Montgomery Community Media

A Silver Spring man was convicted of second degree murder Wednesday in the stabbing death of Jose Augusto Ruiz on June 14, 2020. Denzel Kasaka, 23, will be sentenced Feb. 18 in connection with Ruiz’s death. Kasaka faces a maximum of 40 years. During prosecution, Assistant State’s Attorney Donna Fenton said Kasaka used Instagram to […]

The suspect in a string of sexual assault crimes and a murder in the 1990s pleaded not guilty to two murder charges in a D.C. courtroom Monday morning. Giles Warrick, 61, made his first courtroom appearance in D.C. Superior Court Monday accompanied by his lawyer, Stephen Mercer, pleading not guilty to one count of first-degree […]

Andy Panton of Boyds was found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of two men who were found shot to death, execution-style, inside a crashed car in White Oak on Jan. 28, 2019, according to a spokesperson from the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office. A jury found the 22-year-old man guilty Thursday on two […]

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals Murder agreed with a lower court and refused to dismiss charges against Catherine Hoggle, charged with murdering her two young children, Sarah and Jacob Hoggle. The children were last seen in her care on Sept. 7, 2014. She will remain committed and continue to be considered incompetent to stand […]

Lawrence Sakkestad, 35, pleaded guilty on Monday to the first-degree murder of 39-year-old Jennifer Sparks in Germantown in 2019, according to online case records. Sentencing is set for Aug. 27 and Sakkestad continues to be held without bond. In 2019, Montgomery County Police reported Sakkestad was arrested Sept. 9 and charged with first-degree murder. Officers […]

Julia Birch, 26, last week admitted to killing her roommate, 92-year-old Nancy Ann Frankel, according to Montgomery County Police (MCPD). Frankel’s cause of death was asphyxiation, Officer Carlos Cortes, with the police department’s Public Information Division, told MyMCM in an email Tuesday. According to police, officers and fire/rescue personnel responded to a home on Spruell […]

A woman has been arrested and charged with killing her roommate in Kensington, Montgomery County Police (MCPD) wrote in a release. Julia Birch, 26, admitted to killing 92-year-old Nancy Ann Frankel, police said. MCPD said that around 8:20 a.m. July 28, officers and fire/rescue personnel responded to a home on Spruell Drive in Kensington for […]

Eric Sylvester Dyson, accused of the murder of a World War II and Korean War veteran, was denied early release after seeking a sentence reduction on July 26. Dyson was tried by Judge Stephen G. Salant in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. Dyson was convicted in the 2015 brutal murder of 94-year-old veteran Dan […]

Prince George’s County Police Department’s Homicide Unit charged five men with the murder of 15-year-old Nelson Ramos of Takoma Park. He was a 10th grader at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring at the time of the April 7 murder. William Rivera-Martinez, 20, of Reston, Va.; Jiecsin Marcel Portillo Cruz, 19, of Chillum; Edras […]

Montgomery County and state leaders are reacting to the verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who on Tuesday was found guilty for the murder of George Floyd. Chauvin was found guilty on all three of his charges: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin was convicted for killing Floyd, […]