Suspect in Sin City killing has been there before

When Carlos Ford was booked into the El Paso County jail Tuesday night on charges of first-degree murder, it was not for the first time. Known on the streets and to police as “Vicious,” the 30-year-old’s extensive rap sheet dates to his teen years and includes 11 convictions, prison time and allegations of gang affiliation. In 2005, prosecutors charged Ford with first-degree murder, but dismissed the charge before trial due to lack of evidence. After serving time for another violent crime — second-degree assault — he was paroled in December, and has since popped up on the radar of federal investigators. Six months after his release from prison, Ford became the sixth man arrested in connection with the March 3 fatal shooting at the Sin City Disciples motorcycle clubhouse. He joins two Fort Carson sergeants, Christopher Mountjoy and John Burrell, and one soldier, Eric Bartholomew, who face charges of first-degree murder. Two other men, 24-year-old Deangelo Wells, and 30-year-old John Severe, were arrested last month on suspicion of accessory to first-degree murder. In December, Ford was paroled from prison after serving most of a six year sentence for second-degree assault – a charge reduced from attempted murder, court records show. In the early morning hours of March 3, a single bullet whizzed through the trunk of a car in front of the Sin City clubhouse, killing Virgil Means. In April, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives caught Ford allegedly stashing a pistol and cocaine powder in a car, according to arrest warrant. Ford’s alleged role in the shooting of Virgil Means has not been divulged. All arrest affidavits in the case have been sealed, and a broad gag order has been placed on law enforcement and attorneys. Details of that night have been slowly unveiled in the courtroom, implicating the soldiers in what might have been a planned, military-style attack on Means, according to court testimony. Ford’s history in Colorado Springs is less nebulous — his lengthy court record has made him a familiar face to local ATF agents, according to court documents. Police claim he is a known member of a local Crips gang, the 81st Street East Side Hustlers. In 2005 Ford was caught up in two violent crimes, one for first-degree murder charges, the other attempted murder, that wound their way through court at the same time. Just after midnight on June 15, witnesses told police that Ford and Joshua Delaney got into a fight in the Platinum 25 nightclub, at 1677 Jet Wing Drive. Delaney was later found riddled with bullets while sitting his car on London Lane near Jet Wing Drive, police a months-long police investigation into his death. Investigators believed that Ford followed Delaney from the bar, flashing his car’s lights to get Delaney to stop on London Lane. Ford walked up, asked Delaney for a cigarette, and allegedly shot him four times, according to an arrest warrant.. Nine days after the killing, Ford went to an apartment  to collect a $40 crack cocaine debt from a woman. She him she didn’t have the cash. Ford punched her in the face, fracturing her jaw. He then pulled a handgun and fired several rounds in the direction of her son, who came at Ford with a baseball bat, court papers said. Ford was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder three days later, on June 27. In early August, Ford also was charged with first-degree murder in the Delaney case. The pending murder case was plagued by lack of evidence, and eventually by the loss of some of it. Undisclosed pieces of evidence in the case were disposed of in 2005, among the 134,911 items erroneously thrown out of the evidence locker by Colorado Springs police that year. Evidence against Ford in Delaney’s death seemed to hinge upon a statement from Rickey Lacour, who told police detectives that Ford admitted to shooting Delaney at point-blank range. “I shot that fool Strap,” Ford told Lacour about two weeks after the killing, according to court testimony. Delaney, also a gang member, went by “Strap” on the streets. The Delaney case fell apart when Lacour fled the state; during his absence of several months, the first-degree murder charges against Ford were dismissed. Ford was convicted of the lesser charge of second-degree assault charge in the cocaine-debt case and he went to prison. Earlier this year in a Wendy’s parking lot on a late April night — a month after the Sin City shooting — ATF agents zeroed in on Tyron Hicks, an alleged drug-trafficker they had been tailing. Hicks and two other men, later identified as Ford and Jatawron Pepper, were seen getting in and out of cars in the parking lot. The officers recognized Ford and Pepper — the men had been together the night Delaney was shot, and both are members of the same Crips gang, court documents said. Pepper faced murder charges in a 2006 slaying, but was acquitted in 2007. In Ford’s car, agents say they found cocaine , a loaded Ruger 9 mm pistol and magazines of ammunition under the driver’s seat. Ford was released after initial questioning, but was arrested and booked into the El Paso County jail Tuesday, according to jail records. He was held without bail on suspicion of seven felony charges.