A vicious Lengthy Island gang chief was the driving drive behind years of bloodshed in Suffolk County — enlisting the assistance of teenage offenders who would face lighter punishments, prosecutors mentioned Thursday.
Marques Scott, a high Lowndes Block Gang member, and eight extra brutes had been charged for allegedly finishing up two murders, a sequence of shootings and intercourse trafficking courting again to 2016, Suffolk County District Legal professional Raymond Tierney mentioned.
Tierney, whereas saying the 53-count indictment towards Scott and his cohorts, blamed lax state legal guidelines for permitting gangs to make use of youthful members like pawns.
“Marques Scott repeatedly exploited and used youthful juvenile gang members to do his bidding and commit violence,” Tierney mentioned, pointing to sentencing limits within the laws.
Scott, 31, allegedly ordered 14-year-old Ramon Lyons, an alleged LBG affiliate, to shoot Luis Cameron Rimmer-Hernandez in August 2021 as a result of the sufferer refused to take the blame after he and Scott had been arrested on drug possession in Nassau County, prosecutors mentioned.
Scott labored with different gang members to find out when Rimmer-Hernandez, 21, was close to Lowndes Avenue in Huntington Station, prosecutors alleged.
Lyons then walked over to the sufferer, 21, and shot him useless.
Whereas the teenager was welcomed into the gang after that, prosecutors mentioned, he was arrested after which convicted of the homicide.
He acquired a punishment of 12 years to life in jail with the state’s controversial Elevate the Age regulation limiting jail sentences to fifteen years to life, the DA’s workplace mentioned.
“The gangs are extra subtle than our lawmakers — they usually know that the legal guidelines of New York State are lenient in terms of juveniles, and they’re making the most of these legal guidelines,” Tierney, a Republican, argued.
Scott was accused of pulling the set off himself when he allegedly shot an ex-girlfriend within the face in June 2021 as a result of he believed she was mingling with a rival gangster, the district legal professional’s alleged.
The lady survived, however wanted a number of facial surgical procedures, prosecutors mentioned.
Scott is accused of directing lower-ranking members to open hearth on rivals and hearth gunshots into totally different houses between December 2020 and April 2022.
Within the December 2020 taking pictures, alleged gunman Tyshawn Lopez was seen on digital camera taking pictures an adversary within the head, prosecutors mentioned.
The entire taking pictures victims throughout that span survived.
Scott’s lawyer didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Different gang members additionally carried out a reign of terror over the previous decade, together with the 2016 homicide of 18-year-old Huntington Station resident Antoine Butts-Miller, who was an harmless bystander caught within the crosshairs, prosecutors mentioned.
Accused gang member Kevin Donaghy, generally known as “white boy,” allegedly fired right into a home celebration Butts-Miller attended in August 2016 after Donaghy received into an argument with a rival gang member, prosecutors mentioned.
“Irrespective of how lengthy it takes, we are going to examine all of those circumstances in Suffolk County — and we are going to constantly attempt to search out solutions for and households,” Tierney mentioned.
Prosecutors outlined a number of extra shootings, unlawful possession of weapons and intercourse trafficking that led to the slew of expenses towards the suspected related to the gang, which is an offshoot of the Bloods.
Scott, Donaghy, 33, and Shakur Might, 22, had been all hit with homicide expenses whereas Kamoree Richardson, 25, Johua Brown, 25, Justice King, 21, Rashad Casey, 25, Brianna Kuchar, 31, and Lopez, 25, had been all hit with different prison counts.
“We’re focusing on the appropriate folks — and we’re going to carry them accountable,” mentioned Suffolk Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina.
