Metro Briefs

MARYLAND

JESSUP

Wounded drug suspect was 14-year-old boy

A 14-year-old shot in the stomach when an officer’s gun accidentally fired is in fair condition, Howard County police said.

A police spokeswoman said Dwayne Usery of Jessup was wounded by an undercover narcotics officer Monday night.

Officers had stopped two teens for questioning about possible drug activity. As an officer got out of his car, his gun discharged, and a single bullet struck Dwayne and Garcia Wilson, 15, who was treated at a hospital for an arm wound and released.

Police have not released the name of the officer.

CFREDERICK

Man remorseful in NASCAR theft

A Monrovia man was charged Monday with stealing a 5-foot cardboard likeness of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt from a Wawa convenience store where the cutout was being used to promote a limited-edition candy bar.

Johnnie Wayne Murrah, 42, was charged with theft under $100, state police said.

The cutout prompted so many offers from customers that store management decided to auction off the display and donate the proceeds to the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore.

Mr. Murrah turned himself in to troopers after they released surveillance photos. He said when he saw himself on the news, he immediately grabbed the cutout and drove it back to Wawa.

He apologized to a store employee, left his name and phone number, and called state police.

Mr. Murrah said he never would have taken the display had he known it was going for charity. “I’ve never stolen anything in my life,” he told the Frederick News-Post.

In fact, he had looked around a week ago for a store manager to make an offer on the cutout; when he didn’t see anyone, he took it.

“I feel terrible — I just did the wrong thing at the wrong time. I’m crushed over it,” he said.

Mr. Murrah could be sentenced to up to 90 days in jail and/or up to a $500 fine. He will have a court appearance June 5.

CUMBERLAND

Hunter enters plea in fatal shooting

An Allegany County man was convicted of negligent hunting in the fatal shooting of a fellow hunter.

Eric Riggs, 32, of Mount Savage, entered an Alford plea to the charge. In an Alford plea, a defendant doesn’t admit guilt but acknowledges that the state has enough evidence for a conviction.

Mr. Riggs told authorities that he shot James Dawson Jr., 46, of Rawlings, on Dec. 8 after mistaking him for a deer. Investigators said Mr. Dawson wasn’t wearing blaze orange clothing.

BALTIMORE

Bus-beating victim pleads in drug sting

A Baltimore woman who was beaten by teenagers while riding a transit bus in December pleaded guilty Monday to drug charges.

Sarah Kreager, 26, was arrested in October after trying to sell prescription drugs to an undercover police officer. Prosecutors said she pleaded guilty to one count of attempted drug distribution. She was given an 18-month suspended sentence that includes probation and 35 hours of community service.

Miss Kreager and her boyfriend made headlines after they were attacked Dec. 4 by students from Robert Poole Middle School while riding a city bus in the Hampden neighborhood.

VIRGINIA

LEESBURG

Woman charged in open-house thefts

A Leesburg woman posed as a potential home buyer to steal from open houses, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said.

Lauren Cooke, 24, learned about the open houses through her job at Move-It Relocation Specialists, investigators said.

They said Miss Cooke attended nearly 50 open houses and later entered homes using stolen garage-door openers or forcing her way in.

A search of a home and business turned up about 360 stolen items worth nearly $200,000, they said. Some of the goods were sold at pawn shops in the District; some were recovered.

Miss Cooke was charged with 34 crimes related to burglary and larceny and is being held without bail at the county detention center.

LEESBURG

Father’s phone call heard in sex case

A Loudoun County jury yesterday heard an hourlong phone-call recording in which a civil rights leader seemed to offer a convoluted defense of a sexual encounter with his 15-year-old daughter.

The recording was evidence in the incest trial of the Rev. James L. Bevel, a top confidant to Martin Luther King who helped conceive and organize the Million Man March in 1995. Mr. Bevel was arrested in June and charged with incest in having sexual intercourse with his daughter while the two lived in Leesburg in the early 1990s.

Mr. Bevel never explicitly admitted to having sex with his daughter in the recording. The daughter said he pressured her by saying the sex would relieve him of demons that were sapping his strength.

Mr. Bevel refers to “our interaction” and seems to blame the daughter at various times for weakness by refusing to resist him.

Mr. Bevel also said in the conversation that the encounter increased his knowledge of how men and women interact, and improved his ability to teach others about proper marital relations.

From wire dispatches and staff reports