Anne Arundel County police say that on Tuesday, Arthur Tyler Felton used a box cutter to steal a cell phone and an MP3 player from a Sears in the Annapolis Mall, then briefly carjacked a woman in the parking lot in a failed bid to escape.
This is the same Arthur Tyler Felton who in 1991 fatally shot 6-year-old Tiffany Smith in the head during a gunfight with a rival in West Baltimore's Walbrook neighborhood.
The shooting of the elementary school student shocked a city, sparked a campaign to rebuild streets lined with vacant rowhouses, focused police attention on gangs, guns and drugs, and prompted residents to create a memorial in the girl's honor.
At the time, Tiffany's mother expressed anger at what she considered lenient sentences for her daughter's killers — 20 years for manslaughter for one; 30 years with all but 18 suspended for Felton, who instigated the fight and fired the fatal shot on a warm July night.
Felton served 13 years in prison. He got out in 2005, went back for a year for violating the terms of his release and completed his probation just three months ago.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Thomas Ward said he accepted the plea because Felton agreed to testify against the other shooter and because the law was unsettled as to whether first-degree murder could apply to someone who fired at one person but hit someone else instead.
Even if he hit a 6-year-old girl.
Ward is now retired, but reached by phone Wednesday, said he regretted accepting the deal worked out between the prosecutors and a defense lawyer. Asked if he felt Felton had served enough time, the judge said: "No I do not."
The shooting of Tiffany outraged the city much the same way Sunday's fatal stabbing of Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn is causing outrage today.
Harsh words are being exchanged. Citizen commentators are flooding Internet bulletin boards with vitriolic rhetoric on the demise of the city and calling the judicial system a failure. Politicians are swarming to the murder scene to call for reform.
A makeshift memorial to Pitcairn has risen on St. Paul Street in Charles Village, while the all-but forgotten memorial to Tiffany Smith still stands on Rosedale Street in Walbrook.
It's a triangular sliver of real-estate carved amid a confluence of streets, where Bloomingdale crosses Westwood and Westwood crosses Rosedale. The sign is still there, "Tiffany Square," surrounded by fading tiles with sayings like "God is Love." Tiffany's picture is still there too, in silhouette, her braids that endeared her to a mourning city still prominent.
The square was supposed to have been bigger, a real public meeting place for a revived community driven to action by the violent loss of a child. The politicians joined the cops who joined the residents who held a groundbreaking in front of the television cameras. A pizza shop opened up, as did an insurance company. Block parties were held with live bands and dancing.
But the attention faded, the residents retreated and the politicians moved on. The streets around the square are still controlled by drug dealers, who were recently spotted shouting, "Kill Bill, middle of the block," touting a particular brand of heroin.
And now, 18 years later, authorities say, Arthur Tyler Felton is back, too. And back in trouble.
Anne Arundel police said that on Tuesday, Annapolis Mall security guards chased him outside and that he leapt into the back of a four-door sedan with a woman behind the wheel. He jumped out 50 yards later, police said, and was arrested after threatening the guards with a razor. Felton is being held without bail on charges of theft and carjacking.
Nearly two decades ago, Tiffany's mother didn't think Felton got a hefty enough sentence. And the lawyer for the other man in the gunbattle was outraged that his client got more years than Felton, who had fired the fatal shot. The lawyer at the time called Felton "a con man" who "may have just conned the state out of a lot of years in jail."