Past violent incident

The prosecutor dropped the mandatory five-year gun sentence, and Fowlkes
pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and illegally carrying a handgun.
Fowlkes, then 18, was soon back on the streets -- and back in trouble.

Late at night on July 26, 1999, prosecutors say, Fowlkes was armed again.
On an East Baltimore side street, Fowlkes and another man got into a gun
battle.
Twenty yards away, Carlton Valentine; his brother, Arnell Davis; and their
cousin, Wayne Johnson, were sitting on the steps of Valentine's home at
821 N. Bradford St., drinking beer and trying to escape the stifling summer
heat.
Hearing the shots, the three scrambled off the steps and lay flat on the
sidewalk. "It was like the O.K. Corral," Davis says. "The bullets were
flying." When the shooting momentarily ceased, the men tried to rush
indoors. But more bullets whizzed down the street. One hit Valentine in the
back.
"He told me, 'Brother, I'm shot. I got shot in the back,' " Davis, a forklift
operator, recalls. "Wayne was screaming for help. I said, 'Man, we're going
to get those guys.' "
Valentine, an auto mechanic and father of four, died at Johns Hopkins
Hospital 50 minutes later.
Davis, who identified Fowlkes for police as one of the shooters, was furious
when told of Fowlkes' previous conviction.
"There shouldn't be no plea bargains," Davis says. "It's bad when you can't
sit on your own steps."