Feds: 5 charged with 2018 city murder
BRIDGEPORT — Five people were charged as part of an ongoing Bridgeport murder investigation, stemming from a 2018 killing and other “violent acts,” federal authorities said.
Henry “Mills” Floy, 21, of Bridgeport; Shakale “Charlie Wilson” Brantley, 20, of Bridgeport; Antoine Sistrunk, 21, of Charlotte, N. C., formerly of Bridgeport; Ta’Ron “250” Pharr, 20, of Bridgeport; and Jaylen “Jay- Dot” Wilson, 21, of Ansonia and Derby, were charged on the federal criminal complaint.
Court documents allege that the FBI, ATF, DEA and Bridgeport police are actively investi
gating members of the Original North End — also known as ONE — a group based in the Trumbull Gardens area of Bridgeport, according to a news release from the office of U. S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham.
The members of ONE “are involved in narcotics trafficking and numerous acts of violence, including murder,” the news release said.
The murder the five have been charged in connection with is the Aug. 13, 2018, fatal shooting of 25- year- old Len Allen Smith while he was in a parked car on Union Avenue. A woman, also in the car, was seriously wounded.
Surveillance video from the area showed the shots were fired from a white Jeep Grand Cherokee that pulled up next to the car and fled, officials said. About three hours later, that Jeep was found in Indian Well State Park in Shelton. It had been reported stolen from Newburgh, N. Y., on Aug. 9, 2018.
A purse that belonged to the Jeep’s owner, which was in the Jeep when it was taken, was recovered on Grandview Avenue. Authorities said the owner’s debit card was used at retail locations in Trumbull and Bridgeport.
“It is alleged that Floy, Brantley, Pharr and Wilson stole the Jeep and drove it back to Bridgeport,” the news release said.
After Smith’s murder, they allegedly “attempted to destroy the Jeep and other evidence used in the murder in order to hinder the investigation and prosecution of the murder,” the news release said.
Smith, who lived on Fourth Street, was remembered by friends after his death as a basketball, music and video game lover.
A federal grand jury in Bridgeport returned an indictment March 18, charging Floy, Brantley and Sistrunk with accessory after the fact to murder, “in violation of the Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering statute.” They were arrested on the charged and the investigation continued.
Further investigation indicated Brantley and other ONE members planned and executed robberies of drug dealers, authorities said.
In October 2018 in Bridgeport and in November 2018 in Stratford, Brantley and others allegedly attacked and stole marijuana from a marijuana dealer, authorities said.
After Brantley was arrested in March, and while incarcerated, he allegedly “attempted to solicit others to kill the victim of the marijuana robberies in order to prevent Brantley’s prosecution for those offenses,” the news release said.
A grand jury in New Haven on July 8 returned a superseding indictment adding Pharr and Wilson as defendants to the criminal complaint, and adding additional charges.
Pharr and Wilson were arrested on state charges on July 7. They remain in custody.
The accessory after the fact charge that Floy, Brantley and Sistrunk each face carries a maximum term of 15 years in prison.
Floy, Brantley, Pharr and Wilson are also charged with interstate transportation of stolen property, which carries a maximum term of 10 years in prison.
The superseding indictment also charges Brantley with two counts of interference with commerce by robbery, conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, solicitation of witness tampering and tampering with a witness by threat. Each count carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison.
Officials said this is an ongoing investigation.