FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or
MARCIA MURPHY at 410-209-4885
JULY 30, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Baltimore Man Exiled to 10 Years in Prison for Being a Felon in Possession of a Gun
Gun Used in Home Invasion
Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced Edward Capers, age 42, of Baltimore, today to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of a gun, arising from a violent home invasion and assault.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Joseph Riehl of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - Baltimore Field Division; Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy; and Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.
According to evidence presented at the two day trial, on July 30, 2009, Capers kicked in the door of an apartment in the 5000 block of Midwood Avenue in Baltimore. A woman and her boyfriend were at home at the time. Capers, wearing a skull bandana over his face and carrying a loaded .38 caliber handgun, ran directly into a rear bedroom where the woman was using a computer. Capers placed his arm around her neck in a chokehold and put the gun to her head. Her boyfriend, who was in the front bedroom and saw Capers run by, came up behind Capers and began to struggle with him over the gun. During the struggle, which lasted several minutes, the woman struck Capers with a golf club and stabbed him with a steak knife, while her boyfriend wrestled with Capers over the gun and stabbed him with a screwdriver lying nearby. At some point during the fight, Capers fired the gun, shooting the boyfriend in the finger and himself in the right leg above the knee.
According to trial evidence, during the fight the woman called 911. She was still on the phone with the 911 operator when police arrived. The boyfriend was transported to the hospital.
Mr. Rosenstein commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Benjamin M. Block and Kwame Manley, who prosecuted this case.