UPDATE 4/21/2023: On April 20, 2023, a 3-judge panel sitting in Upper Marlboro affirmed the 10-year sentence imposed on Joseph Martin Blankenship for the crime of second degree assault.
Blankenship was convicted in 2021 by a Calvert County jury and sentenced to the maximum possible sentence by Judge Andrew S. Rappaport. A Maryland appellate court previously upheld Blankenship’s conviction.
Blankenship was convicted of the unprovoked attack on a 19-year old victim. When the victim asked Blankenship to refrain from using profanity in front of children, Blankenship pulled the victim from a car and punched her in the face. The victim required medical attention.
Blankenship is also serving a 10-year consecutive sentence in an unrelated burglary and assault case.
UPDATE 10/15/2021: Robert Harvey, Calvert County State’s Attorney, announced that Joseph Martin Blankenship, 36, of Lusby, was sentenced on October 15, 2021, to 10 years incarceration for the crime of second degree assault.
Blankenship also received a 2-year consecutive sentence for a violation of probation. The sentences, imposed by the Honorable Andrew S. Rappaport, were the maximum available under the law and exceeded the range suggested by the Maryland Sentencing Guidelines.
In announcing the sentence State’s Attorney Harvey noted: “This was a case of domestic violence perpetrated against an innocent 19-year old victim. It is appropriate during October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, that the public know that the State, and the Court, take these matters very seriously.”
The case was prosecuted by Deputy State’s Attorney James Zafiropulos.
8/12/2021: On Wednesday, August 11, 2021, around 11:15 p.m., deputies from the Calvert County Patrol Bureau responded to report of a residential burglary in the 11300 block of Commanche Road in Lusby, MD.
Preliminary investigation revealed a male suspect unlawfully entered a residence armed with a knife.
A physical altercation ensued with the occupants of the home. The suspect then fled the area on foot. Deputies canvassed the area and the suspect, identified as Joseph Martin Blankenship, 35 of Lusby, MD, was located at a nearby residence.
Joseph Blankenship was known to everyone in the residence at the time of the burglary.
Blankenship was detained and transported to the Calvert County Detention Center where he was charged with the following.
- 1st Degree Burglary
- 3rd Degree Burglary
- 1st Degree Assault
- 2nd Degree Assault
- Destruction of Property less than $1000
- Malicious Destruction of Property.
