Rap lyrics at gang trial
B’klyn’s ‘Bully’ crew faces murder and racketeering charges
The alleged leaders of a violent Brooklyn gang are set to go on trial for killing two rivals and a member of their own ranks — and the jury will be allowed to hear incriminating rap lyrics about why they wanted to take down one of the gang’s targets.
Four reputed members of the “Bully Gang,” which the feds say ran a cruel interstate drug trafficking operation and boasted of its dominance in social media posts and videos, will go on trial starting this week in Brooklyn Federal Court.
The murderous Bedford-Stuyvesant gang trafficked fentanyl, heroin and crack from New York to several Maine stashhouses, recruiting sex workers to help with their drug trade and using violence to keep them in line, according to the feds.
The suspects, who face racketeering and other charges, include Moeleek “Moe Money” Harrell, who’s described as the gang’s leader and co-founder; Derrick “Dee” Ayers, described as a high-ranking member who ran the gang’s drug trafficking operation in Maine; Franklin “Spazz” Gillespie, an alleged enforcer accused of carrying out two murders personally, and Anthony “Biggie” Kennedy, another alleged longtime gang member.
The evidence against the men includes cooperating witness testimony, recorded jail calls, cell phone data, text messages, social media posts — and portions of a rap song, “Who Real As My Gang,” by BG Styx, a deceased member.
“YB’s killer, I’mma drop him,” the song goes, referring to the 2015 killing of Bully Gang co-founder Charles “YB” Williams in Queens.
The judge overseeing the trial, Brian Cogan, wouldn’t include the whole song, which contains generic boasts about violence. He cited a decision by fellow Brooklyn Federal Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall, who ruled that one of the killers of rap icon Jam Master Jay wouldn’t have his lyrics used against him at trial.
Even so, the line about YB is specific enough to stay, since the suspects are accused of conspiring to rub out his killer, Cogan stated.
“Those lyrics allude to a specific criminal motive tied to one of the allegations in this case, and therefore are sufficiently probative,” the judge wrote.
Other allegations include the March 3, 2018, murder of rival “Stukes Crew” member Jonathan Jackson. He opened fire on Bully Gang members at a gender reveal party, only to have Ayers chase him down and shooting him dead on Kings Highway, the feds allege.
In an odd twist, Jackson was hired to kill Bronx mobster Sylvester “Sally Daz” Zottola as part of a plot orchestrated by Zottola’s son, but he was gunned down first. Zottola was killed months later.
The feds are also accusing Gillespie of teaming up with fellow Bully Crew member Mike Hawley to execute another rival from the Stukes Crew, Paul Hoilett, on April 11, 2020.
Hawley drove Gillespie to Buffalo Ave. and Sterling Place, where Gillespie shot Hoilett point-blank from behind, the feds allege.
Four days later, Gillespie and Kennedy killed Hawley in Far Rockaway, Queens, because Gillespie, who was recently released from federal prison and desperate not to return, fretted that Hawley was wanted for Hoilett’s murder, and Hawley getting arrested would lead back to him, the feds say.
Including the four on trial this week, the feds have arrested 53 people so far in connection with the Bully Gang — including two city correction officers at Rikers Island accused of taking bribes to help smuggle K2-soaked papers into the jail. Forty-one have pleaded guilty.
A brazen robber who shot his gun during a Brooklyn store stickup was linked to the violent heist by the chunky diamond earrings adorning his earlobes, federal prosecutors allege.
Ex-con Pierre Hunt, 52, stuck up a Bedford-Stuyvesant store on Jan. 8, training a silver handgun on two workers, according to the feds. Unsatisfied with the $200 in the cash register he asked for more.
When the two terrified workers told him that was all they had, he opened fire, the feds allege.
He aimed his bullet “mere inches away” from one of the workers, and the round ricocheted off the counter and hit a wall, the feds allege in court filings. Hunt fled the Lewis Ave. store, then walked north a block to his getaway vehicle, toward Putnam Ave.
But that car, a Nissan Rogue with mismatched side mirrors, stood out. As did his diamond earrings.
A week later, cops pulled Hunt over in the same Nissan for a traffic infraction, and body camera footage from the cop who gave him a summons showed he was wearing what appeared to be the same jewelry, according to court filings.
During the traffic stop, he gave the officer a driver’s license with a Staten Island address.
Cell phone data showed Hunt’s phone making the trip from Staten Island to the neighborhood where the robbery took place that day, the feds say.
Meanwhile, license plate readers by the Verrazzano Bridge caught his car crossing into Brooklyn less than an hour and a half before the robbery, and heading back to Staten Island an hour after.
Hunt was arrested on federal robbery charges earlier this week. The case is federal because the store deals in interstate commerce, according to the feds.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Noble argued in a letter to Brooklyn Federal Court Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo that the robbery showed “wanton disregard” for the community’s safety.
“Simply because they had the misfortune to be working that day, two New Yorkers trying to make a living found themselves facing down the barrel of the defendant’s gun,” he wrote. “This conduct deeply affects the hardworking store owners and employees who are entitled to work in places where they need not fear for their lives, and whose livelihood depends upon community members feeling safe to patronize their local shops.”
Hunt has served time before for robberies. He spent a year behind bars in connection with a pair heists in 2015 when he served as the getaway driver in a gas station holdup and a wine store robbery, prosecutors say.
He also spent 18 months behind bars for a 2017 felony drug conviction.
Kuo on Tuesday ordered Hunt released to home detention, with an ankle monitor, on $100,000 surety bond.
His lawyer did not return a request for comment on the case.