Two Virginia man who were part of the conspiracy to sell guns to Trenton gangsters

Two Virginia man who were part of the conspiracy to sell guns to Trenton gangsters, including the one used to kill innocent 13-year-old Tamrah Leonard, were sentenced to probation in Mercer Court today.

Bobby Lee Henderson, 24, of Townsend, and Larry Nottingham, 28, of Eastville, both pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a weapon, Peter Aseltine, spokesman for Attorney General Paula T. Dow, said last month.

The two men admitted they conspired with Trayle Beasley, 30, of Trenton, to buy guns from sources in Virginia and sell them to the hungry gangster market in Trenton.

“Seventy-five percent to the crime guns in New Jersey come from out of state and Virginia is the second biggest source state,” said Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor.

In addition to the Leonard shooting on June 7, 2009 during a block party, Beasley’s conspiracy brought into the city the gun used to kill Tracey Crews, 23, inside his city home on Sept. 12, 2008, Aseltine said.

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mitchel Ostrer sentenced Townsend to four years probation and Henderson to three years probation, in addition to the time served in prison awaiting trial.

Beasley pleaded guilty last month to bringing in 12 guns, including eight handguns, two shotguns, and two rifles.

He faces between 12 and 14 years in prison when sentenced on May 31 in Judge Pedro J. Jiminez Jr.’s court, Aseltine said.

Joliet man already serving 45 years in prison for the murder of an innocent bystander received an additional six years today for abiding by his gang’s code of silence and refusing to testify against an associate gang member.

Joliet man already serving 45 years in prison for the murder of an innocent bystander received an additional six years today for abiding by his gang’s code of silence and refusing to testify against an associate gang member.
 
Robert Meza, 23, was sentenced for “serious direct criminal contempt” by DuPage Judge Kathryn Creswell. Meza refused to testify in the recent trail of Antonio Aguilar, 21, of Addison, for the 2007 murder in Addison of Lorenzo Salazar-Cortez, 22, of Berkeley.
 
Salazar-Cortez was fatally shot as he sat in a friend’s apartment. Prosecutors claimed it was Aguilar who actually fired the fatal shots.

Assistant State’s Attorney Steven Knight said that Meza was obeying his street gang’s code of silence by refusing to testify against Aguilar, who was acquitted of the crime last year by Judge George Bakalis.

The judge said prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence for a conviction and he specifically mentioned Meza’s refusal to testify as a factor in the trial’s outcome.

“You have followed the rules of the gang over that of society,” said Creswell. “Your objective was to further the goals of a street gang. This is particularly senseless because the victim was not a gang member.”

Meza told Creswell that “I am afraid of my safety at Menard” Correctional Center.

He admitted that when he was questioned by Addison police about the shooting he claimed Aguilar and he meant to shoot a rival gang member, but shot into the wrong apartment. But today he claimed that he was innocent of that crime and lied to police to protect a different gang member.

Creswell said previously that state law does not specify any maximum sentence for the contempt “other than reasonable.” But she said she would abide by the plea agreement of no more than 10 years in prison that Meza struck with prosecutors when he pleaded guilty to the contempt charge earlier this year.

When Aguilar’s bench trial before Bakalis began last summer, Meza, convicted of murder in 2008 by a jury, was ordered to testify and was given full immunity from further prosecution by Bakalis, but Meza continually declined.

State law requires Meza to serve 100 percent of the 45-year murder sentence, but only 50 percent of any contempt sentence. Creswell said he should be released when he is 68 years old.

A man has been sentenced to 67 years 4 months, plus 40 years to life, plus life without the possibility of parole for a series of shootings

A man has been sentenced to 67 years 4 months, plus 40 years to life, plus life without the possibility of parole for a series of shootings which occurred between February and March 2005, according to Jan Scully, Sacramento County district attorney.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Helena R. Gweon sentenced Roy Houston on Friday.

Houston was convicted by jury earlier this month for the February 2005 murder of Donald McCall and the attempted murders of Randall Hudson and Joseph McCoy. The jury also found the special circumstance of shooting from a vehicle, personal use of a firearm and gang enhancement to be true, Scully said.

The jury also convicted Houston for attempted voluntary manslaughter with the use of a firearm and the negligent discharge of a firearm in an incident that occurred in March 2005 at the Robertson Center.

In a separate March 2005 incident that occurred at Glenwood Elementary School, Houston was convicted for the attempted murder of Kenneth Bell with the use of a firearm enhancement and shooting at an occupied vehicle that occurred.

The crimes were found be for the benefit of the Del Paso Heights Bloods gang, Scully said.

Wal-Mart to Expand Firearm Sales

Several hundred Walmart stores will be expanding their merchandise to include firearms, and one Tallahassee store is on that list.

 

Mexican drug cartels are being armed with weapons supplied by the U.S., leaked documents show.

The WikiLeaks files, written by U.S. military chiefs, reveal that grenades and light anti-tank weapons seized from drug traffickers in Mexico and Colombia were from the U.S.

A cable entitled ‘Honduras: Military weapons fuel black market in arms’ states that the serial numbers of arms taken from drug gangs coincide with those supplied by the U.S. to the Honduran Armed Forces.


U.S. arms: WikiLeaks file claims weapons seized from Mexican drug gangs were made in America

According to the Defense Intelligence Agency file, the brands and serial numbers seized equipment are the same as a shipment sent to the Second Infantry Battallion in Honduras.

‘The [U.S. Government] has become aware that light anti-tank weapons (LAWs) and grenades supplied to Honduras under the Foreign Military Sales program were recovered in Mexico and Colombia,’ the cable said.

 

‘According to the [Defense Intelligence Agency] report, three light anti-tank weapons (LAWs) were recovered in Mexico City in January 2008, and one was recovered in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in April 2008.’

‘Over 50 per cent of the military-type weapons that are flowing throughout the region have a large source between Central American stockpiles, if you will, left over from wars and conflicts in the past,’ said General Douglas Fraser, the head of the U.S. Southern Command in the memo.

According to the report, in April 2008, an investigation by the Honduran Armed Forces showed that the battalion did not know the whereabouts of 26 pieces of military equipment supplied by the U.S. for training.

The weapons had been sent in 1992 as a part of U.S. military sales to foreign armies.
The leaked cable comes as Mexico explores lawsuits against U.S. gun makers to stem flow of illegal arms.

Gun stores on the border between the U.S. have Mexico have been criticised for their firearms ending up in the hands of drug cartels.

Spreading drug gang violence has claimed more than 34,600 lives in Mexico over the past four years with more than 15,000 deaths last year.

The drug wars have prompted foreign governments, including the U.S., to issue a number of travel warnings for parts of Mexico.

The mother of a 16-year-old Outlook girl who was killed when she answered a knock on the door Thursday night says her daughter was not involved in gangs.

She tells the Yakima Herald-Republic that Diana Lopez was an aspiring veterinarian who liked school, though one of her brothers had served time in jail. The teen was also a mother herself of a 2-year-old girl.

Authorities say the mobile home where Lopez lived was rife with gang activity. Dispatchers have fielded 21 calls involving the residence since 1998, five of them weapons offenses.

Investigators say four people dressed in blue with bandanas over their faces pulled up at the home Thursday night. Lopez was shot once in the side and died on her way to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

21-year-old man was rushed to hospital with a lower body gunshot wound after a shooting on Belisle Street off McArthur Avenue near St. Laurent Boulevard on Saturday afternoon

21-year-old man was rushed to hospital with a lower body gunshot wound after a shooting on Belisle Street off McArthur Avenue near St. Laurent Boulevard on Saturday afternoon, police said. Sgt.

Seth Curtis of the guns and gangs unit said the shooting happened at about 3: 30 p.m. outside of a home on the small dead-end street, and that a warrant was being sought to enter that now-empty home to search for possible evidence. Curtis said the home could have links to the victim, the suspects, or both. No suspects had yet been identified, and the victim, who is known to police, was not co-operating, Curtis said. The victim was in stable condition in hospital on Saturday.

19-year-old woman who was shot in the head in a drive-by shooting late Monday night in south Minneapolis will likely die

19-year-old woman who was shot in the head in a drive-by shooting late Monday night in south Minneapolis will likely die Tuesday, according to her aunt.

Tameka Swoop is in critical condition at Hennepin County Medical Center following the shooting, which happened shortly before 10 p.m. at 3232 Columbus Ave. S.

Swoop was driven to Abbott Northwestern before she was transferred to HCMC.

In an exclusive interview with FOX 9 News, Swoop’s aunt, Lori Madison, said her niece was outside her house when the drive-by shooting occurred. She said Swoop was an innocent bystander and does not know who the shooter was or who the intended target was.

Madison said about five bullets sprayed the house, one hitting Swoop in the head.

Minneapolis police Sgt. Bill Palmer said there is conflicting information in the police report as to what happened.

No suspects are in custody. It’s unknown whether or not the suspect and victims knew each other or if the shooting was gang-related.

Police blocked off streets and called in K-9 units as they searched for a shooting suspect Tuesday night in Washington

Police blocked off streets and called in K-9 units as they searched for a shooting suspect Tuesday night in Washington.
A man was shot on Sycamore Street around 7:30 p.m., police said. A witness described multiple shots being fired.
The shooter fled the scene in a white SUV, which was abandoned a few blocks away, according to investigators. That's where police closed several streets and set up a perimeter as they searched for the suspect. The search was called off shortly before 10 p.m.
The victim was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital.

Police have arrested a second suspect for a murder on Houston's south side in March, but are still looking for additional shooters.

Levelle Dequan Vigne, 18, is in custody and charged with murder. One other suspect, Anthony R. Jenkins, 21, was arrested on April 12 and is also charged with murder in the same court.
Police say officers responded to a shooting call in the parking lot of the Sunflower Terrace Apartments and found a vehicle that had collided with two other vehicles parked in the lot. Officers approached the vehicle and found Craig Robertson, 18, slumped over in the front passenger's seat. Robertson was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses reported seeing a truck drive by them and someone firing shots at them. Moments later, a car drove by and someone from inside fired shots at Robertson's vehicle. The suspects in both vehicles then fled the scene. The pickup truck used in the shooting was recovered a day after the shooting in the 6700 block of Dumble.
The investigation developed information on Jenkins being one suspect in the case and he was arrested two weeks ago. Further investigation identified Vigne as a second suspect in this case. He was arrested on April 25 without incident. He has admitted to investigators his involvement in this incident.
Investigators believe there are other unidentified suspects involved in the shooting.