Fletcher brother behind bars

ANTHONY FLETCHER is not the only Fletcher sibling behind bars.

His older brother, former middleweight contender Frank "The Animal" Fletcher, now 52, was slapped with a 22-year sentence on Valentine's Day 1996 in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

A jury found him guilty of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.

As a boxer, "The Animal" reportedly earned more than a million dollars during his ring career, which ended in 1985. He won the United States Boxing Association middleweight crown on June 14, 1981, and successfully defended it four times.

His was a troubled childhood and a troubled adulthood.

The offense that put him in jail this time occurred on July 28, 1993. According to court documents, a video-store owner called a state parole officer to say that Fletcher had just been in his store and had threatened him with a gun. Fletcher told the store owner he was on his way to see his parole officer.

When Fletcher arrived at the parole office, he was placed under arrest. Parole officers found an Intratec Tec-9, a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, in the car trunk of a female acquaintance whom Fletcher had asked to give him a ride.

The weapon was loaded with one magazine containing 11 live rounds.

Before that conviction, Fletcher had a long rap sheet, including three violent felony convictions.

Among his convictions on aggravated assault, weapons and other charges:

_ On May 17, 1975, the 21-year-old Fletcher stabbed a man, Dennis Johnson, in the upper back with a butcher knife in the 1500 block of West Oxford Street.

_ On several instances in 1978, Fletcher approached a woman named Laura Tillery and, in attempts to prevent her from testifying against him for a previous shooting incident, shot at her while she was standing on a porch, punched her in the face, threw her against a wall, then shot her in both legs.

_ On July 6, 1984, Fletcher pointed a handgun and fired twice at another man, Jeffrey Taylor, hitting him once in the chest. Taylor was treated at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and released.

_ On May 1, 1986, while in Holmesburg Prison, Fletcher punched a correctional officer in the face and struggled with him until he was restrained by other officers.

As a juvenile, Fletcher was arrested 17 times beginning at age 8, and adjudicated delinquent 10 times, court records show.

"The Animal" has also been at the receiving end of a gun. In February 1995, he was shot in the stomach and buttocks during an incident in West Philadelphia.

Frank Fletcher now spends his days at the high-security U.S. penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas.

His release date is Nov. 25, 2014. *