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Prosecutors, defense lawyers spar in closing arguments in seven-week federal gang trial

Daily Press - 12/5/2019

Dec. 5--To hear federal prosecutors say it, the 36th Street Bang Squad -- a Southeast Newport News street gang -- ran an organized racketeering conspiracy between 2015 and 2017.

The gang defended its turf and committed crimes -- including several killings -- along the way, prosecutors say. Members engaged in retribution, flashed signs of disrespect to other gangs, acquired guns, with at least some in the group dealing drugs, too.

And if someone didn't do "work" -- such as shooting rival gang members -- they could be stripped of their gun, prosecutors say.

"They functioned with a common purpose," said Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Zlotnick, giving closing arguments in a seven-week gang conspiracy case on Wednesday. Zlotnick said gang members treated deceased members of their group "as fallen soldiers," were "a law unto themselves" in terms of retribution, "and saw themselves as an entity."

But to hear a phalanx of defense lawyers tell it, the 36th Street Bang Squad was just a ragtag group of young people who happened to grow up in the same neighborhood centered at the Marshall Courts housing project. They grew up in poverty, had no parental guidance, and sought refuge in the gang to protect themselves in a crime-ridden area.

"These are boys," said defense attorney Emily Meyers Munn, who represents defendant Martin Hunt. "It's poor kids who couldn't get out of where they were. No one has given these kids the opportunity to get out to do something different."

Munn spoke of parents who weren't around to raise their boys -- and the tragedy not only of the killings, but of wasted young lives. The defendants, she said, didn't venture beyond a small radius from what she called their "wild west" of a neighborhood.

"It's dangerous out there," said defense lawyer Nicholas Hobbs, representing defendant Eric Nixon. "They are clinging to each other for familial purposes. These are the family members that are going to look out for them. And they don't feel there are a lot of people looking out for them."

How the 12-member jury sees that debate -- whether the defendants were running an organized crime ring or not -- will play a big role as they begin today to decide on a verdict.

It's been a seven-week trial, with six defendants, dozens of trial witnesses and hundreds of trial exhibits to consider. There were 12 lawyers in the courtroom -- four prosecutors, seven defense lawyers and another lawyer acting as a standby counsel for the one man representing himself.

The case featured three killings: The slaying of 18-year-old Dwayne Parker at Ivy Avenue and 9th Street in March of 2015 and the double killing a month later of 13-year-old Jada Richardson and 17-year-old Domingo Davis Jr. outside a birthday party on 25th Street, near Wickham Avenue. Jada was an unintended target in the second shooting, prosecutors say.

Bang Squad members are also accused of shooting into occupied homes and at several other people -- and following a Hampton school bus for miles to try to kill a rival gang member.

All six defendants are charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, the same federal law used to prosecute Mafioso killers in the 1980s.

Prosecutors say the statute is tailor-made to go after the Bang Squad. But the defense team says the group had no hierarchy, no rules and regulations and was, in the words of one witness, "just a bunch of kids running wild."

"They lived on the same street, went to the same stores -- it's called growing up," said Jamison Rasberry, an attorney for another defendant, Raymond Palmer, saying those in the group simply "looked up at the street sign and saw 36th Street."

"Once you're born, you're kind of in it," said Andrew Protogyrou, who disputes the idea that his client, Ryan Taybron, was one of the gang's leaders. "There's no indoctrination, no beating in, no blessing in."

Protogyrou flashed a picture of Vito Corleone, the fictional character in The Godfather, and talked about how far removed the 36th Street gang is from such gangster activities. "The racket in this case is survival -- that's all it is," Protogyrou said. "Everybody in this age group was in some type of coalition."

Defense lawyers argued that the case is weak -- built largely on Facebook messages, Facebook posts and witnesses looking for breaks on their own cases -- rather than firmer evidence such as DNA, fingerprints and video footage.

Munn called much of the witness testimony -- some of it said to have been relayed by a now-deceased gang member -- the equivalent of the childhood game of whispering in people's ears, with the story changing down the line. "You need evidence," she said. "You can't just rely on the gossip game."

During their closing arguments, several defense lawyers went after the testimony of a key prosecution witness, Corey Sweetenburg.

Sweetenburg testified during the trial that three defendants -- Hunt, Xavier Greene and Deshaun Richardson -- were among the shooters in the double slaying on 25th Street.

The other shooter, Sweetenburg testified, was Steven Harris, who was killed in Hampton later in 2015.

Though prosecutors had initially charged Sweetenburg with capital murder in the case, he pleaded guilty to reduced charges earlier this year in a plea deal, and now faces between 25 and 30 years rather than life, a sentence that could be cut further for his cooperation at trial.

In his trial testimony, Sweetenburg had to explain away a Facebook response to a teenage girl the day after the double killing that appeared to indicate he was at the shooting scene. He testified that he was referring to a separate shooting on 25th Street a few weeks earlier, even though there was no other evidence introduced at trial about such a shooting.

Sweetenburg's testimony also stands at odds with another prosecution witness, Armani Branch.

Branch, who testified that he was sitting on the home's porch when it came under fire, identified Sweetenburg as one of the shooters that night -- along with Harris and Hunt. But Branch didn't name either Greene or Richardson as shooters.

Richardson's lawyer, Rhonda Quagliana, said that "Armani Branch was telling the truth" -- and that Branch's and Sweetenburg's testimony is so at odds that the jury needs to acquit her client.

"The prosecution doesn't really know who did this," Quagliana said. "But this isn't a guessing game, where you open Door Number One or Door Number Two."

She also said that Richardson was named as a shooter by witnesses who said they got that information from the late Harris. "You're being asked to convict someone in federal court based on hearsay statements from a dead guy?" Quagliana said.

David Good, an attorney for Greene, likewise said the case against his client needs to be tossed, saying the case against him is "based on deals with convicted felons hoping to get their prison time cut."

Good trial cited evidence that showed that Geene was one of the gang members who had his gun stripped by his comrades -- for being "iffy" and "refusing to participate in shootings."

Good contended that had Greene actually participated in the killings, his status in the gang would actually have grown, and he wouldn't have been dispossessed of his firearm. According to a jury instruction in the case, Good pointed out, if jurors have have two believable theories of the case, then "you must, of course," adopt the theory of innocence.

Zlotnick, one of the case's prosecutors, said the defense is portraying the government's cooperators as being "vile and violent human beings that you should not believe." But, prosecutors said it was "the defendants" who picked the witnesses.

"The witnesses are their friends, their associates," Zlotnick said. "They (the defense lawyers) say that if you don't have fingerprints, or video to prove that someone committed murder or attempted murder, then you get a free ride."

But that's not the law, Zlotnick said: People can be convicted largely on the word of cooperating witnesses -- even those who are hoping for a sentencing favor in return for their cooperation.

The prosecution, he said, has corroborated the witness testimony with other evidence. The case is a solid one, Zlotnick said, that proves the case beyond a reasonable doubt against all defendants on all charges.

"The truth has a way of rising to the surface," he said.

Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com

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