Jerome Isaac Hurley, 44, was charged in April with one count of theft of more than $100,000, a felony in Maryland law punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Hurley appeared Friday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court in Annapolis. His next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 4 with trial set to begin Dec. 10, according to the Maryland Judiciary.

Mark Lechowicz, Hurley’s defense attorney, declined to comment Monday.

On Sept. 5, 2023, Anne Arundel County Police went to the Miracle Temple along Southern Maryland Boulevard after being alerted to a theft, according to charging documents.

Police said church officials had recently discovered $347,000 of a $350,000 insurance check had been transferred from their Bank of America checking account into Hurley’s personal account.

According to charging documents, Hurley filed a successful insurance claim in March 2020 after a residence on the church’s property caught fire. Church officials told investigators that throughout Hurley’s seven years at Miracle Temple, from 2015 to 2022, he handled bank statements and finances.

A year after the fire, when the claim was vetted and a check was issued, Hurley took the vast majority of the insurance money from the temple’s account, police said. Charging documents reference bank account numbers and the dates of several bank transfers, including when the insurance money cleared the church’s account and when it was allegedly transferred to Hurley nine days later.

The church’s attempts to contact Hurley about the money were unsuccessful, police said. In February 2023, the Miracle Temple’s board sent Hurley a certified letter saying they had entrusted him “to act in good faith” when handling the church’s finances and that they had never been notified of the insurance claim or the $350,000 check, according to charging documents.

Police did not indicate what Hurley may have spent the money on once it was in his account.

A representative for Miracle Temple declined to comment Monday on Hurley’s case or time with the church.

A spokesperson with the Anne Arundel County Fire Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the 2020 fire at Miracle Temple.

Since last year, Hurley’s case is at least the second criminal accusation levied against a church official in Anne Arundel County involving church money.

In March 2023, Marie Simeone was charged with embezzlement and two felony theft counts after she was accused of taking nearly $65,000 from the Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church in West River.

Simeone, who was the church’s director of operations until about three months before she was charged, allegedly made personal purchases at several businesses, subscribed to magazines and streaming services, went to restaurants and paid her utility bills using church funds, prosecutors said.

In November 2023, Simeone pleaded guilty to a felony theft scheme charge and was granted probation before judgment.

“When I start from the very beginning and get to the very end, they’re like, ‘wow, that is a really crazy story,’” The victim’s mother Tammy Nobles told Project Baltimore. “And I say, ‘it is a crazy story. But it’s a true story.’ It’s the worst pain that a parent can ever get.”

Nobles’ daughter Kayla Hamilton was killed on July 27, 2022. For more than two years her death made headlines.

“She was just found with a cord wrapped around her neck and her mouth. Then just left her on the floor, like trash,” Nobles explained.

On the day Kayla died, Aberdeen Police quickly identified Walter Martinez — 16-year-old MS-13 gang member from El Salvador who was in United States illegally — as a primary suspect, according to charging documents, which showed Martinez was detained by police and questioned. Detectives had surveillance video and an audio recording that placed Martinez at the scene of the crime. Martinez was read his Miranda Rights.

“They knew he was guilty. They just needed that DNA to really lock it in,” stated Nobles.

When police sent out Martinez’s DNA, it took six months to process. And after Kayla was murdered, and while police were waiting for the DNA results, Martinez was allowed to enroll as a student and was attending Edgewood High School in Harford County.

“It makes me angry,” Nobles told FOX45. “You’re sitting there putting this monster into high school with other people’s children, and you’re putting children at risk. Look what he did to Kayla.”

According to information Fox45 News gathered from local and federal agencies involved in the investigation, this is the timeline of events surrounding Kayla’s murder.

• In March 2022, Martinez entered the United States illegally through Texas as an unaccompanied minor. He was apprehended by Border Patrol and sent to live with a sponsor in Maryland.
• By July 2022, Martinez moved to a mobile home in Aberdeen where he later killed Kayla.
• By the fall of 2022, as police waited for the DNA results, Martinez had been placed in foster care with Child and Protective Services. He then enrolled at Edgewood High School.
• In January 2023, the DNA results came back, and Martinez was arrested.
• In August 2024, he pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 70 years in jail.

“Why did you put him in a public school? I want to know why,” said Nobles. “Somebody needs to be held accountable.”

Under Maryland law, even though Martinez was a suspect, since he had not yet been charged with murder, he could attend Edgewood High School, and authorities, including CPS, were not required to tell the school about his past. But Nobles believes someone should have.

Harford County Public Schools told Fox45 in a statement when Martinez was enrolled in October 2022, “There was no information in our possession that would suggest he was a danger to other students and staff. HCPS is not afforded unfettered access to information held by law enforcement which may suggest that a potential student is dangerous, gang-affiliated, or suspected of heinous and disturbing crimes.”

“We need to change the laws,” said Nobles. “If you’re a suspect, the main suspect of a felony, you should not be able to attend school with other children. They have virtual school and computers.”

Several organizations were involved in the investigation into Martinez, including  the Aberdeen Police Department, Maryland State Police, the FBI, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Child and Protective Services.

Yet, when Martinez was enrolled in Edgewood High School, no one involved told the school that a teen suspected of murder was walking the hallways with 1,400 other students.

“Imagining what [Kayla] went through that day, how she felt — her last moments knowing that she was dying, and she wasn’t going to see me again — how scared she must have been,” said Nobles, who lives in Virginia with Kayla’s younger brother and sister. “I want to make sure that it doesn’t happen to someone else. People need to know what actually happened and what is going on. Her death is not going to be in vain.”

Attorneys for David Linthicum, 25, asked for the delay so that the court could consider their renewed push to have his case dismissed. In a motion filed Saturday, the defense accused Baltimore County officials of conspiring to prevent him from receiving a fair trial.

Circuit Judge Robert Edward Cahill Jr. said the defense’s argument did not amount to a reasonable legal justification to postpone the case, which is scheduled to begin with jury selection Sept. 16.

“The outcome of this case will get significant community attention. … And the community deserves a trial,” Cahill said.

Authorities say Linthicum shot Baltimore County Police Officer Barry Jordan during a police response to his house Feb. 8, 2023, following a call from Linthicum’s father that his son was suicidal and armed. Linthicum escaped into the woods, triggering a multi-agency search that spanned two days.

Detective Jonathan Chih, also of the Baltimore County Police Department, eventually came across Linthicum on Warren Road. In their latest court filing, defense attorneys wrote that Chih mistook Linthicum for a hitchhiker before Linthicum asked him: “Are you here to kill me?”

Authorities said Chih and Linthicum then opened fire on each other, with the detective being struck and critically wounded.

Linthicum is charged with four counts of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of assault and a host of firearms offenses, online court records show. Attempted first-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

His attorneys, Deborah Katz Levi, director of special litigation for the Office of the Public Defender, and James Dills, district public defender for Baltimore County, contend the police response to their client’s mental crisis was flawed. Their defense of Linthicum at trial will focus in part on officer mishaps that amounted to a “grossly reckless response,” they wrote in their latest motion.

The highly-publicized case has been mired in disputes over evidence sharing, with Levi and Dills repeatedly accusing prosecutors of failing to disclose police files they described as critical to Linthicum’s defense and of bias against their client.

Levi and Dills escalated those claims in their latest motion, alleging the office of Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger conspired with county police to delay an investigation into Chih’s use of force during his encounter with Linthicum. Levi said in court that she believes that decision was intended to prevent Chih from giving a statement that could have been favorable to Linthicum’s defense.

She said the defense had retained two experts and was in the process of retaining a third. If Levi had the chance to call them to the witness stand, the experts would have testified about prosecutorial misconduct, “prosecutors’ ethical obligations more generally and conflicts that arise from their close relationship with the police,” and internal police investigations in Baltimore County, according to the defense motion.

“This needs to get to a judge before trial. … It is everything to Mr. Linthicum’s case,” Levi told Cahill.

Assistant State’s Attorney Zarena Sita described the defense’s latest legal filing as unfounded in court Monday, saying many of the points raised by Linthicum’s attorneys already had been decided by a judge who ruled in the prosecution’s favor.

In addition to a defendant’s right to a speedy trial, prosecutors also have an interest in resolving cases in a timely manner, Sita added.

“There are victims in this case, victims who have a desire to have this case resolved,” Sita told Cahill.

In addition to the money from coach Mike Locksley’s desk, the suspect is also accused of stealing $1,000 more in cash and a pair of Oakley sunglasses from the office of the football program’s chief of staff, Brian Griffin, according to an indictment handed down in late August.

The suspect, a 48-year-old from Reisterstown, had also been accused four years ago of stealing from offices at different schools’ athletic departments over the course of several months. In multiple theft cases, including the one in College Park, investigators noted that he dressed up to blend in on campus, sometimes carrying props to solidify the act.

It was not clear in court records if the suspect had been served with the Aug. 20 indictment, and a spokesperson for the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office was not able to immediately answer when asked about his status on Monday afternoon. A call to a phone number associated with the suspect was not returned.

The indictment, which charges the 48-year-old with four burglary and theft offenses, replaces a shorter set of charges issued in early July in connection with the June 16 thefts, though authorities never served him with an arrest warrant issued for those offenses, according to court records.

Surveillance footage from June showed the suspect following a couple into the Jones-Hill House, the football program’s training complex and administrative headquarters, at around noon, a campus police detective wrote in charging documents.

An employee opened the front door for the couple, and the suspect followed from behind while pretending to be on his phone, according to the charging documents. He was clad in a button-down shirt and dress pants, and also wore a camera with an extended lens around his neck “as if he was there to take photographs,” the officer wrote.

The suspect lingered around a staircase while the couple and the employee proceeded into the building. Then, he stopped using his phone “as soon as they left his view,” darting up the stairs to the football program’s administrative offices, which were unoccupied, the investigator wrote.

He “quickly went into multiple offices,” eventually entering Locksley’s through an open door and then proceeding to Griffin’s, where he exited with a gray pair of sunglasses, according to charging papers. The suspect left the building and waited for an Uber, which police said took him to a nearby parking lot, where he got into a BMW.

Baltimore Police stopped the BMW the next week, leading to campus investigators identifying the suspect and getting the warrant for his arrest.

Police noted that the same suspect was seen on surveillance footage “sneaking” into the university’s Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center earlier in June, though he was “spooked by an employee” who passed him in the office area.

The campus police investigators’ description of how the suspect carried out the June burglary appears strikingly similar to what Baltimore County Police wrote in a 2020 application for theft charges against the same man. The Reisterstown resident was charged that year in connection with a series of thefts from athletic offices at Stevenson University and the nearby Jemicy School.

County police investigators wrote that a set of keys belonging to the private institution’s head baseball coach were stolen from an unlocked office during a 2019 open house event. They pointed to footage of a “well-dressed male, carrying a folder” seen wandering the halls of the school’s sports complex “as if he belonged there” before entering the coach’s office and leaving with a set of keys.

A month later, the same person was seen taking $200 of student government money from the desk of a Jemicy School coach, charging papers say. In February 2020, he was again seen entering a different Stevenson coach’s office — $120 was taken from her purse that night.

He was identified as the suspect in that string of thefts after a Stevenson employee confronted him in a player locker room. The charges against him — four misdemeanor theft counts — were ultimately shelved, or placed on the inactive docket, in a 2022 agreement with county prosecutors, according to court records.

Officers responded to Pulaski Highway and Middle River Road at about 11:30 p.m. about a pedestrian crash, police said. Crash Team detectives determined a gray Honda CRV struck the pedestrian, and the individual was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Police said Monday morning that the victim is in serious but stable condition.

The Honda CRV did not remain at the scene, police said. The vehicle will have damage to the front bumper, a missing passenger-side mirror and possibly a broken passenger-side window.

Police said the crash remains under investigation. Anyone with information can reach Baltimore County Crash Team detectives at 410-887-5396 or 410-887-INFO.

Timothy J. Carpenter, of Indiana, had hundreds of images and dozens of videos of children being exploited, including some recorded in a shower.

The sentencing comes after Indiana State Police were made aware of Carpenter in 2022. Police learned that Carpenter used software to receive and distribute child sexual abuse material on the internet through his cellphone.

Carpenter admitted to police investigators that he used his phone to access the material. When police investigators examined his phone, they found multiple videos depicting a prepubescent child fully nude in a shower.

Carpenter was seen in videos concealing a camera in multiple locations near the shower to capture video of the child’s genitals.

The child predator was sentenced to over 17 years in prison for possessing and creating images of child sexual abuse.

A judge also ordered Carpenter to register as a sex offender where he resides, where he is an employee and where he is a student.

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At least 100 people, most of them young, gathered Sunday evening in Edgewood to remember the 15-year-old, who was fatally shot Friday during a fight at Joppatowne High School.

Through tears, attendees released blue balloons for his favorite color. Some wore shirts that said, “Gone too soon,” as they embraced on the neighborhood basketball court where Grant spent many afternoons.

“He was chill and laid-back and he did not bother nobody,” classmate Natalia Hardy said after the vigil. “He loved basketball. I grew up with him.”

Several people spoke during the vigil and many were crying. Their sentiments were unified. A woman stepped forward and urged the gathered young people to go to school and be successful because that’s what Grant would have wanted everyone to do.

“He kept my son out of trouble. He loved my family, and we love him. We will never forget him. He’s the last person I would ever expect this to happen to,” Viateria Lyons said after the vigil, noting that her son and Grant were close friends.

Vigil for Joppatowne High School student | PHOTOS

The vigil came as Harford County Public Schools decided to close five of its schools for part of the week in response to the shooting and offer counseling services for students.

Joppatowne High will be closed Monday to Wednesday, with the school district saying: “It is our intention to have students return on Thursday.”

The nearby Magnolia Elementary, Magnolia Middle, Joppatowne Elementary and Riverside elementary schools will be closed Monday. Before- and after-school care and activities are canceled at each of the schools but will resume when students return, the system said.

Parents were informed of the closures Saturday evening with Harford County Public Schools writing that “the tragic events of Friday have taken an emotional toll on this community and there is a need for time and space to heal.”

On Sunday evening, HCPS said on its website that school counselors, school psychologists, social workers or other supporting central office staff would be available for students at three locations in Edgewood starting at 10 a.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday until midafternoon: Windsor Valley Community Center, 570 Meadowood Drive; Edgewood Boys and Girls Club, 2002 Cedar Drive; and Edgewood EPI Center, 1918 Pulaski Highway.

The shooting occurred during a fight between two students in a first-floor bathroom at the high school. The 16-year-old suspect allegedly drew a handgun and shot Grant in the chest. Grant was airlifted to an area hospital, where he later died.

Police said the suspect fled school grounds but was later reported to the police for allegedly attempting to break into a house. Responding officers apprehended the suspect.

The suspect is being charged as an adult with murder, first- and second-degree assault, and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony/crime of violence. He is being held in the Harford County Detention Center, awaiting an initial appearance before a judicial officer.

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office said it believes the suspect and victim knew each other and that there isn’t an outstanding suspect or threat to the community.

Dion Guthrie, the councilman for District A, which includes the school, said he plans to evaluate options to improve school safety across the county, but aside from the potential cost of something like metal detectors, he said there are a lot of logistics involved as well.

“Say you put in metal detectors, you have numerous entrances at each school and over 50 schools in the county,” Guthrie said. “Figuring that out and how to pay for it is a lot, so I am looking into all the options we have available.”

Sitting at his home in Joppatowne, as the helicopter carrying Grant flew above the school Friday, Guthrie reflected to when his kids, now adults, were students at Joppatowne High, he said Sunday.

“I think back to when they were there, and sure, things could have happened, but it just seems these things have been happening more frequently across the country,” Guthrie said. “It is certainly a difficult time for everyone, and my thoughts are with the family, the school and the community.”

On Sunday morning, the high school campus was quiet, but a handful of visitors stopped by to pay respects. Some people have left flowers or other tributes. A police car was stationed at the school and moved to different locations around the area about every 20 minutes.

After the vigil, Lyons lamented a lack of spaces in Edgewood for teenagers.

“There is nothing in Edgewood for the kids. There is no programs. There is no nothing. What is there for them to do?” Lyons said. “All we have is empty buildings. What is there for the kids? Where is the boys and girls club out here? Go to Bel Air, go to Fallston go to Aberdeen, there are things for kids to do. Where can kids in Edgewood go and talk and hang out and get a positive message from somebody?

A Facebook post from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office announcing the arrest had drawn more than 530 comments as of Sunday afternoon, with many providing words of sympathy and concerns surrounding gun control and school safety.

“Two lives ended yesterday when they had just barely started. Violence is never the way,” one reads.

Many commenters said they feel the school system should install metal detectors, while others said the solution is responsible gun ownership.

Students from the high school as well as Magnolia, Joppatowne and Riverside elementary schools and Magnolia Middle can pick up bagged lunches at Magnolia Middle and Mariner Point Park, between noon and 1 p.m. Monday, the Harford County Public Schools said Sunday evening. On Tuesday, Joppatowne High students can pick up two-day meal kits at the high school and the Windsor Valley Community Center between noon and 1 p.m.

If a Joppatowne High student needs to collect personal belongings before returning to school Thursday, a school safety liaison will be available to escort them at noon Monday.

Baltimore Sun photographer Lloyd Fox contributed to this article. 

Deobra Redden told Judge Susan Johnson he agreed to the change in plea for seven counts, just minutes after a jury heard testimony from Judge Mary Kay Holthus and a law clerk involved in the January attack.

“Did you do that, sir?” Johnson asked Redden after reading the attempted murder charge.

“Yes,” Redden responded.

His attorney, Carl Arnold, released a statement saying Redden’s plea “acknowledges the gravity of the situation while underscoring his ongoing struggle with severe mental health issues.”

“We deeply respect the pain and trauma experienced by Judge Holthus, and we continue to express our utmost sympathy for her and her family,” Arnold said in his statement. “At the same time, we are committed to ensuring that Mr. Redden receives the appropriate legal and medical support he needs to address his mental health challenges.”

Before the trial started, Redden pleaded guilty to six counts, and prosecutors agreed to drop two more. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 7.

After finalizing Redden’s plea, Johnson informed the jurors that the parties “resolved their differences” and they were excused from service.

Arnold said he will work to ensure Redden receives a fair sentence that accounts for his mental health conditions.

Holthus left her bench to take the stand as the first witness to testify in Redden’s trial. During her testimony, a prosecutor played the video from the January attack and the moments leading up to it during a sentencing hearing.

In the video, a prosecutor tells Holthus that Redden had a history of violent crimes and asked for a prison term. Past charges included home invasion, domestic violence and battery on a protected person.

In the video, Redden speaks on his own behalf, and his attorney asks for a suspended sentence, citing his previously completed probation programs, mental health history and background.

“I appreciate that, but I think it’s time that he get a taste of something else,” Holthus responds. “I just can’t with that history.”

That’s when Redden swears at Holthus, jumps over the bench, and attacks the judge, leading to a melee as Holthus’ clerk, Michael Lasso, and a court marshal try to hold Redden back and subdue him.

“I was down on the ground and I could just hear — I could just feel him going — someone going at me,” Holthus told the court Thursday. “It was Mr. Redden because that’s where he was. And I could feel someone trying to pull him off and [someone says], ‘Leave her alone.’ Like they’re fighting over me.”

She added, “As soon as I was clear enough, I literally rolled onto my bench in the fetal position.”

Holthus said she feared for her life during the attack and was concerned about how the fact it was recorded could affect her family.

“I know that there’s video, and there’s a part of me going, I’ll be dead, but I have three kids,” she said. “They’re gonna watch, and that’s what they’re gonna see. That’s what was making me so mad. Not what he was doing to me, but what he could do to my family.”

Before the trial, Redden pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder charge. Arnold argued that Redden did not intend to kill Holthus when he attacked her.

On cross-examination from Arnold, Holthus said she did not suffer any broken bones from the attack. She said she could not recall specifics from the attack, such as the number of times she was hit or whether Redden used a closed fist.

After Holthus, prosecutors called Lasso, who testified about witnessing the attack and trying to intervene to pull Redden. The change in plea was entered before Arnold had an opportunity to cross-examine Lasso.

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Baltimore Police officers responded around 10:45 p.m. to the 1600 block of North Bentalou Street near Senator Troy Brailey Easterwood Park for a ShotSpotter alert — a network of sensors that alert police to potential gunshots.

Upon arrival, police located a male 17-year-old suffering from an apparent gunshot wound, according to police.

The victim was transported to an area hospital by medical personnel. His condition is non-life-threatening, police said Sunday.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact them at 410-396-2477 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7Lockup.

The indictment does not name the company but details within the indictment match Tennessee-based Tenet Media, which hosts Tim Pool’s Culture War Podcast, The Tennessean wrote.

Russian state-run media outlet RT employees Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva are accused of funneling $10 million to the company by laundering it through foreign shell entities.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The pair were employees and editors at the company, posting videos on immigration, inflation and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy, according to the indictment.

The pair worked at the company as outside editors under the names Helena Shudra and Victoria Pesti.

Between October 2023 and August 2024, RT sent wire transfers of $9.7 million to the company, amounting to 90% of the company’s deposits.

The pair are charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.