Evans' defense attorney, Nicole Love-Kelly, said her client maintains that he was at the halfway house. "Any other identification of my client as the shooter would have to be a misidentification," she said. The trial is set to start Wednesday in Baltimore Circuit Court.
Just after 1 a.m. on April 26, police from the city's Northwest District were sent to the 3900 block of W. Forest Park Ave. for a report of a shooting. When they arrived they found a man named Larry Parks receiving medical treatment. He was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The shooting left Parks paralyzed from the neck down.
The police appeared to catch a break on June 7 when a witness looked through a photo array. She identified Evans, according to police, saying that her relative saw Evans, also known as "Chief," shoot Parks, also known as "Caveman." Homicide detectives paid Parks a call at Kernan Hospital on June 15, 2006, asking questions about the shooting.
"I confronted him with all of the intelligence gained through the course of the investigation," lead detective Anthony Fata wrote.
But Parks would not cooperate. "If I knew who shot me, I would not tell you," Parks said, according to Fata's progress report. "This is the way the street works."
On Nov. 4, 2006, Parks, 37, of the 3900 block of Bonner Road, was admitted to St. Agnes Hospital for low blood pressure, pneumonia and sepsis. The 6-foot, 182-pound man died there the next day, just after midnight.
The medical examiner's office ruled his death a homicide from complications of the gunshot wound to his back. Court records do not provide a motive for the shooting.
For months, the case remained unsolved until, police say, a witness came forward. Evans was charged in May 2007.
Security lapses
Law enforcement officials in Baltimore said they have been frustrated with security gaps at the halfway house.
Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said the public should not think that halfway houses will protect the community from dangerous criminals. Rosenstein, the state's top federal prosecutor, said earlier that his office does not have concerns about security at Volunteers of America and that his prosecutors have not voiced opposition when judges send pretrial detainees there.
William Henry, the federal official in charge of probation services, did not return a call for comment. In an earlier conversation about Volunteers of America, Henry declined to talk about individual cases at the halfway house or any past problems with Volunteers of America.
