‘As Bad as It Gets’: Driver in Contract Killing Gets Quadruple Life Sentence

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A 25-year-old man was sentenced to four life sentences plus 40 years for his role as the getaway driver in a 2022 contract killing of two men in the East Arlington neighborhood of northwest Baltimore.

Datuan Blanchard was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, four counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and two counts of firearm use in a felony violent crime for the Aug. 12, 2022, murders of Leion Davis, Jr. and William Ferebee on June 20. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lynn S. Mays, who oversaw his trial, denied the defense’s motion for a new trial before Blanchard’s sentencing Thursday.

Defense attorney Jason Rodriguez explained that at the time of the murder, Blanchard was 22 and “trying to find himself.” Blanchard’s role in the murder, solely as the getaway driver, made him the “least culpable” of the co-conspirators, he argued.

Though the hit men who assassinated Davis and Ferebee on the 4000 block of Wabash Avenue were Blanchard’s cousins, according to Rodriguez, Blanchard tried to distance himself from them after the murder. In prison, Blanchard earned his GED, speaks to his son as much as he can and remains “very introspective.”

Rodriguez said, “[Blanchard] will do everything he can to be productive while incarcerated.”

Despite the attempt to minimize what happened the prosecutor told the court, “This [case] is as bad as it gets.”

Citing the legal concept of accomplice liability, the prosecutor emphatically denied Rodriguez’s argument that Blanchard was “less culpable,” saying, “He was just as guilty as the two shooters.”

The prosecutor also noted that in the presentencing investigation, Blanchard said he was innocent, though he admitted his involvement in a recorded statement to Baltimore Police Department investigators after the murder. The prosecutor also brought up Blanchard’s prior conviction for involuntary manslaughter, when he drove over double the speed limit and killed his passenger. That case was pending in circuit court at the time of the murders.

Both families filled the courtroom gallery and delivered tearful remembrances of the victims in their statements to the court.

The father of a young daughter at the time of the murder, many loved ones lamented that 23-year-old Davis would never see his daughter grow up.

Davis’ aunt told the court regarding Blanchard’s sentence, “He’s a menace to society, so he doesn’t deserve to be in society.”

Ferebee, 24, who loved sports and dreamed of owning a landscaping business, was his mother’s only child. She said of the loss, “Every day when I go to sleep, I pray not to wake up.”

Judge Mays sentenced Blanchard to two consecutive sentences of life without the possibility of parole for both Ferebee and Davis’ murders, as well as another two consecutive life sentences for the conspiracies to commit those murders. For the charges of firearm use, Blanchard will serve two concurrent sentences of 20 years, the first five years without the possibility of parole, each.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said in a press release after the sentencing, “Today’s sentencing sends an unequivocal message: anyone orchestrating and carrying out acts of cold-blooded, premeditated violence will face full accountability. The defendant’s role in this heinous murder-for-hire plot, which resulted in the loss of innocent lives, has rightfully led to a sentence that ensures he will never walk free again. “

The prosecutor in Blanchard’s case said in court Thursday that authorities are still investigating other perpetrators for Ferebee and Davis’ deaths, as well as other contract killings in Baltimore.