Marquis "Bird" Hilton is a former enforcer for the Barksdale Organization.
Biography[]
Season 1[]
"Bird" is one of five prominent enforcers (along with Roland "Wee-Bey" Brice, Anton "Stinkum" Artis, Wintell "Little Man" Royce, and Savino Bratton) of the Barksdale Organization. He is a violent, volatile young man, evidenced by his manner of speaking and confrontational attitude towards the police. Although not present during D'Angelo Barksdale's court case along with the rest of the upper tier Barksdale members, he is later introduced and is actively involved in the brutal murder of Omar Little's boyfriend and accomplice Brandon Wright.
Largely due to Wallace's efforts, Brandon is located and second-in-command Russell "Stringer" Bell is notified. Stringer promptly orders his execution, and brings the ruthless working trio of Roland "Wee-Bey" Brice, Anton "Stinkum" Artis and Bird himself to kill Brandon. The enforcers capture him, initially pretending to be undercover cops. They brutally torture Brandon in an attempt to get him to reveal Omar's location, but receive no information. Brandon dies from the numerous wounds he sustains during the torture. They grotesquely mutilate his body and leave it in a nearby project backyard for all of the local residents to see. Coincidently, they leave the body outside of the building where Wallace lives and he sees it the morning after. This act of murder causes Wallace to feel an immense sense of guilt over his involvement in Brandon's death.
Omar takes Brandon's unnecessarily brutal murder personally and targets Bird out of revenge.
Bird is the first victim of Omar's crusade to avenge Brandon. Soon after Brandon's death, a bitter and vengeful Omar tells police that Bird murdered a state witness, William Gant. Gant was one of two witnesses in D'Angelo's murder case a few weeks earlier. Omar reveals Bird was ordered to kill Gant as a warning to the community. However, Omar was not present during the shooting, and only knew about from word on the street. Because the police needed a witness for a charge to be made, Omar agreed to falsely testify that he saw Bird shoot Gant with his signature gun. Omar further revealed to the police that they would find Bird taking drugs (which is against the organization's rules) and that they should take appropriate caution, as Bird is dangerously reckless.
The arrest of Bird is soon made; follow-up ballistics report matches Bird's signature gun to the killing. Despite being subdued by handcuffs and arrested with heavy evidence against him, Bird insists on attempting to intimidate his intimidators with threats of violence and torrents of offensive language. He particularly takes the time to insult Shakima "Kima" Greggs by making comments about her sexual orientation, which visibly annoys and offends her and her fellow officers. Bird is convinced that his captors will beat him severely and demands they give him a chance to defend himself; instead, he is left handcuffed to the table and is severely beaten into unconsciousness for his disrespectful attitude by Kima, Daniels, and Sergeant Landsman. He is then sent to the local penitentiary, to await trial.
Season 2[]
A year later in 2003, Bird is tried for the murder of William Gant. Roland Brice previously tried to falsely take the blame for the murder of Gant but the detail's investigators were unconvinced. Detective Moreland and Assistant State's Attorney Ilene Nathan were present and handled the court case.
Largely because of Omar's testimony about Bird's notoriously violent reputation, Bird is convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole by Judge Phelan.
Murders committed by Bird[]
- William Gant: Shot in the back of the head. (2002)
- John Bailey: Shot in a drive-by along with Wee-Bey. (2002)
- Brandon Wright: Tortured to death along with Stringer, Wee-Bey and Stinkum. (2002)
Production[]
Appearances[]
| Season 1 | ||||
| "The Target" | "The Detail" | "The Buys" | "Old Cases" | "The Pager" * |
| The Wire" | "One Arrest" | "Lessons" | "Game Day" | "The Cost" |
| "The Hunt" | "Cleaning Up" | "Sentencing" | ||
| Season 2 | ||||
| "Ebb Tide" | "Collateral Damage" | "Hot Shots" | "Hard Cases" | "Undertow" |
| "All Prologue" | "Backwash" | "Duck and Cover" | "Stray Rounds" | "Storm Warnings" |
| "Bad Dreams" | "Port in a Storm" | |||
*Uncredited appearance.