A Martinsburg man described as a ‘habitual offender’ was sentenced Monday to 32 years to life in prison.
Jefferson County Prosecutor Matt Harvey says 37-year-old Kevin Ray Fowler, Jr. of Martinsburg, West Virginia had been convicted back in November of Robbery in the First Degree, Burglary, Felony Conspiracy and pronounced guilty of 16 counts of Malicious Assault. Those charges stemmed from a violent January 2020 home invasion in Ranson in which the homeowner was severely beaten.
Under West Virginia’s three-strike law. the Jefferson County Prosecutor’s Office charged Fowler as a habitual offender. Just before a trial was to get underway to determine that last month, Fowler admitted to the prosecutor’s office that he had been prevously convicted in 2003 of two counts of kidnapping, failure to register as a sex offender in 2015, grand larceny charges in both 2016 and 2017, and possession of a weapon in jail in 2018.
At a sentencing hearing March 22nd, the court heard victim testimony regarding ‘profound and permanent’ impacts of physical and emotional injuries sustained as a result of the robbery and assault.
The judge said Fowler had been committing serious and violent offenses since he was 19-years-old and that they occur whenever he is not incarcerated. Fowler was given a string of sentences that do not give him a possibility to petition for parole for more than three decades.
Harvey said some people cannot be free in a polite society or they will terrorize law abiding citizens. “This Defendant’s long history of violence committed against the citizens of the Eastern Panhandle ended Monday,” Harvey said, adding Fowler has 32 years to change his ways, if he qualifies for parole.