| TRENTON – Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that an Edison man has been sentenced to state prison for participating in a gang-related murder in New Brunswick in 2008.
On Tuesday, Dec. 4, Davon Parker, 24, of Edison, was sentenced to 12 years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Kevin G. Callahan in Hudson County. He must serve at least 10 years without parole under the No Early Release Act. Parker pleaded guilty to first-degree racketeering on Nov. 19, 2010.
In pleading guilty, Parker, a member of the Nine Trey Headbustas set of the Bloods street gang, 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. Thompson’s friend Christopher Whitsett was shot in the back but survived.
Deputy Attorney General Lauren Scarpa Yfantis, Deputy Chief of the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau, prosecuted the case and represented the state at the sentencing.
Hakins and Mathis also pleaded guilty to first-degree racketeering in connection with the murder. They were sentenced by Judge Callahan on March 3, 2011. Hakins, 40, of West Orange, was sentenced to 16 years in prison, including 13 ½ years of parole ineligibility. Mathis, 36, of Newark, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, including 10 years of parole ineligibility. Hakins admitted that he ordered Thompson’s murder. Mathis admitted that, acting on behalf of the gang, he participated in Thompson’s murder.
Parker, Hakins and Mathis were charged in a 2010 state grand jury indictment obtained by the Division of Criminal Justice, which charged the leader of the Nine Trey Headbustas, Michael Anderson, and 18 other members and associates of the gang with first-degree racketeering. Anderson led the gang from New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. The indictment stemmed 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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