Idiots That Gave Away Their Souls To The Other 49 States

[Common Sense]

Convicted Of Murder, Gang Member DeShawn Parker, 24 Donates 25 Years

Prosecution Disappointed With Sentence

POSTED: 8:50 am EST January 20, 2005
UPDATED: 10:32 am EST January 20, 2005

LOUISVILLE -- A convicted gang member was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the shooting death of a Louisville teenage girl.


Bruce Anderson/WLKY
DeShawn Parker


DeShawn Parker, 24, was convicted Wednesday for the murder of Laknogany McCurley, 16, in 2000, WLKY NewsChannel 32 reported.

Police said Parker was a member of the Victory Park Crips, and was involved in a feud with a rival gang, the Southwick Park Bloods. Prosecutors said Parker was actually aiming for two other men in a car with McCurley.

Despite the victory, prosecutors said they were disappointed with the sentence, WLKY reported.

"Our stand all along was that he wasn't remorseful, that he hadn't shown any regret," Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Thomas Van De Rostyne said. "He brutally gunned down this girl, and she was just in the car with these people. It was all about trying to kill these people in a running feud they'd had. It's very dangerous to give someone a message, and only get 25 years, and that's one of the reasons we argued for life."

The defense declined to comment on the verdict or the sentence.

Please follow WLKY NewsChannel 32 and TheLouisvilleChannell.com for updates to this story as they become available.

[Common Sense]

Gang Member Convicted for Molotov Cocktail Killing.

March 21, 2005 —

A gang member was convicted Monday of killing a young boy by firebombing his house on the city's West side.
Jacky Burks was found guilty of first-degree murder for tossing a Molotov cocktail into an Austin home four years ago.

The fire killed 4-year-old Armon Kendley and severely burned 2 family members.

Burks and his co-defendants were being tried separately.

Prosecutors said the fire bombing was an act of revenge for the death of a gang member. Unfortunately, they picked the wrong house to fire bomb.

Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty

[Common Sense]

^^^This happened in Chicago.

[Dr Funky]

Niagara Gazette
Falls fast becoming gang territory
Rick Pfieffer
Monday, February 21, 2005
Falls Police Detective Steve Reed settles into the front seat of his undercover patrol car.
It’s a bitter cold Friday night, but it’s time for Reed to get to work.
“My day consists of looking for gangsters and looking for gang graffiti,” Reed said. “Graffiti is the newspaper of the streets.”
Reed isn’t new to this work. He’s been studying and investigating street gangs for years.
Now, with clear indications that at least one, and perhaps two, violent and nationally organized street gangs are attempting to set up shop in the Falls, Reed’s intelligence gathering has become critically important.
“Steve was out gathering intelligence at least a year before this problem developed,” Lt. Salvatore Pino said.
Pino, the lieutenant in the Falls Police Narcotics Division is also in command of the newly created Gang Enforcement Task Force. The task force is made up officers from the Roving Anti-Crime Unit, the department’s two K-9 officers, a detective from both the Narcotics and Criminal Investigation divisions and Reed.
“My gang is out there on the streets,” Pino said. “They (the street gang) may call themselves the Bloods, we call ourselves ‘the Cops.’ ”
The presence of a set of the Bloods street gang in the Falls first drew public attention after an armed robbery of the Tops Supermarket in the 1000 block of Portage Road on Thanksgiving Day.
A 53-year-old man, chased down by police, said he robbed the supermarket and a Key Bank branch two days earlier because he had been threatened by members of the Bloods. Hours later, police arrested a known Blood member, 19-year-old Armondo R. Torres of Buffalo, after a stand-off at an Ashland Avenue home.
Investigators later learned that Torres wasn’t the only Blood who had been in that home. Three Buffalo teenagers, Blood members, who would be involved in a pair of shootings four days later, were also there.
The Nov. 29 shootings, involving a robbery on Fourth Street and a home invasion on Pierce Avenue, left one man and a police officer wounded and a Blood member dead.
“We’ve always had gangs here, but it’s always been the local kids who may have decided to wear the same color shirts,” Pino said. “They weren’t violent, they committed petty crimes. They were nothing like what we’re seeing now.”
Where did the Bloods come from?
They group, now characterized by several organizations of gang investigators as the predominant street gang up and down the east coast of the United States, actually has origins in both New York City and Los Angeles.
The L.A. gang, first known as the Pirus, formed in the 1970s among a group of street thugs looking to protect themselves from the dominant gang there, the Crips. The Pirus became known as the Bloods because they claimed the color red.
The gang began to spread across the country in the 1980s after being portrayed in movies and music.
In 1993, the United Blood Nation (UBN), also calling themselves the Bloods, formed in the New York City jail system on Riker’s Island. Sgt. Lou Savelli, a veteran New York City gang investigator, said the UBN formed as a means of protection for black inmates who were being victimized The Almighty Latin Kings, a Hispanic gang.
The UBN modeled themselves after the L.A. Bloods.
“Several of the leaders of UBN then formed eight Bloods sets to recruit in their neighborhoods across New York City,” Savelli said. “By the mid-1990s, thousands of members of Bloods street gangs were establishing themselves as a force among gangs and were continuing steady recruitment.”
Savelli characterized the Bloods as more violent than other street gangs, but not well organized. That pattern has reappeared in the Falls.

[Common Sense]

Gang member convicted for his role in 1996 killing
May 2005


BOSTON --The first member of a North Shore organized crime group charged in connection with the 1996 killing of a Medford woman was convicted on Tuesday of helping dismember and dispose of her body.

Derek A. Capozzi, 32, formerly of Beverly, was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit witness tampering killing and being an accessory after the fact to a witness tampering killing. He was acquitted of a charge of witness tampering. The trial lasted two weeks.

Capozzi was one of five members of the "DeCologero Crew," headed by Paul A. DeCologero of Burlington, who took part in the killing of Aislin Silva, 19, and disposal of her body because she knew too much about the gang, prosecutors said.

After local police and federal agents seized guns stored at Silva's Medford apartment, Paul A. DeCologero ordered that she be killed in order to protect himself and his organization from her possible cooperation with federal authorities, prosecutors said. Silva was the ex-girlfriend of a gang member.

After first trying to get her to overdose on heroin, gang member Kevin Meuse beat Silva to death on Nov. 13, 1996, prosecutors said. Capozzi then helped dismember Silva's body and bury her body parts somewhere on the North Shore. Some of her remains were found in a trash can near the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, but most have never been located.

Meuse, whose fingerprints were found on the trash container where Silva's body tissue was found, committed suicide in jail in 1997.

Capozzi faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on the conspiracy conviction and up to 15 years in prison on the accessory-after-the-fact conviction. He also faces a maximum fine of $250,000 on each charge. A sentencing date has not been set.

The trials of others in the case are expected to start by next January. Some members of the gang also face racketeering, robbery, drug and firearms offenses.

[Common Sense]

Two Convicted, Two Acquitted In Suburban Virginia Street Gang Trial
From Terry Frieden

CNN Washington Bureau
May 2005


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal jury in Virginia Tuesday convicted two members of a violent street gang in the slaying of a female gang member who had been a government informant.

Two others members of the MS-13 gang were acquitted in the killing of Brenda Paz.

The split verdict by a jury in Alexandria followed a closely watched monthlong capital murder trial, which prosecutors had hoped would send a strong signal to the growing number of gang members in the Virginia suburbs of the nation's capital.

In the fifth day of deliberations, the jury found Oscar Antonio Grande, 22, and Ismael Juarez Cisneros, 26, guilty on all five counts, including murder conspiracy and retaliating against an informant.

Paz, 17, was four months pregnant when she was stabbed 16 times and left on a river bank in Shenandoah County, Virginia, on July 13, 2003. She had been scheduled to testify for prosecutors in gang murder trials in Virginia and Texas.

Paz had voluntarily left the federal witness protection program just three weeks before she was murdered.

The jury will reconvene Monday for the penalty phase of the trial, which will determine whether the two will be sentenced to death or to life in prison.

Defendant Denis Rivera, 21, whom prosecutors identified as the mastermind of the Paz killing, was acquitted on all counts, although he remains in prison, where he is serving a life sentence for another murder. Paz was to have testified against Rivera in that case. Prosecutors apparently failed to persuade the jury that Rivera gave orders for the Paz killing from his jail cell.

The fourth defendant, Oscar Alexander Garcia-Orellana, also was acquitted.

The trial comes at a time when federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies are launching a major initiative to combat the brutal violence spread by MS-13 gang members in a growing number of cities.

The Justice Department reaction to the verdict came from U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty, who oversaw the trial prosecution team.

"Today's guilty verdicts are a major step forward for the cause of justice, and a step closer to victory in our battle against gang violence," McNulty said in a written statement.

"Brenda Paz was 17 years old, pregnant and a witness in a federal investigation when she was brutally murdered. Our law enforcement agencies are united in their commitment to defeat this threat of ruthless violence in our community."

Paz was born in Honduras but grew up on the streets of Los Angeles. The Mara Salvatrucha (MS) gang was first formed in the 1980s in Los Angeles by young men from El Salvador. Most clique members have family ties to Honduras or El Salvador.

Officials say the MS-13 clique in the United States has been most active in Los Angeles, New York and northern Virginia, but it is being detected now in several other regions of the country.

[Common Sense]

Accused Gang Member Convicted Of Murdering Man

Florida

POSTED: 12:16 pm EDT August 10, 2006

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Late Thursday morning, an Osceola County jury convicted an accused gang member charged with a home invasion and murder of a Kissimmee man. Gregory Enegess, 18, was immediately given two life sentences.

The jury deliberated more than eight hours over two days. Of the five men accused of the crime, Enegess was the only juvenile. He was just 17 when he committed murder.

The verdict brought two families to tears, the widow of Dorsey Morgan and the mother of his killer, Gregory Enegess.

"But it's okay. He's with God. I feel sorry for the widow," Enegess' mother, Sylvia Ramirez, said.

Gregory Enegess admitted that he was part of the home invasion at the Morgan house in April of 2005 and that he was the one who shot Dorsey Morgan.

Prosecutors said Enegess and four fellow gang members carried out the crime, but the defense argued Enegess was afraid of the other guys in the gang and, when they yelled at him to shoot Morgan, he believed he had no choice.

The jury believed otherwise and, as Enegess was led out of the courtroom, he spoke softly to his mother.

"I love you momma, everything's gonna be all right," he said.

Dorsey Morgan's widow, Arlene, did not want to talk about the verdict.

http://www.wftv.com/news/9660708/detail.html

[Common Sense]

Virginia

August 2006

Louis Antonio Bryant, the convicted leader of a dangerous Charlottesville street gang will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

A federal court judge sentenced Bryant to two life sentences and an additional ten years behind bars. Those life sentences will run together. Earlier this year, Bryant was found guilty of racketeering, drug conspiracy and running a continuing criminal enterprise.

“We’re happy with this jury and with this judge and we feel the community is much safer at this point than two years ago when these people were still on the street,” said Asst. U.S. Attorney Bill Gould.

Several other defendants involved in the West Side Crew's crime spree have also been convicted and sentenced but it was the leader of the gang, Bryant, who received the harshest sentence. His attorney says he will appeal.


Local Gang Members Are Off To Prison

August 12, 2006

By MATT STEWART
The Times

KES violent acts

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia identified these violent acts in recent years that it attributes to the KES gang.

Feb. 18, 2000: Near Northeast Georgia Medical Center, members of KES shot the leader of SUR-13, wounding him in the leg.

Aug. 19, 2000: Members of the two gangs engaged in a fight which began with fists, but ended with the leader of KES, David Ramirez, pulling a pistol and firing at his opponent.

Nov. 11, 2000: A group from KES and 18th Street hid behind Mount Calvary Church on E.E. Butler Parkway and fired on several members of SUR-13, who were standing in a common area of the Atlanta Street Apartments.

July 16, 2002: Members of KES and SUR-13 fought at the Citgo Station across E.E. Butler Parkway from the Atlanta Street Apartments. When the proprietor called the police, the KES members fled. They struck a bystander, the sister of a SUR- 13 member, with their car. When they realized who the victim was, the driver of the car started to back over the victim, who was pulled to safety by a member of SUR-13.

May 10, 2003: Members of KES encountered members of SUR-13. After exchanging insults, the two gangs agreed to fight. As KES members drove away they fired several shots at the SUR-13 members.

The sentencing of members of a Gainesville gang Friday in federal court set a precedent in the war against gang violence in Northeast Georgia, prosecutors and law enforcement officials said.

A total of more than 40 years in prison was handed out to former members of the criminal street gang KES or "Killing Every Spot" by U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story.

"The KES gang was a menace to Gainesville and the entire Hall County area," U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said. "We are proud to have worked with city, county and federal investigators to dismantle the gang and take its key members off the streets."

The investigation of KES and subsequent convictions Friday are believed to be the first time a single gang was targeted and dismantled by authorities, Hall County Sheriff Steve Cronic said.

"This investigation took out most of the structure of KES," Cronic said. "One day, they had a heavy presence in Hall County and were one of our most troubling gangs at the time. The next day, we didn't have them here."

Five defendants pleaded guilty and were convicted in March on charges of violating the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, commonly called RICO. The complex law has gained notoriety recently for use in the prosecution of gang-related crimes.

The identified leader of KES, 25-year-old David Ramirez, and his brother, Juan Ramirez, 28, both of Gainesville, received the bulk of prison time after accepting plea agreements.

Juan Ramirez, who also was charged for discharging a firearm in the commission of a violent felony, received 12 years and nine months in federal prison. David Ramirez was sentenced to 11 years and three months.

Carlos Alvarado-Castillo, 22, of Gainesville was sentenced to five years and three months; Adam Cruz, 24, of Gainesville received two years and nine months; and Rene Antonio Ortiz-Penado, 22, of Gainesville was sentenced to four years and nine months.

A sixth codefendant, Ignacio Chavez-Olivarez, 42, of Gainesville was sentenced to four years and three months in prison after pleading guilty to possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. He was not charged with violation of the RICO statute.

Those convicted could face deportation upon their release from prison, Story said. All six men will serve about 90 percent of their sentence in federal prison, Cronic said.

Each of the men charged faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but prosecutors took several of the defendants' ages into account when agreeing to a plea deal, Assistant U.S. Attorney H. Allen Moye said.

"One of the reasons the government agreed to what some would see as a fairly lenient (sentencing) is that, hopefully, these offenders will grow out of these acts of youth," Moye said. "They were kids at the time these crimes were committed. We want to make the point that this was a test run. Other gangs need to take note."

Michael Trost, David Ramirez's Atlanta-based attorney, spoke on behalf of his client prior to sentencing Friday.

"He has said he fully accepts responsibility for what he did," Trost told Story. "He was 17 at the time of this offense and was not as mature and as wise as he is now."

The government dismissed charges against a seventh defendant. An eighth, Ruben Bernal Cuevas, is a fugitive and is believed to be in Mexico, officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia have said.

During the three-year investigation by the Gainesville-Hall County Gang Task Force, agents seized several weapons believed to be used in violent altercations by KES gang members. The task force is comprised of Gainesville Police officers, Hall County Sheriff's deputies, and agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"This makes it clear that there are federal gang task forces and an aggressive U.S. attorney going after gangs," said Joe Amerling, a Gainesville-Hall County Gang Task Force member.

KES was formed in late 1998 by individuals who had been associated with the gang BSV. Remaining members of BSV formed a rival gang, SUR-13, and became engaged in territory warfare with KES and often defaced areas of the community with graffiti, authorities said.

The two groups also fought each other either with fists or guns while threatening the safety of several neighborhoods between 2000 and 2003, authorities have said.

Family members and friends of the six men filled the federal courtroom Friday as federal agents marched the defendants in and out in handcuffs. Several of those in attendance cried as the the men left the courtroom to await a date to report to federal prison.

Story addressed the family members who came in support.

"I know it's difficult to see your loved ones taken out to face prison," he said as a translator spoke to those seated. "Their crimes caused a great deal of damage and they need to be punished. But family means a great deal to their success."

The majority of those sentenced Friday expressed remorse for their involvement in gang activity. Alvarado-Castillo told the court, "I apologize for the crime I commit, to the community and to my family."

Story asked most of the men he sentenced to serve as role models to young Hispanics and others who become involved in similar situations.

"There's still a lot you can accomplish in your life," Story told one of the defendants.
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/st ... 6799.shtml


Bloods Gang Member Sentenced To 55 Years

August 11, 2006

ELIZABETH – Superior Court Judge Marianne Espinosa sentenced a Bloods gang member to 55 years in prison for shooting two children and stabbing a teenager at Oakwood Plaza housing complex in Elizabeth on April 8, 2005.

Khalil Patrick, 29, defiantly told Espinosa that he did not get a fair trial, but the judge imposed parole ineligibility along with the 55-year sentence, so he must remain in prison for at least 47 years.

Patrick was convicted in a June trial on 13 counts of aggravated assault in connection with a wild shooting and knife attack that injured two children, a 9-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl who were both shot in their legs, and a teenager who was stabbed with a knife.

“The community had enough of him,” said police detective Thomas Koczur, who led the investigation. “When these children got hurt, the people said: That’s enough. He was cruel to people. That’s what led to the quick arrest.”

Patrick once served prison time for weapons possession and aggravated assault for shooting his own mother (convicted on April 7, 1995) but Assistant Prosecutor Robert O’Leary explained that attempted murder charges were dropped because the victim refused to cooperate. Family members claim that shooting was an accident that occurred while Patrick struggled with his step-father over a gun.

Patrick has also been convicted of distribution of drugs within 1,000 feet of a school zone and aggravated assault, Nov. 12, 1999; possession of drug paraphernalia, Dec. 14, 2004; riding in a stolen car, Jan. 6, 2006; and possession of cocaine and heroin, May 12, 2006.

According to prosecutor’s, the violence began with a fight involving Lorenzo Keets, 27, and Yvon Pyrus, 20, against 17-year-old Corey Williams and some of his friends.

According to Assistant Prosecutor Union County Deborah White, Keets and Pyrus told Patrick that Williams was moving in on the Bloods gang territory and he responded by hunting down Williams and slashing his face with a knife.

Later, just before 6 p.m. that evening, the 17-year-old’s uncle, Antoine Adams, exchanged gunfire with Patrick in the Oakwood courtyards, where the two young children were caught in the crossfire and injured.

Fifty police officers converged on the scene and witnesses told authorities that Patrick was the shooter.

“The streets of Elizabeth will be safer for our children with him away from there,” said Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romanko.
http://www.new-jersey.ws/modules.php?na ... &sid=14333


Heroin Cartel Member Sentenced

08/12/2006

SCOTT FROST, Staff Writer

TRENTON -- "Operation Golden Triangle," the high profile 2004 shakedown of the city’s heroin trade, led to a 17-year prison term for one of its top players yesterday, officials said.

Bloods’ gangster Akeem Blue, 22, of Kingsbury Square, Trenton, an alleged wholesaler for the heroin cartel toppled by the state-wide operation, pleaded guilty April 14 to possession of heroin with the intent to distribute after he was caught two years ago buying 8,950 decks of smack with $43,000 in cash, said Attorney General Zulima V. Farber.

At the time, police said "Operation Golden Triangle," put a major dent into Trenton’s drug trade while sinking a multi-million dollar industry.

Seventy-five percent of the heroin trade in Trenton, as well as a substantial portion of the statewide market, came from Blue’s gang-funded cartel.

Yesterday Farber said an estimated 20,000 doses were being distributed in the city at any given time before "Operation Golden Triangle" closed down the cartel in 2004.

It was Blue’s job, officials said, to sell to lower-level dealers working within the city limits.

Judge Maryann Bielamowicz yesterday sentenced Blue to 10 years in state prison with 43 months of parole ineligibility on a charge of possession of heroin with the intent to distribute filed by the Division of Criminal Justice.

He was also sentenced to seven-more years on charges filed in Mercer County, officials said.

While out on bail in March 2005, police chased Blue into Morrisville, Pa., and nabbed him with 160 packets of the drug, and $1,678 in cash.

A year-long covert joint-agency investigation, "Operation Golden Triangle," headed by the Division of Criminal Justice, resulted in 12 arrests in June 2004 and the confiscation of cash and cars.

It was the largest single seizure in the history of the division’s history, said then Attorney General Peter Harvey.

The operation damaged the drug network’s hierarchy, whose gang-controlled heroin was being shipped to Trenton on a weekly basis and was responsible for a substantial portion of the statewide heroin trafficking market, Harvey said.

Agents followed Robert "Marc" Cashwell on his way to meet up with Blue at the 7-Eleven on South Broad Street.

Officials said then it was Cashwell’s job to move heroin from an Elizabeth warehouse into Mercer County.

Around 1 a.m., Cashwell got off the New Jersey Turnpike and headed toward Trenton where he allegedly made a small drug drop before meeting Blue in the parking lot.

The two men got out of their cars and started talking casually, Lt. Bill Stranero of the Special Investigations Unit in the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said in 2004.

Within seconds 20 police ambushed the two men.

Blue was holding a Timberland shoe box containing $42,918 in cash and Cashwell, a black shopping bag with 179 bricks, or over 9,000 doses, of heroin, police said.

The arrests of Cashwell, 34, and Blue triggered the planned, simultaneous execution of more arrests and search warrants that morning at 12 locations in Trenton, Newark, Irvington, East Orange, Elizabeth and Philadelphia.

More than 60 investigators and detectives from 15 law enforcement agencies recovered drugs, weapons, cash and cars.

In total, the searches -- five of which took place in Trenton -- yielded 300 bricks of heroin (with a street value of about $250,000), more than $271,000 in cash and more than $132,000 in bank assets, officials said.
Police also seized illegal weapons, including an Uzi submachine gun, a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, and .38, .45, and .40 caliber semi-automatic handguns and hollow-point bullets, along with late-model cars and motorcycles.

Twelve of the 17 alleged members of the heroin cartel had ties to the Bloods street gang, officials said in 2004.

Investigators believe that before the June 25 raids an estimated 20,000 doses of heroin were being distributed in Trenton during any given week.

At the time cops explained heroin is packaged in bricks, about the size of a deck of cards.

Each brick contains five bundles of 50 glassine bags, or doses and each dose at the time sold for about $12 on the street.

Meanwhile Cashwell pled guilty March 3 to first-degree distribution of heroin filed by the Division of Criminal Justice, officials said.

He was listed to be sentenced yesterday but the hearing was postponed for unexplained reasons.

Once sentenced Cashwell, of Elizabeth, faces 10 years of state prison time with 42 months of parole ineligibility, police said.

Officials said the cartel’s alleged kingpin, Charles "Black" Hamilton, 36, of Irvington, also fell to the operation.

He was charged with leading a narcotics trafficking network, criminal conspiracy, racketeering and the distribution of heroin.
http://www.trentonian.com/site/news.cfm ... 4551&rfi=6

[Common Sense]

Gang Member Sentenced In Crack Cocaine Case

August 23, 2006
Washington
P-I STAFF

A Southern California gang member who came to Seattle to sell crack cocaine was sentenced Tuesday to 46 months in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge James Robart sentenced Deandre Bradford, 34, a member of the Kelly Park Crips, after he pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of cocaine base with intent to distribute.

When Bradford was arrested by DEA agents and Seattle police in February, he was found with crack, thousands in cash and a Sig Sauer 9 mm semiautomatic pistol in the engine compartment of his car.

"We are not going to idly stand by and let these gang members take over Seattle or Western Washington," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Lulejian, who prosecuted the case.

[Common Sense]

Gang Member Sentenced To 30 Years

Washington DC
Published: April 28, 2006

A former MS-13 gang leader, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for stabbing a member of a rival group in northwest Washington. The former gang leader, Juan Carlos Rivas-Moreiera of Silver Spring, Md., was convicted of assault in February in Washington Superior Court. He was among 19 gang members indicted on racketeering charges in August.



Second Gang Member Sentenced In Shooting

By MATT GRYTA
New York
News Staff Reporter
8/24/2006

A Buffalo gang member was sentenced Wednesday to 7 1/2 years in prison for his role in a September 2004 shooting on East Delavan Avenue that left a girl permanently disabled.

Brandon Crawford, 18, of High Street is one of three gang members convicted in the shooting.

On Feb. 5, Erie County Judge Timothy J. Drury imposed a 10-year term on Kevin Fowler, 18, the gunman; on Nov. 8, he is scheduled to sentence Tristian McCaller, 18, who was convicted Aug. 15 of assault.
Drury rejected pleas for leniency. Reading from a statement, Crawford pleaded "for a second chance," claiming he is "truly sorry."
Daniel Grasso, Crawford's lawyer, and Ron Peoples of the Community Action Organization, who has been counseling Crawford in the Erie County Correctional Facility since March, urged the judge to give him youthful offender status to spare him a criminal record.

Peoples told the judge Crawford was "a follower" and not a gang leader, and said he is convinced "he has made a complete change" in his outlook on life.
Prosecutor Jeffrey P. DiPalma said Crawford rejected a plea deal for testimony against his co-defendants. The victim, 16, was not the intended target.

[Common Sense]

Gang Members Sentenced For Pipe-Bomb Attack

•Providence, RI
WJAR-TV
September 1, 2006

A federal judge on Friday sentenced two gang members to prison for their roles in a pipe-bomb attack in Cranston that injured the mother of the man they were targeting. Bobby Soundara, 20, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. Vanhhatdy Souvaunaxab, 19, was sentenced to more than seven years.

Both men admitted their membership in the Laos Pride gang. Investigators said the gang was feuding with the Young Bloods in the months leading up to the September 2005 bomb attack.

Souvaunaxab admitted making the bomb from a discarded pipe, gunpowder and fireworks purchased in New Hampshire. Soundara admitted tossing the bomb through the window of a house on West Harry Street.

Prosecutors said the intended target was not home, but his mother was awakened by the sound of shattering glass. When she went to investigate, the bomb exploded. She lost an eye and suffered other serious injuries.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14627785/

[Common Sense]

Gang member convicted in Va. kidnapping

By Kevin Deutsch
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer


September 12, 2006

A Miami jury on Monday convicted one of four MS-13 gang members who kidnapped a woman in her Virginia home in January, drove her to a West Palm Beach hotel and held her captive until police rescued her.

Victor Calles, 23, was found guilty on charges of kidnapping and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle. Calles and his three co-defendants, Joel Muratti-Hani, 24; Javier Santos, 22; and his brother, Jose Calles, 18, went to the Virginia Beach home of the victim on Jan. 16 and held her there while they stole televisions, jewelry and other valuables in sight, police said.

The men then forced the woman into her vehicle while threatening her with a knife, police said. They drove her to the Dollar Inn Motel on Broadway in West Palm Beach. The men, all self-proclaimed members of MS-13 — or Mara Salvatrucha, a Salvadoran gang — paid for Room 106 and held the woman captive inside, police said. She was "in fear for her life," a police affidavit said.

On Jan. 17, after her captors turned off the lights to go to sleep, the woman unlocked the deadbolt and ran into the parking lot at about 8 a.m. She rang the motel office door while the Calles brothers tried to pull her back toward the room.

The motel manager heard the woman's pleas and called police. They arrested the Calles brothers a short time later. Muratti-Hani and Santos drove off in the woman's vehicle and headed for California, but authorities arrested them in Louisiana.

The woman suffered head and chest injuries and a fractured nose.

Victor Calles' three co-defendants have pleaded guilty. All four men face a maximum sentence of life in prison for the kidnapping conviction.

They will be sentenced later this year.

[Common Sense]

Gang Member (Brandon Jones aka Tooth Mack or Toofy) Gets Up To 45 Years For Shooting In 2004 Incident.

(I believe he's from 24th St. Mafia)

September 14, 2006


OMAHA, Neb. --

A man was sentenced on Thursday to up to 45 years in prison for a shooting in 2004.

Brandon Jones appeared before Judge John Hartigan on Thursday afternoon.

Prosecutors said Jones shot the victim several times. The judge said Jones involvement in a shooting at Terri Lynn's Coffee Shop last year affected his decision to sentence Jones on this shooting. Hartigan told Jones that he was a danger to the community and he hoped the sentence would send a message to other gang members.

Jones will serve at least 20 years.

Jones admitted last year in an interview with KETV NewsWatch 7 that he was a gang member but said he hoped to get out of the lifestyle.

Jones was found not guilty last week related to the coffee shop shooting.

Jones lawyer said she'll appeal Hartigan's decision to the Nebraska Supreme Court. The attorney said it is inappropriate for the judge to consider the coffee shop shooting.

"The jury found he was not involved in that shooting (but) he used that to sentence Brandon, and I think that's in appropriate," said attorney Susan Bazis.

Omaha Boys and Girls Club counselor Alberto Gonzales helps children get out of gangs in Omaha. He said the judge's decision should be a wakeup call to gangsters.

"These folks aren't playing around. They're going to make individuals who commit any type of crime -- especially if its gang-related -- they're going to make you serve your time," Gonzales said.

Previous Stories:
September 5, 2006: Jury Finds Man Not Guilty In Coffee Shop Shooting
December 27, 2005: Coffee Shop Closing After 2 Shootings
June 22, 2005: Jones Will Stand Trial In Coffee Shop Shooting
May 23, 2005: As Bond Set, Teen Denies Coffee Shop Shooting
May 20, 2005: Police: Jones Responsible For Coffee Shop Shooting
May 16, 2005: Coffee Shop Owner Recounts Friday Shooting
May 16, 2005: Police Needs Tips About Coffee Shop Shooting
May 24, 2005: Jones: I Had Nothing To Do With Coffee Shop Shooting
May 2, 2005: Most Wanted: Jones Wanted For Assault
June 7, 2004: Most Wanted: Jones May Have Been At 2 Shootings
http://www.ketv.com/news/9851393/detail.html

[Common Sense]

Crips member guilty of killing old friend

Wednesday, September 13, 2006
BY WILLIAM KLEINKNECHT
Star-Ledger Staff
Newwark, NJ

Quran Goodman and Rashon Bryant were lifelong friends who grew up in the same Newark neighborhood never guessing conflicting gang loyalties would one day make them mortal enemies.

Goodman, known as "Killa Black," was a Crip, and Bryant became a Blood in prison, putting them on a collision course when Bryant got out and sought to reclaim his drug territory.

The two came face to face on an Irvington street corner, with Goodman pointing a gun at his old friend. "Do what you gotta do," Bryant said, according to testimony in Superior Court in Newark.

Yesterday, Goodman, 26, was found guilty of shooting Bryant to death with eight shots from a .40-caliber handgun as the two stood at the corner of Hopkins Place and Ellis Avenue on July 4, 2004.

Dawn Simonetti, the Essex County assistant prosecutor who handled the case, said she does not know what made Bryant, 25, think he could survive dealing drugs in the middle of Crip territory.

"Rashon was able to sell drugs on that corner before he went to prison because he was unaffiliated and he was Quran's friend," she said. "Quran was trying to persuade Rashon to become a Crip, but he never did."

She said Bryant's mother told her Goodman was in her Newark home so often she practically raised him. She even displayed a picture of Goodman sleeping on her couch, Simonetti said.

Bryant served four years in prison on drug charges. On the night he was killed, he had been out of prison for eight days and had gone to his old corner to sell drugs, Simonetti said. She said he planned to talk to Goodman.

In the two-week trial before Judge John Kennedy, Simonetti relied on the testimony of two female eyewitnesses, one of whom had purchased drugs from Bryant just before the shooting and the other an onlooker standing nearby.

Both testified nervously with Goodman -- tear drops tattooed under each eye -- sitting a few feet away at the defense table with his attorney, John Haggerty.

And they had reason to be skittish.

Simonetti said she introduced evidence that Goodman, after his arrest, had sent a note to another jail inmate, Bloods gang member Naim "Murda" Jones, who is his first cousin. The note asked Jones for help in eliminating the witness who was the onlooker, the prosecutor said.

"I just got indicted," Simonetti quoted the note as saying. "You're my only hope. I need you to reach out to those mean streets and work your numbers."

To the note, Goodman attached a copy of the witness' statement with her name, address and phone number, she said.

Simonetti said the documents were discovered in Jones' jail cell and turned over to the prosecutor's office. She said the case was the product of strong investigative work by the prosecutor's homicide squad and Irvington Detective Harold Wallace. She said DNA analysis proved that Goodman licked the letter given to Jones and a handwriting expert testified that the writing was Goodman's.

Simonetti said Jones was called as a defense witness and appeared in court with the words "187 CK" tattooed on his neck. She said "CK" stands for "Crip Killer." Goodman apparently felt he could reach out to a member of a rival gang because he was his first cousin, she said.

Goodman was convicted of murder and weapons offenses and is to be sentenced on Dec. 1. Simonetti said she would seek a penalty of 30 years to life because the defendant has previous convictions for drugs and gun possession.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/essex/ind ... xml&coll=1

[Common Sense]

Gang member convicted of killing 9-year-old girl

ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 12, 2006 (late entry)

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A gang member whose errant bullets killed a 9-year-old girl has been convicted of first-degree murder, a crime for which prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.

Authorities said 26-year-old Pascual Lozano, a member of the Donna Street Crips gang, was one of six men in a car on Civic Center Drive in North Las Vegas in 2002 when the group noticed a rival gang member urinating on the street nearby.

A gang sign was flashed between the two parties, and authorities said Lozano emerged from the car with a high-powered handgun, shooting at his intended target, Robert Valentine.

Instead, bullets from the gun cut down Genesis Gonzalez, 9, as she played with her sisters and other children in the apartment complex. Her 8-year-old sister, Heidi, was also struck by a bullet but survived.

Clark County prosecutors praised the verdict, reached by a jury on Monday.

"Without any doubt, he was the one," said prosecutor Vicki Monroe. "We got the only verdict that was appropriate."

Monroe said she would ask jurors to impose a sentence of death.

"It's going to be up to the jurors, but we're going to ask for it," Monroe said.

Lozano first went to trial in 2003. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. But District Judge John McGroarty reversed the sentence and conviction, finding a juror engaged in misconduct. The ruling prompted Lozano's second trial.

In addition to the murder charge, Lozano was convicted Monday of two counts of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon and one count of battery.

A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Tuesday. The jury had the option of sentencing him to death, life in prison without parole or life in prison with parole eligibility.

Defense attorney Bret Whipple said he hoped that jurors kept an open mind when considering Lozano's punishment. He said the killing of Genesis was not intentional, and that he would ask jurors to avoid taking their personal feelings about gang violence out on Lozano.

But jurors were also expected to hear about a litany of prior criminal arrests and convictions, including that Lozano shot three people in another gang shooting in 2001.

Lozano was released from prison 14 months before Genesis was slain.

Her sisters, Tannia, 14, and Heidi, now 12, were expected to testify at the sentencing hearing.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stori ... 10014.html

[Common Sense]

Gang member sentenced for shooting officer

Tribune staff report
September 19, 2006
Chicago, IL

A federal judge has sentenced a Chicago gang member who shot a Chicago police officer in 2001 to 31 years in prison.

Derrick White, 35, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo. The accused member of the Black Disciples ran security for the gang's drug operations along South Federal Street, Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Alesia said.

White was convicted earlier this year of engaging in a drug conspiracy and committing violent acts. He shot the officer outside a drug house, authorities said.

White was charged in a sweeping federal drug case brought against the street gang in 2004. The convicted "king" of the gang, Marvel Thompson, is to be sentenced next month.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/cust ... wsroom-hed

[MMRbkaRudog]

Yeah im from Minneapolis I read about that 1st post of yours. Thats a trip about the Sureno S.A. who sniched on his two homies and then it turned around that his two homies got acquitted and he'll be stuck doing a 12 piece in prison. lol thats cold. But it goes to show keep yo damn mouth shut. He thought he was gonna get a sweet deal by rattin and hoped his homies would get banked with life. Now they laughin at his ass while their free and he's in the pen gettin whooped on by his own homies and the Kings. Because unlike Cali the mexican gangs dont get along in prison. Shoulda kept his damn mouth shut.

It's ese, not S.A.. You think Califas Mexican gangs get along in prison?

[Common Sense]

Gang leader sentenced to life in witness killing

By DENISE LAVOIE,
September 28, 2006
Boston, Mass

The leader of a North Shore gang was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for ordering the murder of a 19-year-old woman to stop her from talking to police about the gang's criminal activities.

Paul A. DeCologero, 47, was convicted in March for ordering the November 1996 killing of Aislin Silva.

Prosecutors said Silva ordered members of his gang, the "DeCologero Crew," to kill Silva after police found some guns her boyfriend, Stephen DiCenso, a member of the gang, had stored in her apartment. When DiCenso told DeCologero that Silva was nervous and would probably cooperate with police, he ordered her killed, according to testimony at his trial.

DeCologero, moments after listening to heart-wrenching statements from the teenager's mother, father and sister, gave a statement of his own, insisting he is innocent and blaming "corrupt" federal agents for his conviction.

"I never had anything to do with hurting Aislin, and my heart goes out to Aislin's family," he said. "I was denied the right to a fair trial."

Silva's father, Joe Silva, later dismissed DeCologero's remarks.

"Paul DeCologero just got life in prison -- what he deserves for what he did," Joe Silva said. "Everything coming out of him was just lies."

Silva's sister, Corissa Wenning, faced DeCologero and described the pain her family has suffered for the past decade while authorities continue to search for her body.

"Do you know what it's like to watch backhoes digging for someone you love?" she said.

U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel sentenced DeCologero to life in prison, plus 25 years on murder, racketeering and firearms charges.

Silva's blood and hair were found in a trash bin behind a Danvers car wash in 1997, but her body has never been found.

Her father said authorities this week resumed a dig behind a Peabody elementary school and found a shovel they believe was used to bury her.

Six members of the gang have been convicted for roles in Silva's slaying.

Derek A. Capozzi, 32, formerly of Beverly, was sentenced last year to 23 years in prison after being convicted of being an accessory to Silva's murder for helping dismember her body and hide the parts.

DeCologero also was convicted on federal racketeering charges for running the gang, which prosecutors said sold drugs and robbed rival drug dealers.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... s_killing/

[Common Sense]

Gang member's death penalty in killing of 2 people upheld

Thursday, October 05, 2006
Associated Press
Ohio

Columbus- A unanimous Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence for a gang member convicted of killing two people in Columbus in 1996.

The court said none of the arguments made by Crips member Robert Bethel in his appeal had any merit.

Bethel, 36, of Columbus, initially pleaded guilty to the murders of James Reynolds and Shannon Hawks to avoid the death penalty, promising to help prosecutors in their case against his co-defendant.

The two were killed because Bethel was worried that Reynolds might be a witness in an unrelated slaying committed by another Crips member, according to Wednesday's court decision. The ruling said Hawks was killed to eliminate her as a witness of Reynolds' murder.

The plea agreement was nullified after Bethel refused to testify against co-defendant Jeremy Chavis. Bethel was sentenced to death after a jury convicted him following a 2003 trial.

Bethel argued that a description he gave of the murders to prosecutors in his plea deal should not have been used against him at trial.

However, the court said the plea agreement was clear that such evidence could be used against him if the terms of the plea deal were violated.

Chavis, 25, was convicted of aggravated murder and is serving life in prison. He was not eligible for the death sentence because he was 17 when the killings occurred.
http://www.cleveland.com/ohio/plaindeal ... xml&coll=2

[Common Sense]

High court upholds gang member conviction

The Associated Press
October 20, 2006

The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a gang member who was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a 2003 shooting in Clarksdale.

Lorenzo Robinson, identified as a member of Mafia Insane Vice Lords Gang, was convicted in Coahoma County in 2005 of aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the death of Andrew Hampton.

Robinson was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.

Robinson originally was charged with aggravated assault after Hampton was shot in October 2002. Nine days before Robinson's trial was to begin, Hampton was fatally shot on July 19, 2003.

Robinson was then charged with conspiracy to kill Hampton and aggravated assault on Peppie Deon Wright, a witness to the slaying.

On appeal, Robinson attacked the judge's decision to allow testimony about his alleged gang activities.

Specifically, Robinson said the trial judge erred in allowing police Sgt. Norman Starks to testify about Robinson's alleged gang connection.

According to the court record, Starks said he concluded from his investigation that Robin and others involved in the shooting were gang members. He testified that the Mafia gang had specific tattoos, distinctive dress and hung out together in a certain area of Clarksdale.

Robinson argued that Starks' testimony was hearsay.

Chief Justice Jim Smith, writing Thursday for the Supreme Court, said Starks "testified to knowledge he received through personal interviews with the parties involved in the shooting incident and others in the local community, as well as knowledge gained through his personal observations during his many years in law enforcement."

Smith said the trial judge did not err in allowing Starks' testimony. Smith said others also testified about Robinson's gang affiliation.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs. ... S/61020009

[yanomas]

I tried to see that video but it was taken off of you tube...

too bad

[Common Sense]

I tried to see that video but it was taken off of you tube...too bad

Which video are you referring to?


Downtown shooting spree sends man to prison
October 27, 2006

Portland, Oregon

A federal judge sentenced a member of the Hoover Crips gang to more than seven years in prison this week for his role in a downtown shooting spree last summer that ended in the death of a fellow gang member.

Deandros Brown, 28, was sentenced to 87 months Wednesday after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The court found that Brown was involved in a gang-related shooting in downtown Portland on Aug. 8, 2005, in which 51 shots were fired by five different weapons. Brown's gang associate, Adrian Bible, was killed.

Brown and others sped off in a van, pursued by police. Brown jumped out of the van and tried to ditch two of the guns used in the shooting.

Judge Gar King ruled that because Brown had possessed or used a firearm in connection with Oregon felonies his criminal history justified a longer sentence. The court, in sentencing Brown, stressed the need for deterrence to criminal conduct involving firearms and public confrontations in Portland.

[Common Sense]

Long Island Gang Member Convicted Of Murdering Suspected Rival

October 31, 2006

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. -- A man identified as a member of the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, street gang was convicted Tuesday of conspiracy and murder in aid of racketeering following a two-week trial in federal court on Long Island.

Josue Otoniel Rubi-Gonzalez, 21, faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced for the killing of Jesus Valentin in Central Islip on June 30, 2003. A sentencing date was not immediately announced.

Prosecutors said Rubi-Gonzalez and two other suspected MS-13 gang members met Valentin during a chance encounter more than three years ago. Valentin was suspected of being a member of the rival Latin Kings street gang, in part because he was wearing a yellow shirt, a color frequently worn by the Latin Kings, prosecutors said.

He was lured into the woods, where he was brutally beaten with a fire extinguisher and a piece of lumber before Rubi-Gonzalez fatally stabbed him with a pocket knife, prosecutors said. The victim's body was hidden in a drain pipe, where it wasn't discovered until Nov. 15, 2003. It was not immediately clear what happened to the two accomplices.

Rubi-Gonzalez and 29 other suspected members of three gangs -- MS-13, the Bloods, and Murder Unit -- were named in a Feb. 4, 2004, indictment, charging them with five murders, a firebombing, multiple assaults, robbery and drug distribution across Long Island. Since then more than 20 members of the MS-13 gang have either pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial.

"This conviction marks the latest success in a series of prosecutions to dismantle street gangs on Long Island and free our communities from the indiscriminate violence they unleash," U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said in a statement.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/10202863/detail.html

[Common Sense]

Man sentenced to life in prison for killing two Columbia youths

November 9, 2006

COLUMBIA, S.C.

(AP) - A man accused of shooting two young people caught in the crossfire of a gang feud was convicted of murder Thursday.
Richland County prosecutors had argued Chris Anthony Liverman, 21, was hunting for a Bloods gang member when he fired 10 times at a porch full of people on Aug. 26, 2004.

Killed instead were 12-year-old Courtney Dixon and 16-year-old Terrence Merchant, neither of whom is thought to have had gang ties, officials said.

Liverman's attorneys, who have said their client was affiliated with the Folk Nation gang, have argued that police arrested the wrong person for the crimes. Tests showed Liverman had no traces of gunshot residue on his hands two hours after the shooting, which proves Liverman didn't fire a gun that night, defense attorney Maxwell Schardt said.

Gang activity was a theme of the trial. In August, Circuit Judge James Johnson Jr. delayed Liverman's trial after jurors said they were concerned gang members might be in the courtroom and expressed concerns for their safety.

After Thursday's verdict, Johnson sentenced Liverman, who also faces charges of criminal sexual conduct with a minor in an unrelated case, to two consecutive life prison terms.
http://dwb.heraldonline.com/scnews/stat ... 6412c.html

[Common Sense]

Hispanic Gang Member Who Drove Gunman Is Convicted of Murder

By Jamie Stockwell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 12, 2007

Virginia

An Arlington County jury convicted a 21-year-old gang member yesterday in the slaying last spring of a member of a rival gang.

The Circuit Court jury deliberated about five hours before it found Ismael Paiz guilty of second-degree murder, malicious wounding by a mob, lynching, participation in a gang and firearms charges. Paiz, an associate of the Latino street gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, faces up to 40 years in prison for the convictions. The jury recommended that he serve 18 1/2 years.

By returning the guilty verdict, the jury agreed that Paiz, of Falls Church, was responsible for the April 27 shooting death of Julio Bonilla, even though Paiz didn't fire the shots that killed Bonilla. According to testimony, Bonilla, 18, was a member of Southside Locos, also known as SSL.

A second SSL member was shot and critically wounded but did not die, prosecutors said.

The prosecution's case during the four-day trial was built on the contention that Paiz, as the driver of a carload of MS-13 members, knew that one of the men had a gun and that the intention that night was to continue a fight with several SSL members. The alleged shooter, Juan Pablo Salamanca Rodriguez, 22, fled to El Salvador immediately after the slaying, prosecutors said. He has been charged in a warrant in connection with the homicide.

Because the shooter escaped arrest, someone had to be the "fall guy," said Blake Woloson, Paiz's attorney.

Paiz "feels morally responsible because he was driving," Woloson said in his closing arguments to the jury yesterday morning. "But that's not the same thing as legally responsible."

The jury disagreed, siding with Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Frank Frio, who painted Paiz as a liar, one who tells "half-truths and who went out [the night of the killing] for the purpose of fighting SSL."

"He was their driver, and he was their backup," Frio told the jury in his closing arguments.

According to testimony, Paiz parked his white Honda near Arlington Mill Community Center and Senior Center the night of April 27. Inside his car were Rodriguez, two of Rodriguez's brothers and Rodriguez's girlfriend. An ongoing dispute with SSL had led earlier in the evening to a "stare-down," in which members of the opposing gangs traded glares, witnesses at a Wakefield High School soccer game testified.

Cars carrying members of both gangs eventually parked near the center in the 900 block of South Dinwiddie Street shortly before 8:30 p.m. Moments later, Rodriguez allegedly fired five or six shots at SSL members as they walked toward him.

"MS-13 was planning this fight," Frio told the jury yesterday. "They had discussed what they were going to do."

Paiz is scheduled to be sentenced in April.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 73_pf.html

[Common Sense]

[align=center]Convicted gang member gets 30 years in prison[/align]

Sue Weibezahl May 23, 2007
Crime & Safety
New York

A former member of Syracuse's Elk Block gang was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison today, but not before spending nearly an hour protesting the charges against him.

Gregory Thomas, 24, was one of five gang members convicted in December on charges of murder and drug trafficking.

Before he was sentenced, he started reading from a sheaf of papers, citing case law and claiming he didn't commit some of the charges he was convicted of.

[Common Sense]

baltimoresun.com
Gang member sentenced
July 24, 2007


A 22-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced to 37 years in federal prison yesterday for his involvement in a violent MS-13 gang that prosecutors have linked to six slayings in Maryland and one in Virginia, the U.S. attorney's office said.

A jury had convicted Oscar Ramos Velasquez of Baltimore and Edgart Alberto Ayala, 29, of Suitland after a six-week trial in Greenbelt. Both were found guilty of several counts that include murder in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise and using firearms in crimes of violence.

"This sentence should send a message to any violent gang member that your acts of violence may have earned you a membership in MS-13, but they will also earn you accommodations inside a prison cell," said Gregory K. Gant, the special agent in charge of the Baltimore field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Prosecutors said the trial showed that Velasquez was among several leaders of the gang that worked in Prince George's and Montgomery counties and enforced rules using guns, baseball bats, machetes, knives and bottles. The prosecutors said victims included gang rivals, people trying to get out of the gang and girlfriends of rival gang members.

Ayala was sentenced to 35 years in prison on June 1. Prosecutors said that 42 MS-13 gang members have been charged with various federal offenses as part of a crackdown in the Washington suburbs. Prosecutors said that 14 have been convicted as part of the racketeering case.

[Common Sense]

Defiant gang member gets life term
Threat hurled at Durham jurors

Matt Dees, Staff Writer
July 2007

DURHAM, NC - Tyrone Dean, having just been convicted of first-degree murder Monday, loudly proclaimed that he would be a Crips gang member "till the casket drop."
He likely will be a prisoner until that day, as Dean was immediately sentenced to life without parole for his role in killing Reginald Diondra Johnson in May 2004.

It was the second trial on the murder charge for Dean. The first one earlier this year resulted in a hung jury.

Dean, 22, loudly and profanely spoke to Superior Court Judge J.B. Allen and threatened jurors, leaving some of them in tears.

"Thanks to y'all for giving that verdict," Dean said as he clapped sarcastically.

Allen snapped, "Be quiet before I slap tape over your mouth."

Dean ignored him and looked directly at the jurors when he said, "Hope you have a nice ride home. I'll have someone following y'all."

Shaken jurors were escorted out of the courthouse by sheriff's deputies.

"Durham is a little bit safer because of this," said Sgt. Jack Cates, head of the Durham police department's homicide unit who testified in the trial.

"Anybody who was in the courtroom today and witnessed [Dean's tirade] would agree."

Dean's gang affiliation loomed large throughout the case, not just at the end.

Cates said several jurors in the first trial said they were intimidated by the presence of presumed gang members in the gallery.

The courtroom was nearly empty Monday, however, with only Dean left to do the threatening.

Dean's attorney, John Fitzpatrick, said he didn't think the outburst would hurt his client's appeal chances.

"Well, I think that's a response of any person who felt they're not guilty in a case," Fitzpatrick said.

"All of a sudden you sentence them to life for a crime they didn't commit. That'll make you react in ways maybe you didn't want to."
Victim not the target

Assistant District Attorney David Saacks has three more people left to try in Johnson's death.

He contended that Dean's .38-caliber pistol fired the fatal shot.

But he also has said that even if it didn't, Dean still was guilty of first-degree murder by virtue of being in a group of people that killed Johnson.

Johnson was not the intended target of the hit, police said.

He crossed Weaver Street to meet a relative. In the darkness, Dean and others who lurked behind the apartment complex thought Johnson was a gang rival.

Two shots struck Johnson outside a housing complex in 2004, but at least 11 were fired, and Cates suggested there could have been many more.

Cates said Saacks told the jury last week that, "He who hunts with the pack is responsible for the kill."

Fitzpatrick rejected that argument and said it was used to cloud jurors' judgment.

"The case shouldn't have been tried on whether or not gangs are bad," Fitzpatrick said.

"The case should have been tried on the facts of this case. I really do believe the jury allowed their hatred of gangs to decide their verdict versus the facts of the case."

Saacks thought the jury made the right decision.

"It's never easy," he said.

"We're not trying to send people to prison for life. But he needs to go. I think it's a safety thing."

Dean was defiant even as he left the courtroom in handcuffs, shouting over the sobs of his mother.

"Think life in prison gonna hurt me?" he yelled.

"I'm still a Crip."

[Common Sense]

Rocky Mountain News

Gang member who shot girl sentenced

By Hector Gutierrez,

August 22, 2007

Brighton, Colorado
A gang member who shot into a group of rivals last year, wounding a teenage girl and severing her spine, was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years in prison.

An Adams County jury convicted Cosme Garcia, 19, in May of attempted murder and using a firearm in a violent crime. Garcia was given 30 years for the attempted murder of Desaree Medina and five years for the second offense.

Medina, who was 18 when she was shot nearly a year ago, is paralyzed from the waist down. She was not the intended target, according to the evidence. Instead, it appeared that her boyfriend, who belonged to a rival street gang and was not hurt, was meant to be hit, according to the victim and other witnesses.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/l ... 26,00.html

[Common Sense]

Fall River gang member sentenced to 20 years

August 23, 2007


FALL RIVER, MASS — Mafioso gang member Nigel Vaughn, 21, formerly of Plymouth Avenue, has been sentenced to serve 18 to 20 years in prison for the April 2005 triple shooting at the former Larry’s Sports Pub, in the Corky Row section of the city.

A jury convicted him of three counts of mayhem, three counts of armed assault to murder and one count of unlawful possession of ammunition. All of his victims survived. A fourth person was grazed in the incident.

District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter said Vaughn will be on probation for 10 years once he is released from state prison, and the sentence should “serve as a warning to drug dealers and gang members about the kinds of sentences we are going to be asking for when they use their illegal firearms.”

The police said Vaughn had attacked four suspected rival crack cocaine dealers.

http://www.projo.com/massachusetts/fall ... 1fb2b.html

[Common Sense]

Gang member sentenced to 104 years for murder


By The Record
2007

STOCKTON - A judge sentenced a reputed Norteno gang member convicted in the 2005 murder of a Stockton father to 104 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

Tony Audencio Ramirez, 30, sat silently as Judge William J. Murray Jr. handed down the sentence, and flashed a quick smile to the gallery as deputies escorted him out of San Joaquin County Superior Court to begin serving the rest of his life in prison for the shooting death of Walter Pineda Torres on Christmas Eve 2005.

"Mr. Ramirez, good luck," Murray said as Ramirez left the courtroom.

Authorities said they questioned Ramirez in the deaths of Chastity Cogo, Carlos Flores Jr. and Hector Holquin after his arrest in Torres' death in February 2006.

Friends and family of Cogo and Holquin filled the courtroom during Ramirez' sentencing and said afterward they want similar, if not quicker, justice if he is found responsible for those killings.

"He tore a lot of people's lives apart and broke so many hearts," said Holquin's mother, Rebecca Toloy of Stockton.

[Common Sense]

My bad ^^^ should be in Kalifornia thread.