The 15-year-old's punishment after being convicted as a juvenile in January was to go home with his mother - a woman convicted three months earlier of buying drugs.
Six weeks later, Farron Tates became the first teenager to be arrested on a murder charge in Baltimore this year. He was arrested last Thursday and has been charged as an adult.
Farron's life followed the criminal trajectory of Baltimore's most troubled children: He lived with a parent who used drugs, stopped attending school in the fourth grade, said he smoked marijuana every day, carried a loaded handgun at age 13 and told authorities he turned to drug dealing as a way to make money.
But he's also typical of the young offenders whom the juvenile justice system sometimes returns to questionable home environments - at times without knowing all of the relevant information.
"Do I want to know if a parent is on probation? The answer is flat-out yes," said Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon, head of the city juvenile court. "It is the duty of the parties to provide us with that information. We can't be doing independent investigations."
Linda Koban, a juvenile master in Baltimore for seven years, said she left the bench three years ago out of such frustrations.
"I was making decisions on such faulty information. It's scary because things like this can happen," she said, referring to Farron's case.
Department of Juvenile Services workers gather information about youths who are arrested and prepare reports and courtroom representations for juvenile judges or masters. In Baltimore, about 2,000 kids are under the supervision of the Department of Juvenile Services at any given time.
There's no formal criminal background check or parole and probation check of the adults in their lives, said Tammy Brown, a department spokeswoman. Instead, caseworkers rely on interviews with the adults.
That system isn't perfect.
Last spring, Davon Qualls was arrested twice as a juvenile on drug charges. First he was released to a woman who didn't know the teen's real name and then to a 26-year-old man he called his "homeboy," Davon's great-aunt said. Davon, 17, was shot to death Sept. 4, a five-minute walk from where the juvenile judge had sent him to live.
In Farron's case, a January DJS report for Farron's juvenile master states that his mother, Bridgette Tates, has no criminal or drug history.
In fact, Bridgette Tates had been arrested Oct. 3 near Pimlico Race Course with two pink-top vials of crack cocaine and pleaded guilty Nov. 29 to drug possession. She was sentenced to 18 months' probation, until June 2009.
No mention of the arrest or probation was made at Farron's two juvenile court hearings in January, a Sun review of the recorded proceedings shows.
Aside from her recent criminal history, there were other signs that Bridgette Tates was struggling as a parent - some of which were documented in the Department of Juvenile Services report and raised in hearings Jan. 3 and Jan. 22 before Master Bradley O. Bailey.
Bridgette Tates had skipped a Jan. 3 hearing, delaying her son's sentencing by almost three weeks. The DJS report for the master, dated Jan. 16, warned that Farron "has no boundaries and seems to do as he pleases without regard to societal norms and rules." His mother, the report said, "is not providing adequate supervision or care for her son."
Farron grew up in Northwest Baltimore, where his mother lives in a Park Heights apartment. His two sisters live in nearby Pimlico.
His mother and two sisters - both college graduates, according to their mother - declined to comment, saying that Farron's lawyer, Michael Lee Kaplan, had advised them not to. Kaplan also declined to comment.
Expelled from elementary school for "throwing trash cans at the principal," according to his mother's talks with a juvenile master, Farron passed his days on streets lined with blue-light police cameras and shuttered rowhouses, by his own admission smoking marijuana and selling drugs.
Early one afternoon in September 2005, four city police officers patrolling the alleys near the Pimlico racetrack spotted a boy who should have been in school.
When they approached, Farron pulled up his sweat shirt to reveal a Rossi .38-caliber special loaded with five rounds. An officer drew his service weapon while the others arrested the boy.
A month later in juvenile court, Master Gregory Sampson was visibly frustrated with Farron and his mother, taking off his glasses and rubbing his face.
Bridgette Tates acknowledged that she'd had a hard time keeping Farron under control. She gave him a 10 p.m. curfew - drawing a rebuke from Sampson.
"His curfew was not appropriate. His supervision was not appropriate," the master said. "If your son's in trouble and he's not acting appropriately, then it's your job to tighten it up on him. If you can't do that, or you don't want to do that, then it becomes the job of the court."
Because it was the boy's first arrest, Sampson sentenced Farron to one year of probation, warning him, "I'm not giving you another chance."
For a year, Farron stayed out of trouble. Six weeks after his probation expired, he was arrested again, this time for selling drugs.
He dodged court for more than a year, picking up two more drug dealing arrests in the meantime. He had crack cocaine and heroin on him in two of those arrests, court records show.
The Jan. 16 DJS report noted that Farron was "nonchalant" about selling drugs.
"How else am I supposed to get money?" he told the DJS worker.
Arrested a third time for drug dealing, on Dec. 27, 2007, Farron was held in juvenile detention and then released on electronic home monitoring until the Jan. 22 hearing before Bailey.
Assistant State's Attorney Misty Hemline and Farron's defense attorney agreed upon the decision to release the teen.
Still, Hemline said at the hearing that she had "serious concerns" about Farron's well-being at home.
"This is a child that - it's frightening to me that he has no other options than to go and sell drugs," she said. "He needs to have an education. It appears he has a child coming. He needs to have skills or a trade or something that he can do to be productive instead of going out and selling drugs."
Instead, police believe, Farron was at an apartment in the 5000 block of Denmore Ave. in Pimlico early on the morning of March 1.
Farron argued with Anthony Underwood, 29, of the 1700 block of Madison Ave. before pulling out a gun and shooting him in the head and chest, according to charging documents.
The crime was five blocks from where Farron's mother bought her drugs. It happened two days before Farron was due back in juvenile court.
julie.bykowicz@baltsun.com
Events in Farron Tates' life
Sept. 9, 2005: At 13, he is charged with possessing a loaded .38-caliber handgun.
Nov. 21, 2006: Charged with dealing drugs
Oct. 3, 2007: His mother, Bridgette Tates, is arrested with two vials of crack cocaine. She is later convicted on drug charges.
Dec. 6, 2007: Farron Tates is charged with dealing drugs
Dec. 27, 2007: Charged with dealing drugs
Jan. 22, 2008: Sent to live with his mother after being found responsible at juvenile court hearing on drug charges. He previously had been found responsible in the handgun case.
March 1, 2008: Anthony Underwood is shot and killed.
[Sources: Juvenile and adult court records]