Anton J.S. Keating - James C. McGee

City robber jailed
Judge rejects leniency plea

Rejecting an Annapolis man's plea for leniency and another chance to kick a years-long drug addiction, Circuit Court Judge H. Chester Goudy yesterday sentenced him to seven years in prison for a downtown robbery that ended with his shooting.

James C. McGee, 30, of 209-G Victor Parkway, who was wounded by city police during the Jan. 9 holdup of The Fabrikworks on State Circle, pleaded guilty in July to two counts of robbery.

McGee, armed with a toy gun, stole about $160 from the shop, a clerk and customers inside the shop.

In court yesterday, McGee and his lawyer, Anton J. S. Keating, of Baltimore, asked the judge to impose a suspended prison sentence and send the defendant to Excel, a strictly supervised, residential drug rehabilitation center.

Keating asked the judge to "test" the defendant's sincerity by suspending the prison term.

"James McGee is finished business if the court doesn't do something to help him," Keating said following lengthy testimony about the defendant's troubled childhood and numerous failed attempts to beat his heroin habit.

"He's been tested, and he's failed the test," argued Assistant State's Attorney Ronald M. Levitan. "And he has an excuse for every single time he's failed."

Keating contended that drugs are readily available in prison, and McGee "would be the same person" with the same problems when he is released.

"Maybe he will be the same person when he gets out," Levitan said. "But at least while he's in prison, nobody will have to worry about being held up by James McGee. He doesn't want to help himself, he just wants to stay out of prison. When he wants to help himself, he'll help himself, wherever he is."

The state's sentencing guidelines, which rate elements of the crime and the defendant's background, recommended a prison term of 6 to 10 years.

Sally McGee, the defendant's mother, described her son as a "relatively sickly child." She detailed a history of marital discord and a stern family environment that led to her son's placement in a private boarding school.

McGee was an "outstanding" athlete while at the school, but several years later, while attending Key School in Annapolis, he began using drugs.

She said McGee never received the inpatient drug treatment that was recommended three times, but has participated in outpatient counseling and methadone treatment programs.

McGee has served prison sentences in Maryland and Virginia "for crimes related to his drug use," Keating said. He did not elaborate on the nature of the convictions.

He was released from a prison camp in Virginia in January 1983 got a job as a nursing assistant at Bay Manor Nursing Home in Annapolis, and enrolled in nursing classes at Anne Arundel Community College.

He was fired from the nursing home on Dec. 31, 1983, allegedly for filing a false workmen's compensation claim for a back injury.

Mrs. McGee was particularly indignant about a notation in the background investigation, which stated that McGee's "wealthy mother has attempted to buy him out of his difficulties."

McGee went to a residential drug abuse treatment program several months ago, but left because, he claimed, he was having family problems. The center refused to let him return later.

The defendant, who testified in an attempt to mitigate his sentence, expressed remorse for the crime and pleaded for another chance.

"I have been doing everything I can to straighten out my life," McGee said. "If I'm given the opportunity to go to Excel, I will stay and complete the program...I won't let the court down. I won't let my family down, and I won't let myself down."

But Goudy pointed out that while McGee was out of jail on bond, there was concrete evidence that he was involved in drugs. He has been charged with fraudulently obtaining prescriptions for narcotics from an Edgewater pharmacy.

Reprinted from The Capital Saturday, September 22, 1984