like it didn't effect anyone else but his family. Everyone is just going on about their business," she said, wiping away a tear.

If the case is solved, it will be a huge relief and hopefully bring closure for her, Mrs. Cully said.

"It still won't be good enough, but the person won't be on the streets anymore," she said.