Someone should have been watching Nolan L. Evans.
On a night in April 2006 when court records show he was supposed to have been secured inside a halfway house, authorities charge that the convicted felon was able to shoot a man in Northwest Baltimore. Months later, the man died from his injuries.
The little-publicized homicide case, scheduled for trial this week, could be another blow to Volunteers of America's Comprehensive Sanction Center.
The Sun reported last month that during a spot-check in April 2007, 10 inmates were discovered missing from the halfway house and that two probationary employees suspected of accepting bribes from those inmates were fired as a result.
Six years earlier, two employees at the facility were convicted of accepting bribes from inmates so they could freely wander the city's streets at night.
The Evans trial comes as Volunteers of America's contract to operate the halfway house is expiring; federal officials are still undecided about whether to renew the contract.
Federal judges in Baltimore say that escapes from the facility in the 4600 block of E. Monument St. have troubled them. Several said the state needs a more reliably secure halfway house for inmates transitioning out of federal prison.
"The truth is we have no other options, really, than to send people there," Judge J. Frederick Motz, co-chairman of the federal court's probation committee, said of the Volunteers of America halfway house.
The federal Bureau of Prisons pays Volunteers of America's Comprehensive Sanction Center to house up to 90 inmates a day. A $3.6 million, five-year agreement will expire at the end of next month, but federal officials declined to say whether they plan to renew it with a 10-year contract as the nonprofit has requested. They also declined to comment on the Evans case.
After prison
Evans - son of death row inmate Vernon Lee Evans Jr. - arrived at the halfway house on March 28, 2006, after serving an 86-month prison sentence for being a felon in possession of a handgun.
Selected log records from Volunteers of America show that Evans was at the facility at least part of the time on April 25 and 26, 2006. But it was unclear from those records entered into the court file whether Evans was inside the halfway house at the time of shooting.
