FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or
MARCIA MURPHY at 410-209-4885
May 5, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BALTIMORE FELON CONVICTED FOR ILLEGAL GUN POSSESSION
Attempted a Home Invasion
Baltimore, Maryland - Edward Capers, age 42, of Baltimore, was convicted late yesterday of being a felon in possession of a gun.
The conviction was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Theresa R. Stoop 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, who lived in the apartment, were at home when Capers kicked his way in. According to trial testimony, after breaking into the apartment, Capers, wearing a skull bandana over his face and carrying a loaded Rossi, .38 caliber handgun, ran directly into the bedroom at the rear of the apartment, where the woman resident was using a computer. Capers placed his arm around her neck in a chokehold, and put the gun to her head. At that point, her boyfriend, who was in the front bedroom and saw Capers run by with a mask and gun, came up behind Capers and began to struggle with him over the gun. During that 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, hitting the boyfriend in the finger and himself in the right leg above the knee.
According to the evidence, while the fight was ongoing, the woman placed a call to 911, urgently requesting police assistance. She informed the 911 operator that Capers had broken into her apartment, that her boyfriend was fighting with Capers to try to get him to drop the gun, that Capers had fired the gun, and that Capers had hurt her neck. She was still on the phone with the 911 operator when police arrived. The boyfriend was transported to the hospital.
Capers faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles has scheduled sentencing for July 30, 2010 at 9:30 a.m.
Mr. Rosenstein commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Benjamin M. Block and Kwame J. Manley, who prosecuted this case.