[He] was in the middle of a string of 17 robberies of city business in 22 days, police say.
…
[In 2005] Lomax was sentenced to 21 years in prison, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. When the case came back to court on June 22, Baltimore Circuit Judge John Addison Howard gave Lomax 15 years, suspending all but five. The judge made the sentence retroactive to 2005, and Lomax was set free.Police say the latest crime spree began shortly thereafter
The story by Justin Fenton in the Baltimore Sun.
The weird part is that Lomax said "Thank god" when he was finally caught. It's like robbing was an uncontrollable compulsion for him. (Or maybe his broken arm was hurting and he just wanted the cops to get him some medical treatment.)
It does seem like it was an uncontrollable compulsion. It might have been. To feed his drug addiction.
But what's weird to me is that the criminal justice system can't do a better job. Why is it not possible is this computer age for the courts to tell police that this robber is getting out of jail, and then have police watch for his M.O.
If the detective who handled the original case is still around, he should be on this one. After the first, say, four robberies, police should be able to say, "It's Lomax, again," and pick him up.
So what should happen to Lomax? I don't want to $30,000 a year to lock him up forever. But you know he's going to rob again when he gets out (though if a store owner/victim shot him, that would be all right by me).