* * * *
Man sentenced in his father's death
Andrea F. Siegel
THE BALTIMORE SUN
A Glen Burnie man who was so high on PCP that he did not know for days afterward that he had stabbed his father to death and wounded his stepmother won a much-sought-after judicial recommendation yesterday: treatment at Patuxent Institution in Jessup as part of a 30-year prison term.
"I wish I could take it back," Charles Martin Grierson, 27, said in Anne Arundel Circuit Court after apologizing to his stepmother. "I carry a picture of my father in my heart."
Calling it a sad case that has torn a previously close-knit family, Judge Pamela L. North told Grierson that he seemed to be a "good person who did a very horrible thing and made a very dangerous choice when you started using this drug."
Her recommendation for an evaluation for Patuxent was crucial for quick action, said Laura Robinson, one of his lawyers, who described Grierson as a genial and hardworking young man whose behavior turned monstrous from using PCP. Under Patuxent's rules, he must serve at least half of his term -- and perhaps more, depending on his progress in therapies.
Last month, in a plea bargain, prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge for a plea to second-degree murder and assault, and a 30-year sentence. Assistant State's Attorney Laura S. Kiessling said Grierson was so drug-crazed at the time of the killing that the case did not meet the legal criteria for first-degree murder.
"I can never forgive you," his stepmother, Deborah Grierson, 42, said yesterday in court, describing numbness and continuing ailments from the stabbing. "Certainly drug use is no excuse for what you have done. You chose to take drugs. Others may feel sorry for you, but I don't."
PCP is often linked to uncharacteristic violence prompted by delusions. The defense lawyer told the judge that in the days before he stabbed his father, Fred Charles Grierson, 62, and stepmother Jan. 22, the younger Grierson believed he saw his mother's head spin in a full circle. He had other delusions as well. His roommate so feared his behavior that he called Grierson's mother, Robinson said.
"That wasn't our Charlie," Barbara Grierson, his mother, said after the sentencing.
On the day of the slaying, Charles Grierson's mother called police seeking help for him. Grierson also called police. After finding him, but no drugs and nothing amiss at his father's home, the officers left.
Hours after the police visit, Grierson made an unprovoked attack on a friend in his father and stepmother's home. When they intervened, he stabbed them, according to testimony.
After his arrest, Grierson was so disoriented that he asked police to kill him, and detectives stopped questioning him because he drifted in and out of rationality. Only days later did he understand what he had done.
* * * *
Son, 26, charged in death of man
Rona Kobell and Laura Barnhardt
THE BALTIMORE SUN
A26-year-old Glen Burnie man was charged with murder yesterday in the fatal stabbing of his father Tuesday night, an attack that his stepmother survived by running from their house, authorities said yesterday.
Neighbors who called 911 said they barely recognized the wounded Deborah Grierson as she ran across her front yard screaming for help, her stepson not far behind her.
The 42-year-old woman suffered multiple stab wounds, authorities said. She was in serious but stable condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore last night, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Her husband, Fred Charles Grierson, 62, a self-employed home improvement contractor, died at the couple's home in the 100 block of St. James Drive in Glen Burnie on Tuesday night, county police said.
Charles Martin Grierson of the 200 block of Wood Hill Drive in Glen Burnie was arrested by county police at his parents' house shortly after the attack, which took place just before 9 p.m. He was being held at the county jail in Annapolis without bail on first-degree murder and first-degree assault charges, police officials said.
Police officials said the suspected murder weapon was recovered at the house. Lt. Joseph E. Jordan, a county police spokesman, said someone in the house called 911 about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday but hung up without speaking. Worried that the call might have come from a victim of domestic violence, officers checked the house but found Charles Grierson alone, and they reported no problems.
Police were not able to say when the parents came home. But two hours later, about 8:50 p.m., police were called to the house again -- this time by neighbors who heard Deborah Grierson yelling for help.
"Help me, help me, help me!" she screamed, according to neighbors across the street who said they watched a dark-haired woman, covered in blood, run out of the Grierson house.
Neighbor Michael Smith ran to her, then yelled to his daughter to bring blankets, said his wife, Mary Smith.
He didn't recognize the bloody woman as their friend and neighbor, said his daughter, Michelle Babish. Though Deborah Grierson was a blond, she had recently dyed her hair a dark brown, said Babish.
Babish said Deborah gasped that she and her husband had been stabbed and that her husband was still in the house.
While Michael Smith held Deborah, Charles Grierson came out of the house, said Babish. He lunged at Michael, as though he was trying to push him out of the way, Mary Smith said. Babish quickly ran across the street to call 911.
Before police arrived, neighbors said that Charles Grierson paced around the front yard.
Charles Grierson's roommate, Mike Frech, said he went to the Grierson home that night when he learned what had happened. He said he found his longtime high school buddy standing next to police, wearing only boxer shorts and shivering.
"He was in a totally different world," said Frech, 23. "He was muttering something that didn't make sense."
Charlie Grierson's friends describe a meticulous guy, who took as much pride in his roofing work as he did in his appearance. Friends called him "Sweet Chuck" because of his endearing smile and his luck with women.
Grierson attended Glen Burnie High School and dropped out in 10th grade, friends said yesterday. He has three children who do not live with him, but whom he sees regularly, his friends said.
In 1992, when he was 17, Grierson was shot in the abdomen at a party after a fight between the host and a guest. He spent two months in the hospital recovering, much of it in the intensive care unit.
High school friends who gathered yesterday at Grierson's apartment complex said he got along well with his father and stepmother and stopped by their house often to do laundry and visit his pit bull, Lexus.
Frech said Grierson's behavior in the last four days seemed out of character and concerned him.
Yesterday, family members declined to comment as they entered the home on St. James Drive. They hugged each other as they walked past Mylar balloons and a bouquet of yellow roses neighbors had attached to a fence in the front yard early that morning.
Neighbors knew Fred Grierson as a craftsman who had renovated many of the one-story, single-family homes in the quiet neighborhood tucked behind Aquahart Road. Among them was his own home, a well-kept rancher with a wood front and new windows.
* * * * *
Man sentenced in his father's death
Andrea F. Siegel
THE BALTIMORE SUN
A Glen Burnie man who was so high on PCP that he did not know for days afterward that he had stabbed his father to death and wounded his stepmother won a much-sought-after judicial recommendation yesterday: treatment at Patuxent Institution in Jessup as part of a 30-year prison term.
"I wish I could take it back," Charles Martin Grierson, 27, said in Anne Arundel Circuit Court after apologizing to his stepmother. "I carry a picture of my father in my heart."
Calling it a sad case that has torn a previously close-knit family, Judge Pamela L. North told Grierson that he seemed to be a "good person who did a very horrible thing and made a very dangerous choice when you started using this drug."
Her recommendation for an evaluation for Patuxent was crucial for quick action, said Laura Robinson, one of his lawyers, who described Grierson as a genial and hardworking young man whose behavior turned monstrous from using PCP. Under Patuxent's rules, he must serve at least half of his term -- and perhaps more, depending on his progress in therapies.
Last month, in a plea bargain, prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge for a plea to second-degree murder and assault, and a 30-year sentence. Assistant State's Attorney Laura S. Kiessling said Grierson was so drug-crazed at the time of the killing that the case did not meet the legal criteria for first-degree murder.
"I can never forgive you," his stepmother, Deborah Grierson, 42, said yesterday in court, describing numbness and continuing ailments from the stabbing. "Certainly drug use is no excuse for what you have done. You chose to take drugs. Others may feel sorry for you, but I don't."
PCP is often linked to uncharacteristic violence prompted by delusions. The defense lawyer told the judge that in the days before he stabbed his father, Fred Charles Grierson, 62, and stepmother Jan. 22, the younger Grierson believed he saw his mother's head spin in a full circle. He had other delusions as well. His roommate so feared his behavior that he called Grierson's mother, Robinson said.
"That wasn't our Charlie," Barbara Grierson, his mother, said after the sentencing.
On the day of the slaying, Charles Grierson's mother called police seeking help for him. Grierson also called police. After finding him, but no drugs and nothing amiss at his father's home, the officers left.
Hours after the police visit, Grierson made an unprovoked attack on a friend in his father and stepmother's home. When they intervened, he stabbed them, according to testimony.
After his arrest, Grierson was so disoriented that he asked police to kill him, and detectives stopped questioning him because he drifted in and out of rationality. Only days later did he understand what he had done.
* * * *
Son, 26, charged in death of man
Rona Kobell and Laura Barnhardt
THE BALTIMORE SUN
A26-year-old Glen Burnie man was charged with murder yesterday in the fatal stabbing of his father Tuesday night, an attack that his stepmother survived by running from their house, authorities said yesterday.
Neighbors who called 911 said they barely recognized the wounded Deborah Grierson as she ran across her front yard screaming for help, her stepson not far behind her.
The 42-year-old woman suffered multiple stab wounds, authorities said. She was in serious but stable condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore last night, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Her husband, Fred Charles Grierson, 62, a self-employed home improvement contractor, died at the couple's home in the 100 block of St. James Drive in Glen Burnie on Tuesday night, county police said.
Charles Martin Grierson of the 200 block of Wood Hill Drive in Glen Burnie was arrested by county police at his parents' house shortly after the attack, which took place just before 9 p.m. He was being held at the county jail in Annapolis without bail on first-degree murder and first-degree assault charges, police officials said.
Police officials said the suspected murder weapon was recovered at the house. Lt. Joseph E. Jordan, a county police spokesman, said someone in the house called 911 about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday but hung up without speaking. Worried that the call might have come from a victim of domestic violence, officers checked the house but found Charles Grierson alone, and they reported no problems.
Police were not able to say when the parents came home. But two hours later, about 8:50 p.m., police were called to the house again -- this time by neighbors who heard Deborah Grierson yelling for help.
"Help me, help me, help me!" she screamed, according to neighbors across the street who said they watched a dark-haired woman, covered in blood, run out of the Grierson house.
Neighbor Michael Smith ran to her, then yelled to his daughter to bring blankets, said his wife, Mary Smith.
He didn't recognize the bloody woman as their friend and neighbor, said his daughter, Michelle Babish. Though Deborah Grierson was a blond, she had recently dyed her hair a dark brown, said Babish.
Babish said Deborah gasped that she and her husband had been stabbed and that her husband was still in the house.
While Michael Smith held Deborah, Charles Grierson came out of the house, said Babish. He lunged at Michael, as though he was trying to push him out of the way, Mary Smith said. Babish quickly ran across the street to call 911.
Before police arrived, neighbors said that Charles Grierson paced around the front yard.
Charles Grierson's roommate, Mike Frech, said he went to the Grierson home that night when he learned what had happened. He said he found his longtime high school buddy standing next to police, wearing only boxer shorts and shivering.
"He was in a totally different world," said Frech, 23. "He was muttering something that didn't make sense."
Charlie Grierson's friends describe a meticulous guy, who took as much pride in his roofing work as he did in his appearance. Friends called him "Sweet Chuck" because of his endearing smile and his luck with women.
Grierson attended Glen Burnie High School and dropped out in 10th grade, friends said yesterday. He has three children who do not live with him, but whom he sees regularly, his friends said.
In 1992, when he was 17, Grierson was shot in the abdomen at a party after a fight between the host and a guest. He spent two months in the hospital recovering, much of it in the intensive care unit.
High school friends who gathered yesterday at Grierson's apartment complex said he got along well with his father and stepmother and stopped by their house often to do laundry and visit his pit bull, Lexus.
Frech said Grierson's behavior in the last four days seemed out of character and concerned him.
Yesterday, family members declined to comment as they entered the home on St. James Drive. They hugged each other as they walked past Mylar balloons and a bouquet of yellow roses neighbors had attached to a fence in the front yard early that morning.
Neighbors knew Fred Grierson as a craftsman who had renovated many of the one-story, single-family homes in the quiet neighborhood tucked behind Aquahart Road. Among them was his own home, a well-kept rancher with a wood front and new windows.
* * * * *
* * * *
Man sentenced in his father's death
Andrea F. Siegel
THE BALTIMORE SUN
A Glen Burnie man who was so high on PCP that he did not know for days afterward that he had stabbed his father to death and wounded his stepmother won a much-sought-after judicial recommendation yesterday: treatment at Patuxent Institution in Jessup as part of a 30-year prison term.
"I wish I could take it back," Charles Martin Grierson, 27, said in Anne Arundel Circuit Court after apologizing to his stepmother. "I carry a picture of my father in my heart."
Calling it a sad case that has torn a previously close-knit family, Judge Pamela L. North told Grierson that he seemed to be a "good person who did a very horrible thing and made a very dangerous choice when you started using this drug."
Her recommendation for an evaluation for Patuxent was crucial for quick action, said Laura Robinson, one of his lawyers, who described Grierson as a genial and hardworking young man whose behavior turned monstrous from using PCP. Under Patuxent's rules, he must serve at least half of his term -- and perhaps more, depending on his progress in therapies.
Last month, in a plea bargain, prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge for a plea to second-degree murder and assault, and a 30-year sentence. Assistant State's Attorney Laura S. Kiessling said Grierson was so drug-crazed at the time of the killing that the case did not meet the legal criteria for first-degree murder.
"I can never forgive you," his stepmother, Deborah Grierson, 42, said yesterday in court, describing numbness and continuing ailments from the stabbing. "Certainly drug use is no excuse for what you have done. You chose to take drugs. Others may feel sorry for you, but I don't."
PCP is often linked to uncharacteristic violence prompted by delusions. The defense lawyer told the judge that in the days before he stabbed his father, Fred Charles Grierson, 62, and stepmother Jan. 22, the younger Grierson believed he saw his mother's head spin in a full circle. He had other delusions as well. His roommate so feared his behavior that he called Grierson's mother, Robinson said.
"That wasn't our Charlie," Barbara Grierson, his mother, said after the sentencing.
On the day of the slaying, Charles Grierson's mother called police seeking help for him. Grierson also called police. After finding him, but no drugs and nothing amiss at his father's home, the officers left.
Hours after the police visit, Grierson made an unprovoked attack on a friend in his father and stepmother's home. When they intervened, he stabbed them, according to testimony.
After his arrest, Grierson was so disoriented that he asked police to kill him, and detectives stopped questioning him because he drifted in and out of rationality. Only days later did he understand what he had done.
* * * *
Son, 26, charged in death of man
Rona Kobell and Laura Barnhardt
THE BALTIMORE SUN
A26-year-old Glen Burnie man was charged with murder yesterday in the fatal stabbing of his father Tuesday night, an attack that his stepmother survived by running from their house, authorities said yesterday.
Neighbors who called 911 said they barely recognized the wounded Deborah Grierson as she ran across her front yard screaming for help, her stepson not far behind her.
The 42-year-old woman suffered multiple stab wounds, authorities said. She was in serious but stable condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore last night, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Her husband, Fred Charles Grierson, 62, a self-employed home improvement contractor, died at the couple's home in the 100 block of St. James Drive in Glen Burnie on Tuesday night, county police said.
Charles Martin Grierson of the 200 block of Wood Hill Drive in Glen Burnie was arrested by county police at his parents' house shortly after the attack, which took place just before 9 p.m. He was being held at the county jail in Annapolis without bail on first-degree murder and first-degree assault charges, police officials said.
Police officials said the suspected murder weapon was recovered at the house. Lt. Joseph E. Jordan, a county police spokesman, said someone in the house called 911 about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday but hung up without speaking. Worried that the call might have come from a victim of domestic violence, officers checked the house but found Charles Grierson alone, and they reported no problems.
Police were not able to say when the parents came home. But two hours later, about 8:50 p.m., police were called to the house again -- this time by neighbors who heard Deborah Grierson yelling for help.
"Help me, help me, help me!" she screamed, according to neighbors across the street who said they watched a dark-haired woman, covered in blood, run out of the Grierson house.
Neighbor Michael Smith ran to her, then yelled to his daughter to bring blankets, said his wife, Mary Smith.
He didn't recognize the bloody woman as their friend and neighbor, said his daughter, Michelle Babish. Though Deborah Grierson was a blond, she had recently dyed her hair a dark brown, said Babish.
Babish said Deborah gasped that she and her husband had been stabbed and that her husband was still in the house.
While Michael Smith held Deborah, Charles Grierson came out of the house, said Babish. He lunged at Michael, as though he was trying to push him out of the way, Mary Smith said. Babish quickly ran across the street to call 911.
Before police arrived, neighbors said that Charles Grierson paced around the front yard.
Charles Grierson's roommate, Mike Frech, said he went to the Grierson home that night when he learned what had happened. He said he found his longtime high school buddy standing next to police, wearing only boxer shorts and shivering.
"He was in a totally different world," said Frech, 23. "He was muttering something that didn't make sense."
Charlie Grierson's friends describe a meticulous guy, who took as much pride in his roofing work as he did in his appearance. Friends called him "Sweet Chuck" because of his endearing smile and his luck with women.
Grierson attended Glen Burnie High School and dropped out in 10th grade, friends said yesterday. He has three children who do not live with him, but whom he sees regularly, his friends said.
In 1992, when he was 17, Grierson was shot in the abdomen at a party after a fight between the host and a guest. He spent two months in the hospital recovering, much of it in the intensive care unit.
High school friends who gathered yesterday at Grierson's apartment complex said he got along well with his father and stepmother and stopped by their house often to do laundry and visit his pit bull, Lexus.
Frech said Grierson's behavior in the last four days seemed out of character and concerned him.
Yesterday, family members declined to comment as they entered the home on St. James Drive. They hugged each other as they walked past Mylar balloons and a bouquet of yellow roses neighbors had attached to a fence in the front yard early that morning.
Neighbors knew Fred Grierson as a craftsman who had renovated many of the one-story, single-family homes in the quiet neighborhood tucked behind Aquahart Road. Among them was his own home, a well-kept rancher with a wood front and new windows.
* * * * *
Man sentenced in his father's death
Andrea F. Siegel
THE BALTIMORE SUN
A Glen Burnie man who was so high on PCP that he did not know for days afterward that he had stabbed his father to death and wounded his stepmother won a much-sought-after judicial recommendation yesterday: treatment at Patuxent Institution in Jessup as part of a 30-year prison term.
"I wish I could take it back," Charles Martin Grierson, 27, said in Anne Arundel Circuit Court after apologizing to his stepmother. "I carry a picture of my father in my heart."
Calling it a sad case that has torn a previously close-knit family, Judge Pamela L. North told Grierson that he seemed to be a "good person who did a very horrible thing and made a very dangerous choice when you started using this drug."
Her recommendation for an evaluation for Patuxent was crucial for quick action, said Laura Robinson, one of his lawyers, who described Grierson as a genial and hardworking young man whose behavior turned monstrous from using PCP. Under Patuxent's rules, he must serve at least half of his term -- and perhaps more, depending on his progress in therapies.
Last month, in a plea bargain, prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge for a plea to second-degree murder and assault, and a 30-year sentence. Assistant State's Attorney Laura S. Kiessling said Grierson was so drug-crazed at the time of the killing that the case did not meet the legal criteria for first-degree murder.
"I can never forgive you," his stepmother, Deborah Grierson, 42, said yesterday in court, describing numbness and continuing ailments from the stabbing. "Certainly drug use is no excuse for what you have done. You chose to take drugs. Others may feel sorry for you, but I don't."
PCP is often linked to uncharacteristic violence prompted by delusions. The defense lawyer told the judge that in the days before he stabbed his father, Fred Charles Grierson, 62, and stepmother Jan. 22, the younger Grierson believed he saw his mother's head spin in a full circle. He had other delusions as well. His roommate so feared his behavior that he called Grierson's mother, Robinson said.
"That wasn't our Charlie," Barbara Grierson, his mother, said after the sentencing.
On the day of the slaying, Charles Grierson's mother called police seeking help for him. Grierson also called police. After finding him, but no drugs and nothing amiss at his father's home, the officers left.
Hours after the police visit, Grierson made an unprovoked attack on a friend in his father and stepmother's home. When they intervened, he stabbed them, according to testimony.
After his arrest, Grierson was so disoriented that he asked police to kill him, and detectives stopped questioning him because he drifted in and out of rationality. Only days later did he understand what he had done.
* * * *
Son, 26, charged in death of man
Rona Kobell and Laura Barnhardt
THE BALTIMORE SUN
A26-year-old Glen Burnie man was charged with murder yesterday in the fatal stabbing of his father Tuesday night, an attack that his stepmother survived by running from their house, authorities said yesterday.
Neighbors who called 911 said they barely recognized the wounded Deborah Grierson as she ran across her front yard screaming for help, her stepson not far behind her.
The 42-year-old woman suffered multiple stab wounds, authorities said. She was in serious but stable condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore last night, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Her husband, Fred Charles Grierson, 62, a self-employed home improvement contractor, died at the couple's home in the 100 block of St. James Drive in Glen Burnie on Tuesday night, county police said.
Charles Martin Grierson of the 200 block of Wood Hill Drive in Glen Burnie was arrested by county police at his parents' house shortly after the attack, which took place just before 9 p.m. He was being held at the county jail in Annapolis without bail on first-degree murder and first-degree assault charges, police officials said.
Police officials said the suspected murder weapon was recovered at the house. Lt. Joseph E. Jordan, a county police spokesman, said someone in the house called 911 about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday but hung up without speaking. Worried that the call might have come from a victim of domestic violence, officers checked the house but found Charles Grierson alone, and they reported no problems.
Police were not able to say when the parents came home. But two hours later, about 8:50 p.m., police were called to the house again -- this time by neighbors who heard Deborah Grierson yelling for help.
"Help me, help me, help me!" she screamed, according to neighbors across the street who said they watched a dark-haired woman, covered in blood, run out of the Grierson house.
Neighbor Michael Smith ran to her, then yelled to his daughter to bring blankets, said his wife, Mary Smith.
He didn't recognize the bloody woman as their friend and neighbor, said his daughter, Michelle Babish. Though Deborah Grierson was a blond, she had recently dyed her hair a dark brown, said Babish.
Babish said Deborah gasped that she and her husband had been stabbed and that her husband was still in the house.
While Michael Smith held Deborah, Charles Grierson came out of the house, said Babish. He lunged at Michael, as though he was trying to push him out of the way, Mary Smith said. Babish quickly ran across the street to call 911.
Before police arrived, neighbors said that Charles Grierson paced around the front yard.
Charles Grierson's roommate, Mike Frech, said he went to the Grierson home that night when he learned what had happened. He said he found his longtime high school buddy standing next to police, wearing only boxer shorts and shivering.
"He was in a totally different world," said Frech, 23. "He was muttering something that didn't make sense."
Charlie Grierson's friends describe a meticulous guy, who took as much pride in his roofing work as he did in his appearance. Friends called him "Sweet Chuck" because of his endearing smile and his luck with women.
Grierson attended Glen Burnie High School and dropped out in 10th grade, friends said yesterday. He has three children who do not live with him, but whom he sees regularly, his friends said.
In 1992, when he was 17, Grierson was shot in the abdomen at a party after a fight between the host and a guest. He spent two months in the hospital recovering, much of it in the intensive care unit.
High school friends who gathered yesterday at Grierson's apartment complex said he got along well with his father and stepmother and stopped by their house often to do laundry and visit his pit bull, Lexus.
Frech said Grierson's behavior in the last four days seemed out of character and concerned him.
Yesterday, family members declined to comment as they entered the home on St. James Drive. They hugged each other as they walked past Mylar balloons and a bouquet of yellow roses neighbors had attached to a fence in the front yard early that morning.
Neighbors knew Fred Grierson as a craftsman who had renovated many of the one-story, single-family homes in the quiet neighborhood tucked behind Aquahart Road. Among them was his own home, a well-kept rancher with a wood front and new windows.
* * * * *
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