Father and reputed patriarch of 110ers gang testifies against sons at trial

By Helen Freund, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
January 22, 2015 at 7:16 PM, updated January 23, 2015 at 10:43 AM

Antonio “Big Rico” Johnson, pausing frequently to wipe away tears, sat facing an Orleans Parish jury Thursday (Jan. 22) while telling them of how his son, stepson and two of their friends opened fire on a unsuspecting group of partygoers in Central City on May 29, 2012, killing a five-year-old girl and a 33-year-old woman.

The gunfire, meant for a group of rival gang members, struck and killed little Briana Allen, who was standing on the porch of a home in the 1200 block of Simon Bolivar Avenue, celebrating her 10-year-old cousin’s birthday. Stray gunfire fatally wounded Shawanna Pierce, 33, who was struck in the forehead by a bullet blocks away, while driving to return a rental car in the Central Business District.

Johnson, shackled and dressed in black prison garb, sat opposite from his son Demond “Lil D” Sandifer and stepson Sam “Lil” Newman while telling jurors that the two men and their co-defendant Tyron “T-7” Harden were members of a violent 10th and 11th Ward street gang known as the 110ers.

Harden, 21, Newman, 19, and Sandifer, 19, are on trial this month facing charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of Allen and Pierce, along with a litany of other charges including conspiracy to engage in racketeering activity, conspiracy to discharge firearms during crimes of violence, armed robbery, weapons violations and multiple murders.

Another man, Stanton “Nan Nan” Guillory, also is accused in the double-murder, but is being tried separately from his co-defendants.

The group were named in a sprawling, 34-page racketeering indictment announced by Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office a year after the murders.

The group is said to have been involved in a violent turf war with other gangs, including the Get Money Boyz from the 12th Ward and the Young Melph Mafia from the 3rd Ward, who prosecutors say were the intended targets on the evening Allen and Pierce lost their lives in the gun barrage.