Local Crips gang member gets 30-year sentence
A Columbus man was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Thursday for his role in a series of brutal gang-related crimes, including the retribution killing of a rival seven years ago.
Michael Watson, 27, of the Near East Side, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two felony counts, one for a racketeering conspiracy, the other for conspiracy to distribute/possess with intent to distribute cocaine base, according to court documents.
He was one of 19 defendants charged in October 2018 in the case against the Trevitt and Atcheson Crips, a local affiliate of a national gang. Investigators said members of the local gang bought, sold and traded drugs and guns and committed violent acts as part of their criminal enterprise, including five separate murders.
The T&A Crips got their name from the King-lincoln neighborhood where many members lived. The overall charges included counts for murder, attempted murder, drug trafficking and other violent crimes over an eight-year period.
For his part, Watson, also known as “Sosa,” traveled numerous times to T&A “trap houses” in Portsmouth and in Huntington, West Virginia, to sell drugs, court documents show.
Watson also.admitted his involvement in the shooting death of Marvin Ector, a member of the rival Milo Bloods gang, in December 2013 while Ector was in a car at a Near East Side gas station.
“These revenge murders – killing one another over `disrespect’ – have got to stop,” U.S. Attorney David M. Devillers said in a released statement Thursday. “The only results are being killed yourself or spending much of, if not all of, the rest of your life in federal prison.”
U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson announced Watson’s sentence Thursday.
A day earlier, sentencing in a separate case involving a T&A Crips defendant was postponed after that individual asked to withdraw his earlier guilty plea.
Charles Carson, 25, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a single felony racketeering conspiracy count for his involvement in the killing of Quincy Story, a 19-year-old rival gang member, in January 2015, among other criminal acts.
In a handwritten letter to Judge Watson earlier this month, Carson asked to withdraw his plea and replace his attorneys.
“The only reason I changed my plea to guilty was not because of guilt but out of fear and coercion from my attorney,” Carson wrote. “… I am innocent of these charges….”
After discussion in court Wednesday, Judge Watson agreed to allow Carson’s attorneys to withdraw and planned to appoint new legal counsel. The judge left Carson’s plea agreement pending, for now. mkovac@dispatch.com @Ohiocapitalblog