JASON HANFORD, ) Aka “Fish,”

88 Pages·2010·0.19 MB·English

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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February 2010 Grand Jury
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) CR No.
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Plaintiff, ) I N D I C T M E N T
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v. ) [18 U.S.C. § 1962(d):
14 ) Conspiracy to Engage in
GARY WHITE, ) Racketeering Activity; 18
15 aka “JC,” ) U.S.C. § 1959: Violent Crimes
aka “Big J-Killa” ) in Aid of Racketeering; 21
16 aka “Big Killa,” ) U.S.C. § 846: Conspiracy to
KEVIN ELEBY, ) Distribute Cocaine, Cocaine
17 aka “L,” ) Base in the Form of Crack
LEE HENDERSON, ) Cocaine, Heroin, and
18 aka “Lee-Dog,” ) Marijuana; 18 U.S.C.
LAVERT LITTLETON, ) § 924(c)(1): Use and Carry a
19 aka “Weedamac,” ) Firearm During and In Relation
aka “Pee Wee,” ) to, and Possess a Firearm in
20 aka “Chili Sauce,” ) Furtherance of, a Crime of
JERMAINE HARDIMAN, ) Violence and a Drug
21 aka “J-Killa,” ) Trafficking Crime; 21 U.S.C.
LESCO WOOTEN, ) § 860: Distribution and
22 aka “Too Tall,” ) Manufacturing of Narcotics in
aka “D-Bo,” ) and Near Schools, Playgrounds,
23 JOHN JAMAR TERRELL, ) and Public Housing Facilities;
aka “G-Sta,” ) 21 U.S.C. § 856(a)(1):
24 LYNN MCGRUDER, ) Maintaining a Drug-Involved
aka “Sweets,” ) Premises; 21 U.S.C.
25 aka “PZ,” ) §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(C):
aka “Pony Loc,” ) Distribution and Possession
26 ANTHONY HILL, ) with Intent to Distribute
aka “Dr. Dirt,” ) Heroin, Cocaine, and Cocaine
27 aka “Dirt,” ) Base in the Form of Crack
STEVEN WILLIAMS, ) Cocaine]
28 aka “Baby Ben,” )
aka “Brazy,” )
aka “Little Stevie,” )
1 JASON DAVIS, )
aka “Lil’ G Red,” )
2 aka “G-Thang,” )
LEO RICKEY EVANS, )
3 aka “Lemon Head,” )
aka “Paper,” )
4 ROBBIONTA MONSON, )
aka “Lil’ Rob,” )
5 aka “Fred,” )
STEPHEN PATTERSON, )
6 aka “Lil KO,” )
aka “KO,” )
7 PHILLIP GILLIARD, )
aka “Big Phil,” )
8 BRETT BAILEY, )
aka “BJ,” )
9 DEON DANIELS, )
aka “D,” )
10 aka “Railroad,” )
aka “S-Man,” )
11 CEDRIC CARTER, )
aka “Big Sexy,” )
12 JOSE LEON, )
aka “Beto,” )
13 LUIS ESPINOZA, )
aka “Pelon,” )
14 KEYMONT HOOD, )
aka “Keymonty,” )
15 HERMAN NIXON, )
aka “Money Moe,” )
16 CARLOS IVAN MUNOZ, )
aka “Big Bird,” )
17 DAWAYNE HAROLD WHITE, )
aka “Wayne-Wayne,” )
18 TROY KENSEY, )
aka “Big Droop,” )
19 DEON BULLOCK, )
aka “Bo,” )
20 aka “Bogart,” )
WILLIAM REED, )
21 aka “No-Kutt,” )
DERRICK RAY SEXTON, )
22 aka “Crazy 8,” )
aka “8 Ball,” )
23 JK GRAY, )
aka “Lil Money,” )
24 ANTHONY GABOUREL, )
aka “Bandit,” )
25 RONDALE YOUNG, )
aka “Devil,” )
26 aka “P-Grump,” )
JUSTIN MOORE, )
27 aka “Crispy Strips,” )
RODNEY BOUGERIOUS, )
28 aka “Boxer,” )
NICOLE WILLIAMS, )
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1 JASON HANFORD, )
aka “Fish,” )
2 JOSEFINA VARGAS-LEON, )
BRUCE HOWARD, )
3 aka “BR,” )
DARRIN DENT, )
4 aka “Bo,” )
JOSE PORTILLO, )
5 aka “Cuco,” )
NATALIE PORTILLO, and )
6 TINA MARIE EPPS, )
aka “Tina Tresevant,” )
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Defendants. )
8 ________________________________)
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1 The Grand Jury charges:
2 GENERAL ALLEGATIONS
3 A. The Enterprise
4 1. At all times relevant to this indictment, defendants
5 GARY WHITE, also known as (“aka”) “JC,” aka “Big J-Killa,” aka
6 “Big Killa” (“G. WHITE”); KEVIN ELEBY, aka “L” (“ELEBY”); LEE
7 HENDERSON, aka “Lee-Dog” (“HENDERSON”); LAVERT LITTLETON, aka
8 “Weedamac,” aka “Pee Wee,” aka “Chili Sauce” (“LITTLETON”);
9 JERMAINE HARDIMAN, aka “J-Killa” (“HARDIMAN”); LESCO WOOTEN,
10 aka “Too Tall,” aka “D-Bo” (“WOOTEN”); JOHN JAMAR TERRELL,
11 aka “G-Sta” (“TERRELL”); LYNN MCGRUDER, aka “Sweets,” aka “PZ,”
12 aka “Pony Loc” (“MCGRUDER”); ANTHONY HILL, aka “Dr. Dirt,”
13 aka “Dirt” (“HILL”); STEVEN WILLIAMS, aka “Baby Ben,” aka
14 “Brazy,” aka “Little Stevie” (“S. WILLIAMS”); JASON DAVIS, aka
15 “Lil’ G Red,” aka “G-Thang” (“DAVIS”); LEO RICKEY EVANS, aka
16 “Lemon Head,” aka “Paper” (“EVANS”); ROBBIONTA MONSON, aka “Lil’
17 Rob,” aka “Fred” (“MONSON”); STEPHEN PATTERSON, aka “Lil KO,” aka
18 “KO” (“PATTERSON”); PHILLIP GILLIARD, aka “Big Phil”
19 (“GILLIARD”); BRETT BAILEY, aka “BJ” (“BAILEY”); DEON DANIELS,
20 aka “D,” aka “Railroad,” aka “S-Man” (“DANIELS”); CEDRIC CARTER,
21 aka “Big Sexy” (“CARTER”); JOSE LEON, aka “Beto” (“JOSE LEON”);
22 LUIS ESPINOZA, aka “Pelon” (“ESPINOZA”); CARLOS IVAN MUNOZ, aka
23 “Big Bird” (“MUNOZ”); DAWAYNE HAROLD WHITE, aka “Wayne-Wayne”
24 (“D. WHITE”); TROY KENSEY, aka “Big Droop” (“KENSEY”); DEON
25 BULLOCK, aka “Bo,” aka “Bogart” (“BULLOCK”); DERRICK RAY SEXTON,
26 aka “Crazy 8,” aka “8 Ball” (“SEXTON”); JK GRAY, aka “Lil Money”
27 (“GRAY”); ANTHONY GABOUREL, aka “Bandit” (“GABOUREL”); RONDALE
28 YOUNG, aka “Devil,” aka “P-Grump” (“YOUNG”); JUSTIN MOORE, aka
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1 “Crispy Strips” (“MOORE”); RODNEY BOUGERIOUS, aka “Boxer”
2 (“BOUGERIOUS”); and JASON HANFORD, aka “Fish” (“HANFORD”)
3 (collectively, “defendants”), and others known and unknown to the
4 Grand Jury, were members and associates of an organization
5 engaged in, among other things, conspiracy to traffic in
6 narcotics and controlled substances, murder, conspiracy to commit
7 murder, attempted murder, robbery, extortion, and witness
8 intimidation. This organization, known alternately as the
9 “Pueblo Bishops Bloods,” the “5-2 Pueblo Bishops,” and the “Five-
10 Deuce Pueblo Bishops” (hereinafter referred to as the “Pueblo
11 Bishops” or “PBB”), operated in the Central District of
12 California and elsewhere. The Pueblo Bishops, including its
13 leaders, members, and associates, constituted an “enterprise,” as
14 defined by Title 18, United States Code, Section 1961(4), that
15 is, a group of individuals associated in fact. The Pueblo
16 Bishops engaged in, and its activities affected, interstate and
17 foreign commerce. The Pueblo Bishops constituted an ongoing
18 organization whose members functioned as a continuing unit for a
19 common purpose of achieving the objectives of the enterprise.
20 2. The Pueblo Bishops gang is a multi-generational street
21 gang that was formed in the mid 1970s and claims the area roughly
22 between 51st Street to the north, Slauson Avenue to the south,
23 Alameda Avenue to the east, and Compton Avenue to the west in
24 South Los Angeles, California. Located within this geographical
25 area is the Pueblo Del Rio Housing Project. (The area
26 immediately in and around this housing complex, which is
27 contained within 51st Street to the north, 55th Street to the
28 south, Compton Avenue to the west, and Alameda to the east, is
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1 hereinafter referred to as the “PDRHP”). The Pueblo Bishops gang
2 has approximately 300 active members and associates.
3 3. The PDRHP is a public housing complex that is
4 maintained by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles
5 and funded by moneys from the United States Department of Housing
6 and Urban Development. The complex includes approximately 660
7 units, including a pre-school, elementary school, and playground.
8 4. The PDRHP is also the central location for the Pueblo
9 Bishops’ criminal activities. The Pueblo Bishops dominate the
10 PDRHP, and use it as a central location within which to
11 congregate and from which to sell drugs and firearms, and engage
12 in robberies and violence throughout the surrounding
13 neighborhood. The Pueblo Bishops maintain strict control of the
14 PDRHP by attacking and threatening rival gang members who enter
15 the PDRHP or surrounding area; intimidating and threatening
16 residents of the PDRHP; confronting and attacking law enforcement
17 officers who patrol or respond to calls in the PDRHP; using
18 graffiti, gang signs, and gang paraphernalia within the PDRHP;
19 and maintaining a highly visible and intimidating presence within
20 the PDRHP. Senior members of the Pueblo Bishops exhort younger
21 members to possess and carry firearms, and to violently and
22 swiftly retaliate against rival gang members who venture into the
23 PDRHP without the PBB gang’s permission.1
24 5. The Pueblo Bishops gang was initially formed, at least
25 in part, as a way to protect its members from other gangs in
26 South Los Angeles. Over the years, this purpose has grown in
27 scope, so that the core objective of protecting the PDRHP has
28 changed to encompass, among other things, drug trafficking, gun
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1 trafficking, armed robbery, extortion, and murder.
2 6. Members of the Pueblo Bishops are organized into two
3 main groups -- the “original gangstas,” or the “OGs,” and the
4 “young gangstas,” or the “YGs.” OGs and senior YGs control the
5 business of the gang by imposing mandates on young members. OGs
6 and senior YGs also control the gang by ordering the gang’s
7 members to participate in armed robberies and murders, supplying
8 Pueblo Bishops gang members with narcotics for resale,
9 instructing Pueblo Bishops gang members on how to avoid police
10 detection, instructing Pueblo Bishops gang members on how to arm
11 themselves and defend their territory in and around the PDRHP,
12 and determining who can become members of the Pueblo Bishops.
13 7. The Pueblo Bishops gang is generally only open to
14 membership by African-American males. Young men who seek to
15 become members of the gang must first “put in work,” by
16 conducting violent and drug-related reputation-building acts
17 before being invited into membership. Once a prospective member
18 is deemed qualified to join the gang, the prospect must be
19 “jumped in” by other Pueblo Bishops members. This will generally
20 involve ordering the prospective member to fight one or more
21 already-initiated PBB members for a set period of time.
22 8. The Pueblo Bishops hold an important annual celebration
23 on May 2, known as “Five-Deuce Day” (in reference to 52nd Street,
24 a symbolic thoroughfare within the gang’s territory). Members
25 are required to attend Five-Deuce Day, and risk severe
26 discipline, in the form of beatings or theft, and/or the loss of
27 gang status, if they do not attend. At Five-Deuce Day
28 celebrations, members engage in gang activities like “jumping-in”
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1 new members, recognizing deceased/incarcerated members, placing
2 graffiti in and around the PDRHP, and disparaging rival gangs.
3 Outside of Five-Deuce Day, members of the Pueblo Bishops are also
4 required to attend ad hoc meetings called by OGs and senior YGs.
5 9. All active members of the Pueblo Bishops gang engage in
6 either armed robbery or in drug trafficking, or both. Those who
7 engage in drug trafficking purchase cocaine, which they later
8 convert into cocaine base in the form of crack cocaine (“crack
9 cocaine”), and heroin from other gang members who have drug
10 trafficking connections. Pueblo Bishops members generally sell
11 drugs to addicts who visit the parking lots within the PDRHP.
12 Members of the gang do not allow non-members and non-associates
13 of the gang to sell drugs within the PDRHP, and will violently
14 punish those who attempt to do so. Those members who engage in
15 armed robbery use guns to take property from nearby residents and
16 pedestrians, stores, and banks. OGs and senior YGs encourage gun
17 use and possession in order to facilitate these activities as
18 well as to protect PBB gang territory.
19 10. Pueblo Bishops gang members generally identify one
20 another through the use of hand gestures, or gang "signs." They
21 typically display the letter "P" for Pueblo, by making a fist,
22 and then point their thumb down, and a letter "B" for Bishops, by
23 making a circle with the index finger and thumb of their other
24 hand, with the remainder of their fingers pointing straight up
25 completing the letter "B." Gang members frequently wear the
26 baseball cap of the Philadelphia Phillies, whose team insignia
27 includes a "P," for Pueblo, and whose color is red, for "Bloods."
28 Gang members also wear the baseball cap of the Pittsburgh
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1 Pirates, whose team insignia includes a "P" for Pueblo. Gang
2 tattoos, gang names, and slogans are also used to identify
3 members and territory controlled by the gang.
4 11. The Pueblo Bishops use spray-painted "tagging" to
5 demonstrate control of their neighborhood to rival gang members
6 and the local community. Pueblo Bishops tagging is evident
7 throughout the area in and around the PDRHP. Members will use
8 the letters "PBB" for Pueblo Bishop Bloods and "52PB" for Five
9 Deuce Pueblo Bishops. Members are also known to tag letters and
10 numbers of rival gangs, and then cross them out, in a show of
11 disrespect to the rival gang. Members do this to issue
12 challenges to rival gang members and to communicate among Pueblo
13 Bishops gang members. Members generally engage in tagging not
14 only to identify territory claimed by the Pueblo Bishops gang,
15 but also to warn and/or terrorize members of the public and
16 law-abiding residents of the neighborhoods with threats that the
17 neighborhood is under control of the Pueblo Bishops gang.
18 12. The Pueblo Bishops gang does have rivals throughout
19 South Los Angeles, the most prominent of which is the 38th Street
20 gang. The Pueblo Bishops’ enemies also include the Swan and
21 Florencia-13 gangs. In an ongoing effort to assert dominance and
22 power over these rival street gangs, Pueblo Bishops members are
23 strongly encouraged to engage in shootings, beatings, murders,
24 and attempted murders directed at members of these rival gangs.
25 B. PURPOSES OF THE ENTERPRISE
26 13. The purposes of the Pueblo Bishops gang included, but
27 were not limited to, the following:
28 a. Enriching members and associates of the Pueblo
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1 Bishops gang through, among other things, the control of and
2 participation in the distribution of narcotics within the PDRHP,
3 as well as through engaging in armed robberies of local citizens,
4 businesses, and banks.
5 b. Maintaining the control and authority of the
6 Pueblo Bishops gang over the PDRHP, often through threats,
7 intimidation, and acts of violence against local residents and
8 rival gangs.
9 c. Promoting and enhancing the Pueblo Bishops gang
10 members and its members’ and associates’ activities.
11 d. Exposing and punishing Pueblo Bishops gang members
12 and associates, as well as potential witnesses to crimes
13 committed by Pueblo Bishops gang members, who are suspected of
14 cooperating with law enforcement.
15 e. Violently retaliating against rival gang members
16 who challenge the Pueblo Bishops’ authority both inside and
17 outside the PDRHP.
18 C. THE MEANS AND METHODS OF THE ENTERPRISE
19 14. The means and methods by which the defendants and their
20 associates conducted and participated in the conduct of the
21 affairs of the Pueblo Bishops gang included the following:
22 a. Members and associates of the Pueblo Bishops gang
23 committed, attempted, and threatened to commit acts of violence
24 to protect and expand the enterprise’s criminal operation,
25 including assaults, murders, acts of intimidation, and threats of
26 violence directed against rival gang members and witnesses in
27 criminal cases, and to violently discipline insubordinate members
28 of the enterprise.
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