In the quiet, early morning hours of November 20, 1984, the life of 22-year-old Melvin L. Traylor, a male resident of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was violently cut short. His death was the culmination of a sinister plot, a murder-for-hire orchestrated within the city's criminal underworld. Traylor was fatally shot as he was leaving a residence, a place he had just visited to purchase cocaine, unaware that his arrival had been anticipated and that a killer lay in wait.
The architect of this
deadly scheme was Benito Jerome Bowie, the leader of a local drug trafficking organization. Evidence presented in court would later reveal that Bowie had offered to pay $5,000 for Traylor's murder. Several witnesses testified to hearing Bowie make this offer. Initially, Bowie had approached a man named Gary Fisher, offering him $7,000 to arrange the killing. However, approximately ten days before the fatal shooting, Bowie informed Fisher that he had found a 'young punk' who would carry out the murder for the lesser sum of $5,000.
That individual was Freddie Ervin. On the evening of November 19, 1984, under the direction of Bowie, one of his key associates, Roger Britt, provided a handgun to Ervin. Britt then took Ervin to the home of his sister, Cathy Britt, where she was selling cocaine for Bowie's operation. Ervin's instructed purpose for being there was to 'watch her back.' The house was a calculated trap, as Bowie knew that Traylor was a customer and would likely appear there to purchase drugs.
As anticipated, Melvin L. Traylor arrived at Cathy Britt's house in the early hours of November 20th. Shortly after making his purchase and as he was departing, Freddie Ervin ambushed him, firing the fatal shots. A few weeks after the murder, Bowie fulfilled his dark promise, paying Ervin the agreed-upon $5,000 for taking Traylor's life. The investigation into the homicide eventually unraveled the conspiracy, leading to the arrest of its mastermind. Benito Jerome Bowie was tried and convicted by a jury for the first-degree murder of Melvin L. Traylor. Although prosecutors sought the death penalty, the jury could not reach a unanimous agreement on the sentence. Consequently, the court imposed a sentence of life in prison.
