Convicted murderer Monti Mantrice Fleming asked for leniency before being sentenced May 29 for shooting to death 18-year-old Shawn Edward Powell outside a Columbia condo in August 2006.

"I want to let you know that I'm not violent. I'm not a monster," Fleming, 17, formerly of Columbia, told Howard County Circuit Court Judge Louis Becker. "I'm 17 years old and I think that I deserve a chance to be back in society with my family."

Citing Fleming's youth and the possibility of his reform, Becker sentenced Fleming to 55 years in prison for the crime.

"I find him to be a serious threat to public safety both now and in the future, but given his youth the court is not going to completely give up on him," Becker said.

Under the sentence, Fleming will be eligible for parole in 27 years, according to deputy State's Attorney Mary Murphy.

A Howard County jury convicted Fleming in Powell's murder Feb. 4. Powell was fatally shot in the back Aug. 26, 2006, following an argument with Fleming outside a Hickory Ridge condominium complex, according to police. Fleming was 15 at the time of Powell's murder.

At a sentencing hearing May 29, prosecutors asked Becker to impose on Fleming a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Murphy argued that the nature of Fleming's crime, his history of cases in the juvenile justice system, and pending charges of attempted murder and armed robbery in two separate cases made him irredeemable.

"What we have here is a chance that has been long gone," she said.

Meanwhile, Fleming's attorney, Joseph Murtha, argued that Fleming was not a lost cause.

"I am begging the court, actually, not to dispose of Monti Fleming," Murtha said to Becker.

Following the sentencing, Murtha said he was "relieved" by the sentence and pleased that Fleming had "the possibility for seeing the outside of a jail cell some time in the future."
 
Murphy declined to say whether she was satisfied with the sentence.
"We respect the court's decision," she said.

Family members react

At the hearing, family and friends of both Fleming and Powell testified either through written statements read to the court or by taking the stand.

Katrina Smith, Fleming's mother, tearfully told Becker that she remembered her son playing basketball and football and remembered him as a baby.
 
"I watched my baby take his first step. He is not this person," Smith said.

In a statement read by Murphy, Powell's brother Ray Powell said that the killing was a senseless act of violence that had irrevocably damaged him.
 
"That was my brother. That was my heart," Ray Powell wrote.
 
Powell's family declined to comment on the sentence.

His former roommate, Ru Sellers, said that she hoped the sentence would bring Powell peace.

"Maybe Shawn can rest now," she said.

Fleming's family members were not available for comment.

Fleming faces upcoming trials in two other cases.

He is charged with attempted murder in a non-fatal shooting in Wilde Lake that occurred Aug. 22, 2006. A trial in that case is slated for July 14 in Circuit Court, said Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for Howard County State's Attorney Dario Broccolino.

Fleming also is charged with armed robbery in connection with an Aug. 29, 2006, incident, although details of the case are not available because it began in juvenile court, Kirwan said.

 

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