BALTIMORE (AP) — A man who was awaiting trial for murder when he strangled his cellmate to death in Baltimore’s jail was sentenced Thursday to life without parole.
After Staron, 35, had been charged in an apparently random stabbing attack, jail administrators housed him in a cell with Javarick Gantt, a deaf man facing relatively minor charges who relied on sign language to communicate. Gantt’s death in October 2022 raised significant concerns about operations in the city’s detention center and its backlogged court system, but corrections officials have declined to answer questions about the cell assignment.
Staron pleaded guilty to killing Gantt, 34, after a jury convicted him in the earlier stabbing case, which prosecutors called an “axe murder.” They said Staron armed himself with an axe before driving into Baltimore from the suburbs and attacking 63-year-old Keith Bell at a bus stop. Bell was homeless and had little more than a bag of gummy bears in his possession.
During a sentencing hearing Thursday morning, Staron’s attorney described his extensive history of mental illness and substance abuse, including a long list of head injuries and psychiatric diagnoses dating back to childhood.