BALTIMORE — A Waverly man who killed a longtime Johns Hopkins University professor 30 years ago was just sentenced to 20 years for robbing the Ace Hardware store where he once worked.
Keith Curtis, 57, lives just down the street from the sites of two major crimes he committed.
In 1994, Curtis beat to death William McClain, a retired JHU professor, during a robbery on the front porch of the victim's home in the Oakenshawe neighborhood, noted city State's Attorney Ivan Bates in a press release today.
A scholarly JHU journal wrote at the time:
Associated with the Johns Hopkins University for more than forty ears, [McClain]... died the victim of a bungled robbery in front of his house. It is ironic that Bill, the gentlest of scholars, who had devoted so much of his life to trying to understand the violence that had disfigured the course of European history in this century, should have himself been claimed by an act of senseless violence.
After serving roughly 20 years of a 30-year sentence for that first-degree murder, Curtis worked at the ACE Hardware Store in Waverly, on Homestead Street.
He decided to rob the store at gunpoint on Nov. 18, 2023. Curtis went up to one of the registers and ordered the victim - who recognized Curtis - to open the register, lifting his shirt to show him the gun in his waistband.
It took the victim some time to open the register because he has Parkinson's disease. Curtis told the victim to hurry up and that he had 30 seconds to open the register.
Curtis ultimately got about $85 to $95; a loaded gun was found at Curtis' home during a Dec. 5 search.
Curtis is banned from having guns due to his murder conviction.
Today, Curtis was sentenced to 20 years in jail for the robbery, with the first 10 years ineligible for parole.
A city judge have him 10 years more than the sentencing guidelines.
State's Attorney Ivan Bates said in a statement: “It is evident that this defendant did not reform during his prior incarceration and continued to believe he was above the law, resuming his pattern of wreaking havoc in our communities. This latest incident has resulted in the lengthy sentence that this defendant deserves for his repeated violent behavior. I hope that he uses this next period of incarceration to reflect on whether the contents of a cash register were truly worth sacrificing his freedom.”
