Racing your car down Clinton Street at 3 a.m. is never a good idea. Running a red light and plowing into a squad car makes that decision even worse. But that’s what happened in March 2023 when Quayawn Eldridge, now 26, had just left a bar, according to his own story, and “did not want the vehicle he was racing to overtake him.”

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.