it starts off as rain, especially around baltimore and eastern shore , the further west, the quicker you see the changeover from rain to snow. a couple of slushy incidences. we break down the map coming up. get the latest forecast and rack the storm right from the palm of your hand with abc2 news weather application for your iphone or ipad. get a hourly play by play or full seven-day forecast. find the link on the website, abc2news.com, on the web page. also check out and head out to maryland's most powerful radar and for the latest forecast from our meteorologist, head to abc2news.com/weather. with the wintery weather closing in, the state highway administration isn't taking chances. they've got crews out clearing drains, loading trucks up with plows. they've learned valuable lessons from previous early storms and advising drivers to do the same. while we are working for you, to keep your family safe and with the cooler temperatures just like state agencies you saw doing. it's your turn to get things ready. here are tips to keep you safe on the roads this weekend. check your tire pressure to make sure you got enough air in the tires. they deflate as the weather gets colder. check fluid levels and flashlight and batteries, keep a bag of salt or sand. cat litter works in case you get stuck. lastly, a shovel sl a good thing to have in case you need to dig yourself out. no matter where you are driving, abc2 news wants to help you, like us on facebook to win free gas. giving away $250 worth of gas cards each week. go to abc2news.com face facebook to enter. a abc2 news investigation, joe horton was sentenced in annapolis in a case of theft. joce sterman is here with details. >> this week horton was convicted for theft and id fraud after forging a signature of aer com. a judge told him that crime was worth two months behind bars. he was in hot water based on a lock smith job he did in 2010. a customer claimed he quoted her $250 to unlock her car. she says he bumped up the price to a thousand dollars. that's a tactic we heard from dozens of customers during a civil trial fought and won by the attorney general's office. when rolls refused to pay, he forged her signature on the credit card slip. horton was found guilty in the case and today a judge sentenced him to two years in jail with all but 60 days suspended. his attorney says he will appeal the decision, horton posted a $2500 appeal bond after court today, he won't have to serve time until his appeal case is heard. joce sterman, abc2 news. he was accused of mutilating cats earlier this year. now he can face up to three years in prison for his crimes against animals. he was in front of a judge this morning. brian kuebler fills us in on what happened. >> reporter: ethan pleaded guilty to the mutilation of two cats he adopted earlier this year. this employee could meantime for the 20 year old, but for animal lovers , the graphic nature may last longer. >> one of your cats was involved in one of these cases. lucy was returned after an adoption, deceased. >> reporter: she is the executive doctor of the maryland spca, and says her staff grew suspicious and performed an autopsy, he was shot by a bb gun. they refused him an adoption of another animal and alerted authorities. >> the police have been very thorough in the investigation and made sure they were treating this seriously and good to see that these weren't brushed aside because it was just animals documents show less than three weeks later he brought in a second cat to a local vet in fells point suffering from blunt force trauma and that added to the suspicion and the investigation. it had like a laceration on its head. it had a bloody eye. >> reporter: the doctor is the vet that treated the cat. it's wounds which ip chewedded a bloody nose and trouble bleeding were suspicious to him too and after peppering weedman with i questions, he called the authority. investigation found evidence and charged him with several counts of animal abuse and mutilation. some of the charges he pleaded guilty to, today. others hoping weed map gets funnishment and the help he needs. it's very, very emotional and sad. it hurts to see this poor little cat which can't defend it is self being injured. it's a hard part of the job. >> a disturbing crime, he can face up to three years for committing. prion brian kuebler, abc2 news. >> he will be sentenced in february. he is out on bail and has been ordered not to have any contact with any animals. a bizarre encounter during a sheriff's deputies morning commute ended in gunfire in northeast baltimore. authorities say 36 year old doterry jumped in to a marked car and pulled a knife. the deputy shot him in the arm. the deputy is a ten year veteran of the department and placed on routine leave pending the outcome of an investigate dpaition in to the shooting. -- investigation in to the shooting. >> i had spoken with him. he is fine considering everything that happened thissen mooing, he is doing extremely well. we contacted his family and reassured them so they don't become alarmed after hearing the news broadcast. we are lucky as a department to have him alive today. >> the spupt's family says he has had a history of problems with the police and add he left his house to see a lady friend this morning and wondering whether or not he ran in to the car seeking help instead of trying to hurt the deputy. baltimore police trying to figure out what caused a deadly crash this north baltimore. it happened before 8:00 a.m. at the intersection of northern parkway and charles street. a man was driving his car and he had a medical problem which caused him to crash in to several other cars he was pronounced dead but the investigation is on going. baltimore county police are looking for the driver who hit a man on the middle river bridge and drove away. the man was taken to bay view medical center with life threatening injuries. the car is described as a red or burgundy mazda between 2001 and 2003 model year. if you have information, call baltimore county police at 410- 307-2020. man was shot in the head in west baltimore overnight and died at the scene it happened after 10:00 in the 1200 block of braddish avenue. the man was lying in the street. no suspects or motives have been identified in this case. patient at a state mental hospital has been charged this the death of a fellow inmate. fellow patient, the second time in the week that this happened. mayio murdered a man last night at the cliffton t perkins facility in jees is jessup. he was the only person shown entering the man. a man has been charged in first degree murder in connection with a killing of a burger king manager last march. he is in federal custody now on charges he reentered the country illegally after being deported. he was convicted of robbery in 2008. he was shot to death while working at the fed rick burger king last march. state comptroller wants to give you a break. he is calling for a 2-year freeze on taxes and fees for businesses and consumers includes increase in the gas tax. he wants to hold off increasing our flush tax. he says the problem is we have to fiscal discipline. his fees idea comes as the governor is looking to raise the gas tax and fees, lawmakers meet next year. some good news for 1% in our state according to a new york company that studies wealthy househol has the highest percentage of millionaires per capita of any state. hawaii led the list since 2008. maryland bumped them out of the top spot. 70% of households are millionaires. do you think it's crazy we will get snow? it's early. are you one of the two people that can't wait for winter? we will tell you what you are you fellow marylanders are thinking about this weekend. shed a stroke on the other side of the world. although it's finally took weeks to get out, she is getting treatment. it's happening here in baltimore. it happens every year, this year it's happening a little earlier than we want. we are talking about snow of course. specifically snow in october. some people are already having a hard time believing it's coming. some can't wait for it to get here. >> it's unreal. not ready for it. >> it's october. i would say at least by the middle of november they should give us snow. not so soon. >> much adieu about nothing. i hope it's much adieu about nothing also. 22 inches of snow last year, two or three times, i'm done with snow. >> i like that guy's saying, whatever the thoughts on the impendingwet, it's on its way. starting off with a look at the radar picture, bottom line it is starting to come in, especially in western maryland. you can see cumberland westward in to the deep creek lake area, there is more precipitation beginning to buildup south and west of us here. let's give you an idea on the current winter storm watches and warnings. winter storm warning, beginning tonight through 6:00 saturday, for areas frederick west. we think mainly rain overnight here, but winter storm watch up through the day tomorrow in to early tomorrow evening for the counties that surround baltimore. just west, just north. a advisory foresee sill up in to the philadelphia area. worse west and north. here is an early look at what we think will happen with final accumulations tomorrow. a slushy 2 inches around the city itself. that will come late tomorrow afternoon in to tomorrow evening. we could see 2-4 as you go north and west, 3-5 as you go western carroll county in to frederick and yes, north and west of frederick, hagerstown, 5- 8, plus is possible. a wet snow and again as we check out the cameras, u wanted to take a look at our deep creek lake camera, if we can get it to go and perhaps through the day we do see the rain come in. maybe a little bit of a chain over here. there we go. first time i'm sighing the image out of western maryland. we are getting snow out this way in the haguers town camera, rain so far. back here in baltimore, again it's a relatively quiet night. 47, winds are very, very light. it is the preverb ya'll calm before the storm. there is some snow now over cumberland, rain mixed with snow. the change over from west to east, that's going to be the story through the day tomorrow. the further west you are watching from you are begin to see the changeover to snow sooner than points east of baltimore. mid-40s on the map. not bad except oakland, 32. winds are light. calm before the storm. here it is, rain, snow, the whole ball of wax and everything in between. mixture of wet snow and rain is what we are seeing in a lot of our observing stations in west virginia and southwestern virginia. this is the first batch of rain , the first part of the storm sending in the precipitation in to western maryland tonight. it's the coastal storms south and east the big player in our weather, around baltimore, the baltimore suburbs and across through the eastern shore tomorrow arguments lot of cold rain on delmarva, here is the future trend, mainly the possibility of rain coming in after midnight tonight, baltimore, eastward. baltimore westward, rain, snow mix, changing to snow through the day tomorrow. as you see on the backside, cold air wraps, we will all see snow, a period of wet snow, tomorrow afternoon, late tomorrow afternoon in to tomorrow evening before the whole thing blows out tomorrow. tomorrow cold and little icy out there. we will be dry and sunday completely dry and warm enough to melt off the snow that does fall. overnight, temperatures will be very chilly but not quite enough to produce snow except for western maryland. tomorrow 39. temperatures falling in the afternoon. we go from rain to a mix to snow. cumulations are a wild card with this thing. 30s tomorrow night as showers blow out again. shushly inch or two in the city. west, much more significant accumulations where they may have to do shoveling from frederick westward in to hagerstown and beyond. seven-day forecast, clear for sunday and the football game looks good. we will see that melt happen sunday afternoon, upper 40s, halloween monday looks fine. 55 degrees. what a change. things will be down hill tomorrow. >> i can remember it snowing in ohio around the first or second of october. >> it can happen. this far south, it can happen but usually five every five, ten 15 years. it's rare to have it this early. >> i'm already hating this winter. she was all the way at the south pole when she had what she thought was a stroke and turned out the be right. because of the conditions it was too dangerous for a plane to get in to renae nicole for several weeks. she is back in the u.s. and today she was in baltimore at johns hopkins hospital. >> it looked like i had a stroke. it was told that they would have me out within a couple of weeks. i didn't have problems with that and a serious of things happened that said no, you are not going to be out in a couple of weeks it will be two month from now. that kind of like put the radar antennas up on me. >> they expect her speech and vision to return to normal over time. she would love to go back to the south pole and finish research but not sure if she will be able to. tomorrow night camden yards will be all aglow for a good cause. the light the night walk. the walk put on by leukemia and lymphoma society. things get underway at 5:00 tomorrow evening and will go on rain, shine or hopefully not snow. if you live in baltimore city, voting for the general election started today. baltimore is a democratic stronghold but there are republicans running in the races. rawlings blake is running against griffin. the fist time rawlings had to run for mayor since she took over. races will be decided by november 8th which is the actual election day. halloween is still a few days away but it's never too soon the get scared. if you are looking for a good scare , the hall of horrors is back and open at 7:00 in parkville. hosted by the harford park community association, open all weekend. baltimore city department of transportation wants drivers to watchout for special traffic changes this halloween in fells point. they will host the fest tiffties. roads in fells will be closed to traffic between care line, will street at 6:00 p.m. monday night. if you are not planning on taking part, it's a good idea to avoid that area. not much to do with football, but the national guard is teaming up with food energy bank to offer a live feed from baltimore to afghanistan so family members can have an opportunity to talk with soldiers overseas. >> i wass in the hospital. when he left i was in the hospital. i'm doing fine now. >> this sundays the ravens will get a chance to redeem themselves after disappointing loss monday night to jacksonville. tune in at 4:00 sunday as they take on the one in five cardinals. here is a look at what is coming up tonight at 11:00. on line bank statements can declutter your life, but it can make you vulnerable to hackers. we are working for you with tips to avoid spam and prevent id theft. one look at the weather as it pushes in. western maryland getting wintery weather in, out that way. winter storm warning through 6:00 tomorrow for frederick and watch around the baltimore area. rain changes to snow tomorrow. more rain from baltimore. that's it for abc2 news at 6:00. see you at 11:00.