BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun
By Allison Klein
Sun Staff
Originally published December 18, 2002
Lawyers brokered a deal yesterday that ensures Dontee D. Stokes, the West Baltimore man who admits to shooting a Roman Catholic priest during an “out-of-body” experience, will not spend a day in prison and will be allowed to serve a modest sentence on home detention.
The deal, worked out in Baltimore Circuit Court and agreed to by a judge, comes a day after a city jury acquitted Stokes of attempted murder – a decision that several jurors defended yesterday as the right thing to do. Many said they believed Stokes’ claim that he had been sexually abused nine years ago by the man he shot, the Rev. Maurice J. Blackwell.
“We all have experienced out-of-body times in our lives,” said Carlton L. Simmons, a 61-year- old retiree and an alternate juror who participated in the deliberations. “We prayed to God to give us guidance.”
The deal, worked out in Baltimore Circuit Court and agreed to by a judge, comes a day after a city jury acquitted Stokes of attempted murder – a decision that several jurors defended yesterday as the right thing to do. Many said they believed Stokes’ claim that he had been sexually abused nine years ago by the man he shot, the Rev. Maurice J. Blackwell.
“We all have experienced out-of-body times in our lives,” said Carlton L. Simmons, a 61-year- old retiree and an alternate juror who participated in the deliberations. “We prayed to God to give us guidance.”