Skip to main content

Judge this morning rejected a plea deal for 28-year-old Futo Charles, an alleged Top 6 gang member


Judge this morning rejected a plea deal for 28-year-old Futo Charles, an alleged Top 6 gang member charged with racketeering, part of a statewide strategy to put gangs out of business.Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Todd Weicholz told Circuit Judge Karen Miller that Charles had given three cooperating statements to the prosecutors, and in exchange was offered a deal of eight years in prison followed by five years probation.Miller immediately declared she would not accept the deal in light of sentences she has handed out in other Top 6 cases. Miller sentenced each of two other accused members — Ernst Exavier and Jessee Thomas — to a quarter-century in prison earlier this year following their convictions on the charge.The lawyers set Futo Charles for another court date in April, following the next trial of an alleged Top 6 member, 23-year-old Wilbertson Noelzinord.Exavier and Thomas' conviction was the first significant victory in Palm Beach County for statewide prosecutors now applying racketeering laws to dismantle criminal gangs.
Defense attorneys for Exavier and Thomas argued at their sentencing that it was a case of guilt by association, that the men never had admitted to being members of the gang, and if they were involved at all, it was as lesser players. Exavier testified his only intention was to make music with Top 6.
Futo, Exavier and Thomas are among 12 alleged Top-6 gang members arrested within the past year during a coordinated operation by the attorney general's office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and the Lantana and Boynton Beach police departments.Attorney Gerald Salerno, who represented Exavier, said in 17 years of practicing criminal law he had never seen a case like this one with a huge investigative effort but thin evidence. Salerno offered the example of Exavier's song lyrics about pushing kilos of cocaine being prominently emphasized at trial. "Despite that we never saw one shred of evidence" of any drugs, he said.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Timothy “Fuzzy” Timms, a 45-year-old member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle club, stood up Monday for his First Amendment right to freedom of expressi

Timothy “Fuzzy” Timms, a 45-year-old member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle club, stood up Monday for his First Amendment right to freedom of expression. Timms, a resident of the San Diego community of South Park, refused to take off a black leather vest with the motorcycle club's “death's head” insignia when he reported for jury duty. He's a big burly man, 5 feet 8 inches, 250 pounds, with a full beard and auburn-colored, shoulder-length hair. At 7:45 a.m., Timms' stance got him booted from the San Diego Superior Court's Hall of Justice by sheriff's deputies, along with another Hells Angel who also refused to remove his insignia vest. Nine hours later, representatives of both the Superior Court and the sheriff's department apologized to Timms and club member Mick Rush for “misunderstanding” an order issued April 24 by Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser. Rush also had been reporting for jury duty. “It all boils down to a misunderstanding of Judge Fraser'
Post a Comment
Read more

LaAunzae was a Vice Lord, and Donald Ragland was a Gangster Disciple

2005 execution-style murder in Frayser was a case marked by "gangs, guns and death." And not incidentally, they added, there was an element of revenge when defendant Donald Ragland Jr. shot 26-year-old LaAunzae Grady three times in the back on a cold December afternoon outside of St. Elmo's Market."He didn't have a problem taking this job, because LaAunzae had killed his brother five or six years before this," gang unit prosecutor Ray Lepone told a Criminal Court jury. "LaAunzae was a Vice Lord, and Donald Ragland was a Gangster Disciple."Asst. Public Defender Trent Hall said prosecutors would not be able to prove their case and asked jurors to acquit Ragland, 27, of first-degree murder.On Wednesday, jurors watched a surveillance video from the store that showed an apparently nervous Grady looking out the front door of the store several times before finally leaving.A half-dozen loud gunshots then quickly follow, though the shooting on the outside p
Post a Comment
Read more

William Crompton Maclean, was a Hells Angels associate who was riding in a procession of Hells Angels when he was shot to death.

Jessica Andrea Gordon, 20, pleaded not guilty to charges of being an accessory after the fact, one count of shooting at an occupied vehicle, one count of permitting another person to shoot from a vehicle, and two counts of possessing Ecstasy and cocaine.The alleged gunman, 20-year-old Joseph Andrew Farnsworth of El Cerrito, also appeared in court Wednesday seeking an opportunity to post bail. Farnsworth has been held without bail since his arrest, and his attorneys asked Judge Kelly Simmons to set his bail at $500,000, citing his family ties in the East Bay. Simmons set the bail at $2 million, and Farnsworth remained in custody Wednesday. Farnsworth has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, one count of shooting a firearm from a vehicle and one count of shooting at an occupied vehicle. Gordon, who is free on bail, was ushered in and out of court through a side door because of the intense security concerns surrounding the case. Sheriff's officials have taken extra safety precauti
1 comment
Read more