TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that a member of the Nine Trey
Headbustas set of the Bloods street gang
has pleaded guilty to racketeering for his
role in a gang-related murder in New Brunswick
in 2008.
According
to Director Taylor, Davon Parker, 22, of
Edison, pleaded guilty late Friday, Nov.
19, to first-degree racketeering before
Superior Court Judge Kevin G. Callahan in
Hudson County. In pleading guilty, Parker
admitted that, acting on behalf of the gang,
he assisted co-defendants Syree Hakins and
Tyrane Mathis in the murder of fellow gang
member Devin Thompson, 19, who was fatally
shot on Nichol Avenue in New Brunswick on
June 2, 2008. Parker admitted that he assisted
in planning and carrying out the shooting.
Murder charges are pending against Hakins
and Mathis. Thompson’s friend Christopher
Whitsett was shot in the back but survived.
Under
the plea agreement, the state will recommend
that Parker be sentenced to 12 to 15 years
in state prison. He must serve 85 percent
of the sentence imposed without possibility
of parole under the No Early Release Act.
Parker is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb.
11. Supervising Deputy Attorney General
Lauren Scarpa Yfantis took the guilty plea
for the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs
& Organized Crime Bureau.
Parker,
Hakins and Mathis were charged in a Nov.
4, 2010 state grand jury indictment obtained
by the Division of Criminal Justice, which
charged the alleged leader of the Nine Trey
Headbustas, Michael Anderson, and 18 other
members and associates of the gang with
first-degree racketeering. Anderson, 38,
allegedly led the gang from New Jersey State
Prison in Trenton. The crime of racketeering
carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in
state prison. Anderson and Hakins are also
charged in separate counts with promoting
organized street crime, which carries a
sentence of 15 to 30 years in state prison.
The
indictment stems from “Operation Hardhat,”
an investigation that began in 2007 and
was conducted by the New Jersey Department
of Corrections Special Investigation Division,
the State Police Street Gang North Unit,
the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs &
Organized Crime Bureau, the Middlesex County
Prosecutor’s Office and the New Brunswick
Police Department. They were assisted by
the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office,
Essex County Prosecutor’s Office,
Jersey City Police Department, Newark Police
Department, Paterson Police Department and
other law enforcement agencies.
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