Originally posted by: Tabb
Anyone want to copy+paste the report?
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Md. Man Who Shot At Youths Is a Felon
By Fredrick Kunkle and Nurith C. Aisenman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 5, 2003; Page B01
A Laurel man who said he fatally shot a teenager to prevent the theft of his sport-utility vehicle early Wednesday has a felony conviction record from the 1980s, according to court documents, prompting authorities to focus part of their investigation on whether he violated Maryland law by possessing a handgun.
Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said yesterday that authorities are continuing to investigate the death of Ernest Sockwell, 15, and the wounding of one of his companions, a 23-year-old man. The SUV owner, Glenn R. Ellis, 37, said in an interview that he was in his apartment about 2:20 a.m. Wednesday when an alarm alerted him that his SUV was being tampered with. He said he rushed outside and opened fire on four young men, two of whom were in the vehicle.
Ellis, a tow truck driver for the D.C. Department of Public Works, was convicted of assault in 1985 and armed robbery in 1987, according to Prince George's Circuit Court records. Maryland law prohibits convicted felons from possessing firearms. Although authorities said Wednesday that the 9mm Ruger used in the shootings was legally registered to Ellis, they said yesterday that the gun is registered to a woman with whom Ellis shares the Laurel apartment.
As prosecutors decide what charges, if any, to file in the shootings, Ellis's criminal history will be "a significant factor," Ivey said. "It would be relevant to our consideration."
In 1985, Ellis was convicted of assault with intent to maim and assault with intent to disable in the nonfatal stabbings of his then-girlfriend and her mother, according to court records. Ellis pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. A panel of mental health professionals concluded that Ellis had "a mixed personality disorder" but said he did not suffer from a mental illness that would make him legally not responsible for the stabbings. A judge sentenced him to five years in prison but suspended all but 90 days of the term.
In 1987, while he was on probation, Ellis and an accomplice were arrested and charged with robbing a Hechinger store in Langley Park at gunpoint, according to court records. Ellis pleaded guilty to armed robbery and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Reached by telephone yesterday, Ellis declined to comment on his criminal record or talk about the gun used in Wednesday's shootings. "What I did, I went to jail for," he said. "I did my time, and that was it."
Ellis was questioned at length by homicide detectives Wednesday, then released pending the outcome of the investigation. In an interview after he returned home, Ellis said his 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe is equipped with a device that alerts a security company by wireless signal if the vehicle is tampered with. The company then pages Ellis.
He said that after receiving a page early Wednesday, he picked up a gun, hurried outside and opened fire on the four young men. He said that "things just went crazy" and that he regretted the shootings. Sockwell collapsed to the pavement while two of his companions, including the 23-year-old man who was critically wounded, rode away in the Tahoe, police said. A fourth person fled on foot. The two who were uninjured were later questioned by police and released pending the outcome of the investigation.
Several friends and other supporters of Ellis at the Fox Rest apartments, where the shootings occurred, said the complex is a frequent target of thieves and vandals. They said they sympathize with Ellis, who said in an interview Wednesday that he opened fire because he "had had enough."
But neighbor Lisa Jones, 45, a mother of four, said Sockwell did not deserve to be shot. "You don't come out of your house and use a firearm," Jones said. "You can get a car back, but you can't get a life back."
Under Maryland law, a person can be justified in the use of deadly force if acting on a reasonable belief that he or she is in immediate danger of death or serious bodily harm. The law also conditionally recognizes a person's right to take a life in defense of the home. But even that principle has been narrowed, said Paul F. Kemp, a former Montgomery County prosecutor now in private practice as a defense lawyer. "In the modern day and age, this is not Dodge City," he said.
"It strikes a chord, these kinds of cases," said Robert L. Dean, a former Montgomery prosecutor who is now deputy state's attorney in Prince George's. Dean, who declined to comment about the specifics of Ellis's case, said he saw some parallels between him and a Bethesda jeweler who killed two people after a holdup.
The jeweler, Vahag Babayan, emptied a .38-caliber semiautomatic at the men as they sat in a getaway car outside Babayan's Prestige Jewelers in the 7700 block of Wisconsin Avenue on the afternoon of June 16, 1990. The trial stirred passionate debate over the boundaries between self-defense and vigilantism.
At his December 1990 trial, Babayan testified that he regretted shooting the men but that he felt his actions were justified. The courtroom erupted in applause after a jury cleared Babayan of all charges, including second-degree murder.
The Babayan case "needed to be tried" because he had taken the law into his own hands, Dean said.
"To me, it pointed out how resorting to violence like this has a potential to do a lot of social damage," he said.
Staff writers Jamie Stockwell and Hamil R. Harris contributed to this report.</FONT>
