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WJZ-TV screen capture of Charles Bowman, whose alleged killer is on trial this week in Baltimore City Circuit Court for the April 2010 shooting at a Chi- nese food carryout on Greenmount Ave. in Waverly. On Tues. a juror in the trial charged harassment.

JUROR  IN  MURDER TRIAL
CHARGES HARASSMENT
FROM OTHER JURORS

Judge  delivers  ‘Allen  charge’
in open court after complaint

UPDATE (Wed. Sept. 28):  HUNTER FOUND GUILTY OF FIRST-DEGREE MURDER IN SHOOTING DEATH OF VIETNAM VET CHARLES BOWMAN

Sentencing set for Nov. 23

A juror in the murder trial of the man charged with killing a 72-year-old Afro-American newspaper security guard in April 2010 complained today that other jurors were being hostile toward her, court observer Stephen J. Gewirtz reported Monday to Voice of Baltimore.

The incident caused Associate Circuit Court Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill to call the jury back into the courtroom, Gewirtz said, where he read them “Allen charge” instructions generally given to jurors when they are deadlocked, wherein the judge exhorts the jury to try harder to decide on a verdict.

Included are the directions that “if a substantial majority of your number are in favor of a conviction, those of you who disagree should reconsider whether your doubt is a reasonable one since it appears to make no effective impression upon the minds of the others.

“On the other hand, if a majority or even a lesser number of you are in favor of an acquittal, the rest of you should ask yourselves again, and most thoughtfully, whether you should accept the weight and sufficiency of evidence which fails to convince your fellow jurors beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Reading from the Allen charge — often referred to as the “dynamite charge” because of its intent to dislodge jurors from entrenched positions that could result in a hung jury and a mistrial — the judge then reminded the jurors to “remember at all times that no juror is expected to give up an honest belief he or she may have as to the weight or effect of the evidence; but, after full deliberation and consideration of the evidence in the case, it is your duty to agree upon a verdict if you can do so.”

Michael Hunter, 20, is on trial, accused of shooting Charles Bowman, a Vietnam veteran with six children, 15 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, through the heart during the early a.m. robbery at a Chinese food carryout on Greenmount Ave. in Waverly that netted the shooter and his teenage accomplice $13, none of it from Bowman.

Troy Taylor, the accomplice, pled guilty earlier this year to first-degree murder and received a sentence of life with all but 30 years suspended; however another five years was added to the term when he refused to testify against Hunter, upon which he was cited for contempt.

The murder at Yau Bros. Chinese carryout on Greenmount Ave. at 29th St. so enraged the neighborhood that residents flooded the police department with leads and within two weeks both teens were arrested.

In testimony last week, Tonio Billinger, a friend of Hunter’s from their days together as students at Lake Clifton High School, told the court he observed the defendant don a mask and commit the robbery but said he was walking away when he heard a gunshot and that when the two later spoke, Hunter told him Bowman had “grabbed” at him.

The case went to the jury on Monday, following last week’s testimony. At 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, jurors were sent home for the night.

The complaint of jury hostility was lodged late morning Tuesday.

— VoB Staff report