Comparing his return to the Baltimore City Council Monday to the “excitement of high school prom night,” former Councilman Carl Stokes re-joined a legislative body composed of members, some of whom he said “were children” when he last served in 1995, four years before being defeated by then-councilman, now-Gov. Martin O’Malley in the Democratic primary of 1999 for mayor.

“Apparently you can go home again, Mary Pat,” he told Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke (D-14th), who also returned to the council several years ago after an unsuccessful run for mayor. Clarke was defeated by then-incumbent Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke when she was City Council president in 1995.

“Like family,” Stokes said, the council “took me in and kept me,” adding that “now is not a tough time” for Baltimore, “it’s an exciting time to make the city stronger.”

Asked if he entertained the prospect of running again for mayor, Stokes would only say: “I’m still fresh; I’m not even thinking that way.”

An alleged member of the Crips gang was set free today by a Baltimore City jury.

Acquitted on charges of first-degree murder and assault was Elliot Wilkes a/k/a “Sh**ty,” who prosecutors said killed a Northwest Baltimore man after a fight in September 2007.

The jury took only three hours to acquit Wilkes on all charges that he shot Gary Wills from a vehicle.

Wills was gunned down near his Northwest Baltimore home on Sept. 2, 2007. Witnesses testified at trial that Wilkes was the gunman who shot Wills on the 1300 block of N. Rosedale St.

By Kevin Dayhoff

A Carroll County man, who was arrested on March 3 while on the run on Rte. I-85 outside Lavonia, Ga., will soon be returning to Maryland to face charges for allegedly assaulting his wife with a hammer.

Anthony T. Soligny, 33, of New Windsor is currently being detained in the Franklin County Detention Center in Carnesville, Ga., charged with attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault, and reckless endangerment.

In a telephone interview, Franklin County Sheriff Steve D. Thomas said Monday afternoon that Soligny is “still in our jail at this point…. We were happy to get him off the street."

“As Sheriff of Franklin County I feel that the deputies did a ‘Class A’ job of being very observant and I am very proud of my officers for getting a person like this off the highway…,” Thomas said.