Justin Fenton

Justin Fenton is The Baltimore Sun's veteran crime and courts reporter, whose dogged, hard-charging work has covered this heartbreaking and tough terrain for a decade. With his prolific, accurate and speedy reporting, Fenton often breaks stories on everything from the inner workings of the Baltimore Police Department to the stunning details of individual cases. He is considered a must-follow on Twitter, where he has more than 80,000 followers.

Just as often, Fenton digs in for longer looks. In 2010, his reporting led to an overhaul in how Baltimore police officers investigate sexual assaults. In a five-part series in 2015, "Chasing a Killer," he went behind the scenes of a homicide investigation in Baltimore's deadliest year. Other work includes a three-part series about a ruthless con woman that was highlighted on NPR. He went searching in rural Maryland for the truth about the murder of two teenage boys, and the cop who couldn't give up the case. In the last year, he has investigated a rogue squad of Baltimore police officers, the Gun Trace Task Force.

A graduate of the University of Maryland College Park, Fenton worked as a reporter and editor for the student newspaper, The Diamonback, and then started at The Sun as an intern. Along with many state awards, he is a two-time finalist for the national Livingston Award for Young Journalists and was part of The Sun's Pulitzer Prize-finalist team for the death of Freddie Gray and ensuing unrest. Last year, The Daily Record, the local legal and business newspaper, named Fenton as an "Influential Marylander".