ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (CBS12) — Florida officials say a felon whose crimes once involved guns, cocaine, and years of repeat violence returned to the streets for barely a year before landing back in handcuffs—this time on charges almost identical to the ones that originally put him behind bars.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on Tuesday that Oscar Fowler, a convicted felon whose 12.5-year federal sentence was cut short through an autopen-signed clemency order in the final days of the Biden Administration, has been arrested again in St. Petersburg on state charges involving narcotics and illegal firearm possession. Investigators say Fowler’s criminal record stretches back more than a decade, marked by drug trafficking and firearm offenses that repeatedly signaled his risk to public safety.
According to law enforcement officials, Fowler was taken into custody on February 23, after detectives tied him to new drug-related activity involving the sale of controlled substances. Officers recovered evidence leading to two counts of intent to sell a controlled substance and one count of felon in possession of a firearm—the same type of conduct at the center of the federal case that once resulted in his long prison term…