Man pleads guilty to fatally strangling deaf cellmate in Baltimore jail

BALTIMORE (AP) — A man has pleaded guilty to strangling his cellmate to death in Baltimore’s jail two years ago. The plea entered Tuesday concludes the prosecution of a case that raised significant questions about operations in the detention center and the city’s backlogged court system. Thirty-five-year-old Gordon Staron was charged with first-degree murder in the strangulation death of Javarick Gantt, a deaf man who relied on sign language to communicate. Staron was also recently convicted of fatally stabbing a 63-year-old man at a Baltimore bus stop. Jail officials have refused to answer questions about why Staron was housed with Gantt, who was facing relatively minor charges.