Drug lord brothers 'turned Park Hill into a war zone,' prosecutor says in closing remarks at federal trial
Print John M. Annese | annese@siadvance.com By John M. Annese | annese@siadvance.com
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on October 22, 2014 at 3:33 PM, updated October 22, 2014 at 3:35 PM

Staten Island Advance/Rob Sollett
Brothers Anthony, left, and Harvey Christian are taken into custody in connection with a murder on May, 26, 1995. The two men were acquitted in that case on 1997.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- For 20 years, Anthony and Harvey Christian ran the Park Hill Avenue Apartments like a crack-dealing fiefdom, using one building as their "fortress," and engaged in brutal machine-gun fights and murder to keep their dominion intact, a federal prosecutor argued to close out the brothers' trial Wednesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Trowel laid out the government's case before the jury, arguing that testimony from co-conspirators and rivals, as well as from law enforcement officials, wiretapped conversations, 911 calls and physical evidence essentially weaved a tapestry proving the brothers ran a murderous racketeering operation.

"They built it, they controlled it, and they maintained it for 20 years... Workers went to jail, faded away, but Harvey and Anthony Christian were always there at the center," Trowel said, adding that Jason Quinn, who also faces trial, stood alongside them for much of their career.

The defendants are accused of conspiring to kill rival drug dealer Corey (Shank Bank) Brooker and his associate Jerome (Boo boo) Estrella in 1999.

Paul (Uncles) Ford and Anthony Christian had sent their "muscle," Brian Humphreys, to kill Brooker, and when the 17-year-old Estella jeopardized that plan, Christian gave Humphreys the OK to kill then teen, even going as far as providing a 9mm handgun to do the deed, Trowel said. Humphreys was arrested outside Christian's apartment at 55 Bowen St., before he could return the gun to Christian, Trowel said.

Both Ford and Humphreys testified for the government.

The brothers are accused of conspiring with Anthony Britt -- who also testified for the government -- in a failed bid in 2010 to kill William (Buddha) Jones after Harvey Christian was pulled into an armed confrontation between Jones and Britt.

The Christians made 55 Bowen St. into their base of operations for most of their reign, expanding to 225 Park Hill Ave. and, in the mid-1990s, engaging in a full-blown shooting war to seize control of 260 Park Hill Ave. from another drug dealer, Keith (LK) Darling, Trowel said.

"The battles lasted for months and turned Park Hill into a war zone," Trowel said.

One gun battle ended with the May 26, 1995, slaying of John Kennedy III in Clifton, who Trowel said fought on the Christians' side. The brothers and a co-defendant, Fred Marks, were charged in connection with Kennedy's killing, but a jury acquitted them in 1997.

The Christians ruled over 55 Bowen St., throughout, even chasing off and police officers who tried to make an arrest there, Trowel said. "To them, there was no authority at 55 Bowen Street other than their own," he said.

Trowel also played the jury several wiretap recordings of both brothers and Jason Quinn, recordings that laid out the particulars of their crack cocaine business.

Trowel's arguments are expected to continue into the afternoon, followed by closing arguments from the defendants' lawyers.

Leaders of Bloods drug dynasty partied after cop killer Ronell Wilson had death penalty overturned in 2010, informant testifies
Print John M. Annese | annese@siadvance.com By John M. Annese | annese@siadvance.com
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on October 16, 2014 at 9:31 PM, updated October 18, 2014 at 11:57 PM



STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Two brothers accused of running a brutal drug dynasty celebrated in the street after cop killer Ronell Wilson's death penalty was overturned in 2010, according to an informant's testimony Thursday.

Anthony (Nitty) and Harvey (Black) Christian, who federal prosecutors say ran the crack cocaine trade in the Park Hill Apartments for more than two decades, attended a party with several other Bloods members to celebrate Wilson's temporary reversal of fortune, testified Anthony Britt, 43, at the brothers' trial.

Britt, who was indicted alongside the Christian brothers in 2011, has since entered a guilty plea and is cooperating with federal prosecutors.

He said Thursday that he attended the celebration, which took place sometime in 2011, in a parking lot outside the Park Hill complex, and saw several Bloods members, including the Christians. Wilson, who goes by the nickname "Rated R," was a member of the same Bloods offshoot group as Britt and the Christians, Britt testified.

"He had got a reversal in his death penalty case," Britt said.

In July 2010, a federal appeals court overturned Wilson's death sentencing for the murders of Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews, who murdered two NYPD detectives in Tompkinsville, ruling that prosecutors violated his constitutional rights by using his refusal to plead guilty or testify during the trial's penalty phase to attack his claims of remorse in an unsworn apology he read to the jury.

In July 2013, a new jury sentenced him to die by lethal injection for the March 10, 2003 murders. He remains on death row.


Britt's testimony came during day four of the Christian brothers' racketeering and cocaine distribution conspiracy trial before a jury in Brooklyn federal court.

Anthony Christian is 41 year old, his brother is 42. A third suspect, Jason Quinn, 40, is also standing trial.

"For 20 years Harvey and Anthony Christian ran a large crew that sold crack and other drugs. They used any means necessary, including murder, to protect their drug business," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Allon Lifshitz in his opening statement.

"When the defendants wanted to take over a building in Park Hill, to control drug sales in the building, they even had a full-blown shooting war. And when a rival dealer posed a threat to the defendants' turf, Anthony Christian had the crew's hit man commit murder, shooting a man dead in the middle of the day, in the middle of the street, leaving his body to rot in front of the good people of Park Hill."

Lifshitz was referring to the 1999 shooting of 17-year-old Jerome Estrella.

Over the past four days, prosecutors have brought up several of the Christian Brothers' alleged colleagues in the drug trade, including Britt, and Brian Humphreys, who admitted to the Estrella shooting. Humphreys testified on Tuesday.

The defense team has characterized the government's witnesses as a veritable murderer's row of liars, drug dealers and criminals, testifying both to get leniency on their own sentences and to settle personal scores with the Christian brothers.

"The government has been calling these witnesses and you will hear and you will see that the oath they take means nothing. They have taken it in the past and have lied," said Michael H. Gold, who's representing Anthony Christian.

Jeffrey Chabrowe, who represents Harvey Christian, argued in his opening remarks that his client may have sold drugs, but only to make ends meet, and never as the "king pin" of a criminal organization.

During his testimony, Britt laid out his lengthy criminal record, starting from his first drug arrest in 1988 to committing several shootings, slashings and stabbings. He was eventually dubbed the "Big Homie" of the Valentine Bloods, he said, and in 2009, he brought Harvey and Anthony Christian under his banner, after they parted ways with a different "set" of gang members, the Gangster Killer Bloods.

He witnessed the brothers cutting up crack cocaine in their apartment on several occasion, he testified, and when he and Harvey Christian got into an armed confrontation with a man nicknamed "Buddha," he and the brothers drove around with guns and t-shirts tied over their faces in a failed attempt to find and kill the man.

Even so, he said, the Christian brothers wouldn't let him deal drugs at 55 Bowen St., which they ran.

Their relationship soured in 2011, after the federal indictment came down. Britt said that he had heard the brothers had labeled him a snitch, so he requested paperwork from the NYPD showing that Anthony Christian was a complaining witness in a shooting case. He then used that paperwork to contend Christian was the snitch, not him.

By that October, Britt was cooperating with the federal authorities.

Chabrowe used that sequence of events to attack Britt's credibility, pointing out that Britt made his allegations against the Christians in a letter to another gang member.

"In the letter, Mr. Britt, did you say, 'I'm going to mash those clowns,' referring to Harvey and Anthony?" Chabrowe said, pointing out that the letter also read, "Let Harvey know that if I catch him or Nitty I'm going to do them dirty."

Asked Chabrowe, "And isn't that what you're doing today?"

Britt replied, "I'm testifying today to be true."

He then contended that when he said "do them dirty," he meant "clean them up," which drew another question from Chabrowe, "When you said that you were going to do them dirty, you meant that you were going to give them a bath?"

boone.jpg
Amos Boone
Earlier in the day Thursday, the jury heard testimony from Amos Boone, a convicted sex offender and long-time Bloods member turned police informant and federal cooperator.

Boone laid out much of his criminal life story, including how he joined the Bloods, and how he met Anthony Christian at Rikers Island, though he never got into the specifics on the case that landed him on the sex offender registry.

Boone said that after he got out of prison in 2000, he met with Harvey Christian, who described the Park Hill Apartments as "wide open" and said he "wanted to take over the whole hill."

At one point, Boone said, Christian had offered to split the cost on a shipment of cocaine, but Boone declined, since he was running his own dealing operation in West Brighton. Boone also referenced a few other interactions with Harvey Christian, testifying that he saw Christian dealing drugs on Targee Street.

He's facing 15 to life in prison on a conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine conviction, and said he's testifying in the hopes that prosecutors give him a cooperation letter that can be presented to a sentencing judge.

Gold countered Boone by saying that he'd lied under oath in the past, including to get money in a civil car crash lawsuit.

"If you're prepared to lie under oath to get money, are you prepared to lie under oath to get your freedom?" Gold asked.

"No," Boone responded.

The jury also heard on Thursday from an NYPD detective who conducted a raid and found drugs and cell phones in the brothers' apartment, and from an FBI agent who retrieved text messages off a cell phone seized by another drug defendant.

Testimony in the trial will continue into next week.