More than two decades after the murder of a Prince George's County man, his convicted killer is getting out of prison years before he was supposed to after judges agreed he's at risk for COVID-19.
Edward Gray was shot and killed in District Heights, Maryland, in 1999.
We've got the news you need to know to start your day. Sign up for the First & 4Most morning newsletter — delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.
A decade later, his mother, Charlotte Gray, spoke with News4, pleading for fresh leads in a case gone cold.
Justice came in 2012 when Keith Fogle was indicted. He was already in prison on drug charges when he received a 10-year sentence.
Last month, he asked for compassionate release, claiming underlying health conditions put him at risk for COVID-19. After multiple judges reviewed the case, Fogle’s sentence was suspended, and he was granted his release this week.
“To tell me a murderer who confessed to murdering somebody will now be released, I don’t understand that,” Charlotte Gray said.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
“[The judge] felt he had pulled enough time,” she said. “Well maybe for the drug conviction he had, but to tie that drug conviction to my son’s murder is an injustice to me. One had nothing to do with the other.”
The decision has forced Gray’s family to relive the ordeal again, including his youngest daughter, who never got to meet her father.
“It’s all coming back to light, what we went through the night he was killed, the whole scene,” Gray said.
After putting her faith in the justice system, she feels betrayed.
“I would love to talk face-to-face with Judge Becker to let her know the pain that her actions are now causing my family,” she said.
She won’t ever get over her son’s murder, but she’s learned to live with it.
“We miss him tremendously,” she said. “We have been there for his four children.”
Fogle will spend five years on supervised probation.
“I can forgive you for murder,” Gray said. “I can’t forget what you did.”
