Annapolis Man Denied Bail in 2019 Fatal Stabbing

By Andrew Michaels - September 8, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Victims |

An Annapolis man charged with allegedly stabbing a 51-year-old man to death two years ago was denied bail on Sept. 8 before Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Philip S. Jackson.

Douglas Cantrell, 55, is charged with first-degree murder, first and second-degree assault, and two counts of use of a deadly weapon with the intent to injure in connection to an incident on May 1, 2019.

On Wednesday, defense attorney George Harper said his client parked his truck at a store, went inside, and returned to find his truck was stolen. Given that his cell phone was in his truck, the attorney said, Cantrell went to a woman’s home to use the cell phone he had lent her.

Harper said that the woman told Cantrell that this wasn’t her problem to which the defendant “overreacted” and allegedly slapped her. The woman then told her brother of the assault, and the brother and a friend allegedly chased and cornered Cantrell and beat him with clubs.

Cantrell “defended himself with the only thing he had on him, which was a work knife,” Harper said. The victim—later identified as Vernon Jacobs—was fatally stabbed around 7 a.m. in the 3500 block of Helmstetter Street.

The prosecution’s description of the incident differed from that of the defense. Instead, the prosecutor said, Cantrell was following the victim’s sister to the store when he grabbed and punched her until she fell to the ground. He also slapped another woman who tried to intervene.

When the injured woman’s brother arrived, he and Cantrell fought, and the later stabbed the victim in the chest, abdomen, left arm and left side in addition to causing blunt force trauma.

“[Cantrell] said, ‘I really wanted to kill the victim. The victim couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag,’” the prosecutor said.

Following counsels’ statements, Judge Jackson denied bail.

Cantrell is scheduled for trial at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 6 in courtroom 231 in the Mitchell Courthouse.