Marquis "Bird" Hilton (1970–) was an enforcer in the Barksdale Organization of Baltimore. An erratic and violent individual, Hilton was sentenced to life in prison in 2003 for murdering William Gant, a state's witness in a previous Barksdale trial.
Biography[]
Hilton was born in 1970 to an African-American family in West Baltimore, Maryland. He became an enforcer and hitman for the Barksdale Organization led by Avon Barksdale, and he soon developped a reputation for being ruthless and easily irritable, a trait enhanced by his usage of drugs. At some point, he was incarcerated at the Jessup Correctional Institution with Omar Little, who would become his rival in the future. In 2002, after West Baltimore native William Gant testified against Barksdale's nephew D'Angelo in his murder trial, he was targeted for death as a message to future witnesses, and Hilton shot him in the back of the head as he went to work. The Barksdale Organization was also forced to deal with Little and his associates John Bailey and Brandon Wright robbing their drug supply, and Barksdale put a bounty on them, with Hilton being part of a hit team including Roland Brice, Anton Artis and Savino Bratton; after Bailey was killed, Wright was located at an arcade business by Wallace, a member of D'Angelo's crew who tipped off Stringer Bell, Hilton and the others, and after handcuffing and apprehending him, Hilton and Brice tortured Wright to death, leaving his charred and mangled corpse tied to a car and put on display as a message to rival dealers, for which they were both rewarded $500. Wright's death deeply impacted Little, and in a ploy to take down the Barksdales without using brute force, began cooperating with the Baltimore Police Department who were conducting an investigation on them. His information on Hilton and corroborating evidence led to him being arrested for the murder of Gant, and Hilton was attacked by police officers during his interrogation for repeatedly insulting and threatening them. At his trial in June 2003, Little sat on the witness stand and incriminated Hilton, and his convincing testimony and "street" nature led to a jury convicting him of first-degree murder, being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.