W.Va. man sentenced on drug charges

November 22, 1996

By RICHARD F. BELISLE

Staff Writer

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Nine months after a Berkeley County jury found Kevin Ray Fowler innocent of the murder of Martinsburg pawn shop owner David Frazier, a U.S. District judge sentenced him to more than 22 years in federal prison for his guilty plea on drug charges, according to a release from U.S. Attorney William D. Wilmoth in Wheeling, W.Va., Friday.

Fowler was sentenced in federal court in Martinsburg by Chief Judge Frederick P. Stamp Thursday, according to Wilmoth.

Fowler, 33, of 223 Springer Road, Martinsburg, pleaded guilty in May to one count each of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, use of a firearm in relation to drug a trafficking offense and being a felon in possession of a firearm, Wilmoth said in his release.

Stamp also sentenced Fowler's brother, Thomas Norman Fowler, 30, of Bunker Hill, to 10 years in prison based on his guilty plea in July to one count each of aiding and abetting the killing of David Brown Jr., on Nov. 14, 1995 and for distribution of crack cocaine, Wilmoth's release said.

Both brothers will serve four years of supervised probation upon their release.

The jury verdict that freed Kevin Fowler after his emotion-charged murder trial in April stunned County Prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely and members of David Frazier's family, Games-Neely said at the time.

Thomas Fowler and another man got into a fistfight outside the Berkeley County Courthouse during jury deliberations. Fowler was charged with battery and intimidation of a witness, according to court records.

Frazier was killed on the night of Aug. 3, 1994, after he had closed his pawnshop for the night, court records said. He was shot once in the face, driven to desolate location near an abandoned Jefferson County quarry, shot several more times and his van, with his body inside, was pushed into the deep quarry waters, according to court records.

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