Nearly three years after being acquitted in connection to the murder of Safe Streets worker Dante Barksdale, Garrick Powell appeared in federal court Monday.
The 32-year-old accepted a plea deal from the U.S. government in an unrelated case, pleading guilty to one count of possession of a machine gun. The charge stemmed from Powell’s arrest back in April 2023, less than one year after a jury found him not guilty of Barksdale’s murder.
Barksdale was fatally shot outside Douglass Homes, a public housing development in Baltimore, back in January 2021. Months later, Baltimore Police announced the arrest of Powell. Investigators then confirmed he had a lengthy criminal history and had recently removed his ankle monitor after being placed on home confinement for a gun charge in Anne Arundel County.
In May 2021, while under the leadership of former City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, the murder case went to trial.
Prosecutors hinged their case on a gun found in the same vehicle as Powell — though the DNA found on the gun was never analyzed — highlighted cellphone tracking data and showed the jury video evidence from the day Barksdale was killed that was difficult to clearly see. Powell’s not guilty verdict came down as questions swirled about Mosby’s staffing levels.
The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office is now led by Ivan Bates. His office confirmed that, to date, no one else has been charged with Barksdale’s murder.
At the time of Powell’s release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland was under the leadership of now former U.S. Attorney Erek Barron, whose playbook included aggressively going after repeat offenders for any and all wrongdoing and focusing on guns.
Then, law enforcement expert Jason Johnson said this was key in keeping repeat violent offenders off the streets.
“The US Attorney’s Office has tools that state prosecutors don’t have,” Johnson said. “For example, real prison sentences. The federal system does not have the practice of just releasing criminals back on the streets. So people who are found guilty after a trial or plead guilty for violent criminal offenses are typically sentenced to pretty significant periods of incarceration. They don’t play around and that’s really what’s needed for violent repeat offenders.”
During Monday’s plea deal hearing, prosecutors said back in April 2023, Powell was observed on CCTV footage displaying signs of an armed person in East Baltimore, and once stopped, officers found a machine gun on the floorboard of his vehicle as well as 63 rounds of ammunition and a second magazine.
The judge specified count two of the indictment comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison followed by three years supervised probation and without the possibility of parole.
Powell will be sentenced July 16. His attorney declined to comment.
Contact Alexa Ashwell at aashwell@sbgtv.com.