Registered sex offender beaten to death in Reservoir Hill

9-3-2013 Maryland:

Man beaten with traffic cone, witness says

BALTIMORE —The Labor Day weekend in Baltimore's Reservoir Hill ended with the beating of a 52-year-old man on the street in full daylight. The man -- who the 11 News I-Team has learned is a registered sex offender -- later died.

A witness said an orange traffic cone was used as a weapon. The attackers seemed to be carrying out instant street justice with the target claiming he'd done nothing wrong, I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller said..

Police responded quickly to the scene around 7:30 p.m. Monday in the 800 block of Lennox Street. Witnesses said they watched a group of people who were 16-24 years old chase down the man as he walked down the street.

Another witness, who chose not to give his name, had just returned to the neighborhood from a Labor Day cookout. He said the man was being accused of something by his attackers.

"A couple of guys was (sic) walking beside him, and they were asking him questions. I couldn't hear what they were asking him at first, and he was saying, 'I didn't do it, I didn't do it.' And the guy said, 'Yeah you did,'" the witness told 11 News.

Police confirmed the identity of the slain man as Donald Robinson. The witness told 11 News that Robinson's attackers were accusing him of assaulting a woman in the neighborhood.

"He was saying, 'You got the wrong person. I didn't do it.' So then the guys was (sic) walking beside him, and they started swinging on the guy, and I kind of politely, as a Christian person, said, 'You all leave him alone,' because he looked like he was a little intoxicated. So the guy hollered, 'No, we're not going to do that,'" the witness said.

As many as 10 people were involved, Miller reported. The incident is an active homicide investigation that police said was captured on one of the city's crime cameras.

Police said they tried to resuscitate Robinson when they arrived at the scene. He died at a hospital.

Robinson just got out of jail a few days ago after pleading guilty to second-degree assault, Miller reported. The case that put him on the sex offender registry dates to 2003. ..Source.. by Jayne Millervi

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4 arrested in beating death of sex offender

9-19-2013

Police in Baltimore City have arrested four suspects in connection with a fatal beating that took place on the streets of Reservoir Hill.

Kwan Blackburn, 17; Malik Hampton-Cummings, 17; Willie Mayes, 59; and Latiqua Mayes, 19, were taken into custody on Thursday and slapped with murder and assault charges.

An investigation revealed that as Donald Robinson was walking by Latiqwa Mayes she yelled to her father Willie Mayes that Robinson had raped her.

Witnesses said they saw the four chase Robinson down and beat him to death.

Robinson was a registered sex offender.

Witnesses also said they heard the group accuse the victim of trying to assault a female in the neighborhood. ..Source.. by Baltimore News

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'Vigilante justice' leads to prison time in fatal beating of sex offender

A 20-year-old Reservoir Hill woman was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison for what prosecutors called an act of vigilante justice when she led a group beating of a sex offender that turned fatal. Her father was also sentenced to jail time for his role.

Circuit Judge Timothy Doory said Latiqwa Mayes' frustration that the man, Donald Robinson, had not received a stricter sentence from the courts after breaking into her room at a boardinghouse months earlier did "not justify a call to the community to impose physical, violent retribution."

Joshua Insley, Mayes' attorney, said his client was told that Robinson's conviction in May 2013 for assaulting her roommate would trigger a violation of his parole for a prior sex offense, and he would be off the streets, Insley said.

That never happened, and on Sept. 2, 2013, Mayes spotted Robinson walking down the street in the 800 block of Lennox St.

"She's shocked, and that puts this horrible situation in motion," Insley said.

Mayes started yelling, "He raped me. He's a sex offender," attracting the attention of others in the area, police wrote in charging documents. Her father, Willie Mayes, called for someone to stop Robinson, and a group of teens who were in the area playing basketball ran over and held Robinson. Strangers on the street then joined in and kicked and punched Robinson, police said at the time of the arrest, and Latiqwa Mayes pepper-sprayed him.

The incident was captured on city surveillance cameras, which show that Robinson was able to walk away from the scuffle. But he fell ill a short time later and was pronounced dead at a local hospital within 30 minutes. An autopsy found that the beating had exacerbated an existing health problem, Doory said.

Attorneys for Latiqwa and Willie Mays, who both pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in September, said they never intended for Robinson to die.

"They wanted him to never come back, with good reason," said Insley, who said Latiqwa Mayes needed treatment and counseling, not continued incarceration. She has been in segregation in an 8-by-12-foot jail cell for the past 13 months.

But Assistant State's Attorney Tonya LaPolla said the attack went too far and the suspects hadn't shown enough remorse.

Doory said the attack was "an act of vengeance" and "an act of retribution that went too far," and required punishment. He sentenced Latiqwa Mayes to 10 years with all but six years suspended.

Willie Mayes, a military veteran who proudly noted that he had been sober for five years, was sentenced to 10 years in prison with all but two years suspended, with credit for 10 months time he had already served.

"I don't think anyone thought these punches were designed to kill someone," Doory said. "But because of [Robinson's] vulnerable condition, they did kill him."

Kwan Blackburn, 18, one of the teens who ran over to stop Robinson, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was given a suspended sentence and four years' probation.