Raymont Hopewell pleaded guilty in Baltimore to murdering five older residents of the city, four women and one man who died between February 1999 and August 2005. They ranged in age from their early sixties to 88. He was 35 when he entered the plea. It also covered four rapes and charges of assault, robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary, and it took a possible death sentence off the table. He was sentenced to four consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, with further life terms and long sentences on the other counts.
Most of the attacks were on elderly women, and they fell on the west Baltimore neighborhood where he had grown up, according to the Associated Press report of his sentencing. Some of the families knew him. One victim's son told the court that he had played with Hopewell when they were boys.
The sentencing report named the five victims: Constance Willis, 60; Sarah Shannon, 88; Sadie Mack, 78; Lydia Wingfield, 78; and Carlton Crawford, 82. A wire report of the guilty plea gave Crawford's age as 83. All five were beaten and strangled.
Sadie Mack was killed in May 2005. Her son came to court for the plea. Lydia Wingfield was killed in August 2005. She was the mother of two sons who both spoke at the sentencing; her daughter-in-law spoke to reporters after the plea. Carlton Crawford was the only man among the five, and the plea report described his as the last of the deaths.
Little is known of the lives of the five beyond their ages and the families who came to court for them.
Hopewell had been in trouble with the police for years before he was caught. His arrest record went back to 1989, according to the plea report, and included drug possession and assault and battery.
In 2004 he was convicted on drug charges. CBS News reported in 2008 that Maryland police never collected a DNA sample from him at the time, and so had no way of connecting him with the deaths of two women. He was released after six months in jail, and three more of the killings followed. CBS News used the case to show what a backlog of untested DNA samples could cost. A DNA expert quoted in the same report, Chris Asplen, warned that samples left untested meant profiles missing from the database, and offenders left on the street.
He was arrested in 2005, about a month after the last of the deaths. The plea report said DNA evidence led to the arrest. The sentencing report credited a surviving victim: her description of her attacker to a police sketch artist, it said, was what led police to him. At the sentencing she told the court she believed God had used her to stop him.
State's Attorney Patricia Jessamy, who rarely sought the death penalty, offered Hopewell a plea deal after talking with the victims' families, her spokeswoman, Margaret Burns, said. Many of the relatives, though not all, told prosecutors they would rather have a quick sentence of life without parole than years of appeals in a death penalty case. The state made the offer in August, and Hopewell pleaded guilty the next day, on a Friday. "Had he not done that, the state was prepared to seek the death penalty," Burns said.
Another spokesman for the prosecutors, Joseph Sviatko, said the office had sought the deal to get Hopewell off the street for the rest of his life.
Under the agreement he would receive four consecutive life terms without parole for four of the deaths. Five more life sentences covered crimes including the rapes and the fifth murder, and the deal added long sentences for assault, robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary. Sentencing was set for September 14.
Hopewell did not speak in court when he pleaded guilty. Relatives of the victims said afterward that they were appalled that he showed no remorse. Lydia Wingfield's daughter-in-law called him "just a wicked dude" and said, "He doesn't deserve to live one second more." Sadie Mack's son said he would rather see Hopewell "just rot in jail." He did not object to a deal that spared him execution, he said, because a death sentence would mean a long delay before justice was done.
At the sentencing hearing Hopewell sat slumped and did not meet anyone's eyes. He spoke once. "I just want to tell everybody that I'm sorry for their losses," he said.
Survivors and relatives addressed the court. A woman who had survived an attack by him said, "He still won't look you in your eyes," and added, "You can see he has no remorse."
Some of the families had wanted a death sentence, among them Lydia Wingfield's sons. "I feel this animal should be put to death, not only for my mother's death," one of them said. His brother, who had grown up playing with Hopewell, faced him and said: "Raymont, you disgust me, and I hope that you will receive exactly what you deserve."
Judge John Glynn thanked those who had spoken. "I wish you the strength to deal with all the pain you've had to bear because of these crimes," he told them. Hopewell received four consecutive terms of life without parole.
In May 2008 CBS News used Hopewell's 2004 drug conviction as its example: a sample taken then, the report said, could have tied him to two of the killings before the last three happened.
The wire reports differ on Carlton Crawford's age. The report of the plea gave it as 83 and the report of the sentencing as 82.
The two reports also describe the end of the series a little differently. The plea report said Crawford's death was the last; the sentencing report placed Lydia Wingfield's killing in August 2005 as well. Both deaths fell in that month; the exact dates have not been reported.
The reports name different steps in the arrest. One credits DNA evidence, the other a survivor's description to a police sketch artist. They do not contradict each other, and how the two fitted together has not been reported.
1989: His arrest record begins; it later included drug possession and assault and battery.
February 1999: The first of the five deaths covered by his plea.
2004: Convicted on drug charges; no DNA sample was collected. Released after six months in jail.
May 2005: Sadie Mack, 78, killed.
August 2005: Lydia Wingfield, 78, killed. Carlton Crawford, 82, killed; his was reported as the last of the deaths.
2005: Arrested about a month after the last death.
August: The state offers a plea deal; he pleads guilty the next day, a Friday, to five murders, four rapes and other charges.
September 14: Date set for sentencing. He receives four consecutive terms of life without parole, plus further life terms and long sentences.
May 15, 2008: CBS News cites his case in a report on untested DNA samples.