A Baltimore man viewed as a symbol of the troubled city court system has been indicted on a federal gun charge that could bring a 10-year prison sentence in connection with what authorities have described as a July 4 road-rage shooting.
Antoine J. Pettiford, whose many tours through the city courts have attracted extensive publicity, was charged late last week in U.S. District Court in Baltimore with illegally possessing a handgun as a convicted felon. The charge stems from a shootout along Harford Road in the city this summer that left another man injured.
Pettiford, 31, was charged in state court with attempted murder and assault in the wounding of 36-year-old Keith Goodie Sr. of Baltimore. Federal prosecutors stepped in to handle the case as a weapons violation at the urging of city prosecutors, a spokeswoman for Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said.
Pettiford could face a swifter conviction and longer prison sentence in federal court, key factors for authorities weighing how best to prosecute a man with a well-known history in the city court system.
Pettiford was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 but was freed after Baltimore prosecutors and police were found to have mishandled the investigation. In 1996, another man, Demetrius Smith, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to arranging the killing of Oscar Edward Lewis Jr. in East Baltimore and told authorities he had never heard of Pettiford.
A Baltimore judge erased Pettiford's murder conviction in 1998 and offered him a new trial. Instead, Pettiford entered into a plea bargain that allowed him to immediately leave jail after serving four years. He was cleared of the crime entirely in 2000 by a city circuit judge who said evidence violations in the case were a "miscarriage of justice."
Pettiford, who has been arrested more than a dozen times since 1985 on drug and other charges, was back in the city courts in June to plead guilty to cocaine distribution charges. At the time, he was sentenced to seven years, with all but one year suspended, and was allowed to remain free until July 17 to address family issues before reporting to jail.
Less than a month later, police say, Pettiford engaged in the July 4 gun battle with Goodie as the two men drove north along Harford Road. Authorities described the shooting as a road-rage incident, apparently touched off by an earlier altercation between the two drivers. Police said Pettiford had two female passengers and a 3-year-old girl in his car at the time. Goodie was driving alone.
Both cars were struck by bullets, and police have said that Pettiford told detectives that he opened fire because Goodie shot at him first. Inside the glove box of Pettiford's green four-door sedan, authorities found a .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol - a violation of the federal law that prohibits convicted felons from possessing firearms.
U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio, under pressure since he took office a year ago to increase gun-crime prosecutions, said last week that he has designated two assistants to handle firearm violations and asked Baltimore police to send his office 30 new cases from high-crime areas.