Derrick Baker was looking for a little sympathy as he sat on the stand this week testifying in his own trial. An admitted crack cocaine addict, he told the jury of his peers - well, not really, but that’s what we say in America - that he thought the house he burgled was “abandoned.” His real goal was some peace and a source of water. “I wanted to enjoy my high without any disturbance,” he said.

t was a night of extreme fear for the couple as they watched their upstairs neighbor come at them with two samurai swords.