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.

Guilty verdict shatters 20-year drug dynasty for Staten Island brothers, who now face possible life sentences
Print John M. Annese | annese@siadvance.com By John M. Annese | annese@siadvance.com
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on October 27, 2014 at 7:40 PM, updated October 27, 2014 at 7:56 PM

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Island's bash brothers are down for the count.

On Monday, a federal jury found Anthony and Harvey Christian, 41 and 42, who were accused of using murder and violence to run the crack cocaine trade in the Park Hill Apartments in Clifton for two decades, guilty on all the counts against them in a racketeering trial.

A third defendant, Jason Quinn, 40, described as their underling in the drug conspiracy, was also found guilty. The three could face life in prison when sentenced.

Their conspiracy included the 1999 murder of 17-year-old Jerome Estrella, and plots to kill two other men, prosecutors said.

The Christian brothers, along with a third brother, James, were dubbed "a scourge on the Island community" by a law enforcement source in 2004, after they were arrested on charges they slashed and beat another man in a pot deal gone wrong.

Anthony (Nitty) and Harvey (Black) Christian were charged in prior assaults, but the brothers beat the charges in separate slayings. In July 1999, James Christian was cleared in Estrella's slaying after after a witness failed to pick him out of a lineup; and in January 1997, a jury acquitted Anthony and Harvey Christian and their co-defendant, Fred Marks, in the May 26, 1995, slaying of John Kennedy III in Clifton. The panel also cleared them of the attempted murder of Carlos Serrano.

On Monday, James Christian sat in a courtroom in Brooklyn federal court and watched as a federal jury read aloud guilty counts for his brothers, Anthony and Harvey.

Anthony Christian occasionally turned and smiled to family members in court, mouthing the words, "I love you," and at various points looked down into the pages of a tattered Bible.

Closing arguments in the trial ended Thursday, and the jury deliberated late into the night both Thursday and Friday.

Federal prosecutors said Anthony and Harvey Christian established themselves in the early 1990s as the men who controlled crack-dealing action around the Park Hill Apartments in Clifton, and fought to keep control of their turf.

They used the building at 55 Bowen St. as their home base throughout their reign, and in the mid-1990s, waged war on Park Hill Avenue to win control of more buildings, prosecutors said. Kennedy was shot dead on May 26, 1995, in one of the gun battles in that war, according to prosecutors.

In 1999, Anthony Christian and Paul (Uncles) Ford sent their enforcer, Brian Humphreys, to kill rival drug dealer Corey (Shank Bank) Brooker, prosecutors said.

Brooker escaped death, but Humphreys killed Estrella, with Anthony Christian's blessing, so he wouldn't warn Brooker about the murder plot.

"Today, their ability to earn money through crime comes to an end, and so does their rule of the streets," said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch.
Humphreys and Ford both testified for the prosecution.

The brothers also conspired with Anthony Britt -- who also testified for the government -- in a failed 2010 bid to kill William (Buddha) Jones, and chased off and assaulted police officers who tried to make arrests on their turf, prosecutors contended.

A search of their apartment in February 2010 turned up bulletproof vests, crack cocaine and marijuana.

Quinn, who was tied to the overall conspiracy, wasn't specifically linked to the murder plots. He was convicted on racketeering charges, and on drug and gun possession charges.

Anthony Christian faces a mandatory life sentence, while Harvey Christian faces the prospect of 40 years to life in federal prison. Quinn, meanwhile, could be sentenced to 65 years to life.

"For all of their adult lives, the Christian brothers and their associates terrorized the residents of Park Hill, forcing them to live in fear of violence," said United States Attorney Loretta Lynch in a written statement. "Today, their ability to earn money through crime comes to an end, and so does their rule of the streets. This verdict sends the message that that violence and drug-dealing have no place in our communities."

The Christian brothers' defense lawyers had argued that the government's cooperating witnesses, eight in total, lied so they could get assistance from prosecutors that could shave years off their own prison sentences.

"I'm shocked that a jury could believe the testimony of Brian Humphreys and Anthony Britt, both of whom admittedly lied many times," said Jeffrey Chabrowe, who represents Harvey Christian. "I don't understand how the jury could find Mr. Christian guilty based on the testimony of liars like Paul Ford, Anthony Britt and Brian Humphreys."

Chabrowe said he expects to appeal the verdict.

Anthony and Harvey Christian's mother, Janice Pierce, and brother, James Christian, made similar statements outside the courtroom.

"It's totally wrong. I don't understand it. I don't get it. After listening to the evidence, and listening to the eight cooperators that were clearly telling lies, I don't get it. I just don't get it," Ms. Pierce said. "I don't get it, but I know that God knows that they didn't do that.'"

James Christian, meanwhile, said his brothers were a force for good in the community, often breaking up fights before they boiled over.

"I believe it was injustice," James Christian said. "How do they believe these guys? They lied on the stand a thousand times.... They never killed anyone, conspired to kill anyone."

20 years after murder at Park Hill Apartments, 3 brothers face federal trial

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Two decades ago, Michael Dawson, a 23-year-old drug dealer, was gunned down outside the Park Hill Apartments in Clifton.

Now, three brothers from Staten Island are facing trial for the killing, accused of murdering Dawson as part of a crack cocaine operation.

Brian (Brawl) Gill, 46, David (Plot) Gill, 43, and Samuel (Waco) McIntosh, 40, are accused of shooting Dawson to death in broad daylight on June 22, 1994, in front of 160 Park Hill Ave.

Testimony began last week, in the same Brooklyn federal court building where brothers Anthony and Harvey Christian are currently standing trial, accused of running a 20-year drug dynasty in the Park Hill Apartments.

The cases overlap to some degree.

McIntosh has been referenced in the Christian brothers case, and at least two witnesses in that case -- Paul (Uncles) Ford, a drug supplier and admitted murderer who testified that he gave the Christians permission to have their hit man rub out a rival dealer in 1999; and James Bestman, another drug supplier and admitted killer who was once featured on a reality show, "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" -- are part of the government's case against the Gill brothers.

Ford testified on Tuesday that he was watching from a taxi and saw all three brothers shoot and kill Dawson. Brian Gill used a machine gun, David Gill used a 9mm handgun, and McIntosh used a .38-caliber revolver, according to federal prosecutors.

"They gunned down and killed a man on a street called Park Hill Avenue over drugs," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihata in her opening statement to jurors. "They didn't worry about people seeing them do it or turning them in, and they got away with murder for over 20 years."

Dawson, who went by the nickname "Nim," had an arrest record dating back to age 17, and had done state prison time for gun possession, but his parents said back in 1994 that he was striving to better himself. He was a Concord High School graduate and was studying sociology at the College of Staten Island.

As the prosecution tells it, Dawson had been dealing drugs at 141 Park Hill Ave., but moved on to 160 Park Hill Ave. and pooled his money with one of Brian Gill's friends, Donald (Don Don) Lewis, to get their supply of crack.

Brian Gill "wasn't happy with that arrangement," Ms. Shihata said, telling Lewis that they "couldn't count on Dawson to protect the building with violence."

On the day of the murder, Brian Gill picked a fight with someone close to Lewis and Dawson and lost, so he called his brothers for help, Ms. Shihata said.

At about 4 p.m., Dawson and McIntosh approached a drug customer's car, competing with each other to sell crack, Ms. Shihata said. McIntosh pulled out his gun and shot Dawson, and Brian and David Gill joined in and opened fire, she alleged.

Dawson tried to flee, but fell to the ground, fatally wounded, as a crowd gathered around him, she said.

Brian Gill left Park Hill, but returned in 2011, and he and David Gill went back to selling crack together, ultimately becoming the target of a federal wiretap investigation in 2013, Ms. Shihata said.

The brothers' defense attorneys have challenged the government's witnesses, including Lewis and Ford, contending they're lying so they can secure "5K1 letters" -- letters from federal prosecutors to judges that can potentially shave years off a convicted criminal's sentence.

It's an argument similar to the ones used by the defense attorneys in the Christian brothers case.

"I would argue that these cooperating criminals are not worthy of belief, don't know what it means to tell the truth, and their criminal history speaks for itself," said Kenneth Paul, who represents Brian Gill.

Kelley Sharkey, who represents David Gill, characterized Lewis as someone so low that he lied to Dawson in his dying moments, telling him "I'm here for you," right before he took Dawson's gun, ran away, and later sold the gun for $500.

"He looked into the eyes of a dying man. He promised to be there for him, and he lied," Ms. Sharkey said.

Joyce David, who represents McIntosh, suggested to the jury that Ford "had more of a motive to kill Michael Dawson than anybody." Dawson lost Ford's money after being arrested, and Ford wasn't happy with how Dawson drove in "flashy cars, the kind of things that attract the cops," Ms. David said.

Ms. David also suggested that Lewis had a motive to kill Dawson.

The case continues Monday before U.S. District Chief Judge Carol Bagley Amon.

Thanks for posting. Wonder if they have ties to the clan?

remember the wu tang FBI files i posted a while back ? It alleged their involvement with members of the bloods and drug and gun trafficking around Park hill.

Yes. I read it before you posted it. And that's no disrespect. I know a lot about that scene.
Throw in their connection to Michael Caruso. Peter Gatien. the Tunnel And two of the mob wives and on and on and it's a rabbit hole you can go down for a long way.

Like I said

I just realised one of the murders that these guys in articles were convicted of was actually mentioned in the wu tang fbi files.



I think michael caruso joined up with them for protection and also perhaps he could still hang around ny nightlife scene.And he was probably good at his job too managing a few of them.

Whats their connection to the mob wives?

SI is small

throw in Steubenville and like i said more rabbit holes

Park Hill murder trial, which included witness with ties to Guyanese death squad, goes to federal jury


Print John M. Annese | annese@siadvance.com By John M. Annese |
on November 11, 2014 at 8:55 PM, updated November 11, 2014 at 9:41 PM


STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After a trial that included testimony from a killer with ties to a Guyanese death squad, a jury is now weighing the evidence against three brothers accused of killing a rival drug dealer outside the Park Hill Apartments in 1994.

The two-week trial against Brian (Brawl) Gill, 46, David (Plot) Gill, 43, and Samuel (Waco) McIntosh, 40, wrapped up Monday in Brooklyn federal court. Jurors finished their second day of deliberations Tuesday.

All three are accused of shooting Michael Dawson, 23, to death in broad daylight on June 22, 1994, in front of 160 Park Hill Ave., to further a drug-dealing conspiracy.

Prosecutors brought in a series of witnesses -- including Paul (Uncles) Ford, a drug supplier and admitted murderer who testified to calmly watching Dawson's killing as he sat in a taxi, because he was interested in seeing how the violent scene, and the brothers' dispute with Dawson, would play out.

Ford also testified last month at the drugs-and-murder racketeering trial of brothers Anthony and Harvey Christian, who were accused of running the crack trade in the Park Hill complex for 20 years. Both were found guilty on Oct. 27, along with accomplice Jason Quinn.

The Gill brothers' defense attorneys zeroed in on Ford's criminal past, trying to bring up rumors that he had once decapitated a woman who lived on nearby Osgood Avenue.

"Do you remember killing a girl by the name of April and cutting off her head?" asked Kenneth Paul, Brian Gill's lawyer.

As one of the prosecutors objected to the question, Ford responded, "No, no, not at all."

In her closing argument, Kelley Sharkey, who represents David Gill, challenged Ford's credibility as a witness, making references to his own testimony that he got his drug supply through a connection to the Guyanese "Phantom death squad," and that the group had hired as an assassin in New York.

The squad, run by Guyanese drug lord Shaheed (Roger) Khan, is believed to be responsible for hundreds of killings in Guyana in the early to mid-2000s.

"Paul Ford came to the United States on a fake soccer scholarship and within a year, within two years, when he's not even 20 or maybe just 20, he is making hundreds of thousands of dollars selling cocaine up and down the East [Coast]. And in the '90s, who is he trafficking in drugs with? The Phantom death squad. I mean, this is a 5 o'clock movie on a Saturday afternoon," Ms. Sharkey argued.

"You learned from Ford's own mouth that the Phantom death squad in Guyana, it's a hit squad. And rival political parties pay them money to kill their political rivals. 'Assassin's Creed' in Eastern District Court. I am not kidding. Is this someone whose testimony you're going to believe for half a second?"

"Assassin's Creed" is a reference to a popular video game series.

Dawson's murder took place during a violent era for the Park Hill Apartments section of Clifton -- a neighborhood dubbed "Killa Hill" by the Staten Island-based Wu-Tang Clan rap group.

In the early 1990s -- before authorities say the Christian brothers had solidified their grasp of the neighborhood's drug trade -- crack dealers would often rush out to greet potential customers in their cars, and the first dealer to get to a car got the sale.

Dawson, who went by the nickname "Nim," was a Concord High School graduate and was studying sociology at the College of Staten Island. Back in 1994, his family said he was struggling to better himself, and had worked for about a year at a community residence for kids in Port Richmond, but couldn't resist the pull of the criminal lifestyle.

''People will say it's just another life wasted. But this time it's my baby,'' Dawson's father, Kevin Caldwell, told the Advance a day after his son was killed.

Dawson had an arrest record dating back to age 17, and had done state prison time for gun possession. He had been dealing crack at 141 Park Hill Ave., but moved on to 160 Park Hill Ave. and pooled his money with one of Brian Gill's friends, Donald (Don Don) Lewis, to get their product, prosecutors said.

That didn't sit well with Brian Gill, who didn't think Dawson could step up with the violence necessary to "protect the building," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihata said.

Brian Gill "wasn't happy with that arrangement," Ms. Shihata said, telling Lewis that they "couldn't count on Dawson to protect the building with violence."

After the slaying, Brian Gill left Park Hill, but he returned in 2011, and he and his brother David went back to selling crack together, ultimately becoming the target of a federal wiretap investigation in 2013, Ms. Shihata told the jurors.

Ford had testified that, as he watched from a taxi, he saw all three brothers shoot and kill Dawson. Brian Gill used a machine gun, David Gill used a 9mm handgun, and McIntosh used a .38-caliber revolver, according to federal prosecutors.

Lewis also testified for the government, as did a security guard at the apartment complex who named McIntosh as the shooter, but hadn't done so when testifying before a grand jury in 2013. The jurors also heard 911 recordings from the day of the shooting, as well as testimony from police investigators.

"The defendants shot Dawson because they didn't want him selling crack at 160 anymore, their building, their territory," said Assistant U. S. Attorney Alicyn Cooley. "They all fired their guns at Michael Dawson that day. In doing so, they helped each other commit this murder."

Joyce David, McIntosh's lawyer, said both Ford and Lewis had motive to kill Dawson. "Michael Dawson lost money. He left it in his apartment or his car, and supposedly it was stolen or taken by the police. But it was Uncles' [Ford's] money. OK. There is a drug business. If you take somebody's money, they get you."

Deliberations in the case will continue Wednesday.

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20 years later, three brothers found guilty in slaying outside Park Hill Apartments

Brothers Brian (Brawl) Gill, left, David (Plot) Gill, center, and Samuel (Waco) McIntosh, right, were convicted by a federal jury Thursday in the drug-related murder of Michael Dawson, 23, on June 22, 1994. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Attorney's office)

By John M. Annese | annese@siadvance.com 
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on November 13, 2014 at 7:10 PM, updated November 13, 2014 at 7:18 PM

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Michael Dawson, 23, was shot to death on June 22, 1994, outside of 160 Park Hill Ave. in Clifton.Photo courtesy of U.S. Attorney's office 

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It took 20 years, but the three brothers prosecutors say killed 23-year-old Michael Dawson in a drug-related shooting outside the Park Hill Apartments in 1994 have been brought to justice.

After a three-week trial and four days of deliberations, a jury in Brooklyn federal court found brothers Brian (Brawl) Gill, 46, David (Plot) Gill, 43, and Samuel (Waco) McIntosh, 40, guilty of Dawson's drug-related slaying on June 22, 1994.

Brian and David Gill were also found guilty of conspiracy to distribute cocaine base from 2011 to 2013, while McIntosh was acquitted of that charge.

For Teisha Felder-Diallo, Dawson's girlfriend at the time, the verdict came as a massive relief.

Ms. Felder-Diallo recounted at trial how she accompanied Dawson in the ambulance: "I was holding his hand and I watched the air come up out of him and the air release from his mouth, and then we got to the hospital, he let go of my hand."

After Thursday's verdict, she said, "I can breathe. That last breath that I watched Michael take, I can breathe now that justice is served. ... It's restored my faith in the system."

Dawson had been dealing crack at 141 Park Hill Ave., but moved on to 160 Park Hill Ave. and pooled his resources with one of Brian Gill's friends, Donald (Don Don) Lewis, prosecutors said. Brian Gill didn't like the arrangement, telling Lewis that he didn't think Dawson could be counted on to protect their territory with violence.

On the day of the murder, "Brawl picked a fight with someone close to Dawson and Don Don, punching that person in the face. They fought and Brawl lost. He was embarrassed, disrespected on his own turf. And so he called his brothers, the two people he could count on most, and got his gun," argued Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihata.

At 4 p.m. that day, Dawson and McIntosh approached a drug customer's car, both angling for the sale. McIntosh pulled out his gun and shot Dawson, and Brian and David Gill joined in and opened fire, prosecutors said.

"For years, these defendants made drug dealing and violence a daily reality for the law-abiding residents of Park Hill," said United States Attorney Loretta Lynch in a written statement. "Today, these three men have been held accountable for the lives they have destroyed and the harm they have done to one of our communities. As a result of the extraordinary efforts of law enforcement, Park Hill is a safer place."

All three face a mandatory minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life behind bars when they're sentenced.

Corey Gill, the defendants' brother, railed against the verdict, and the fact that the jury believed the government's cooperating witnesses, whom he called "admitted psychopaths."

He was referring to Paul (Uncles) Ford, who got his drug supply through his ties to a Guyanese death squad, and Norbert Grigger. Both men are admitted murderers, and both testified for the prosecution. Ford testified he watched the murder take place from a nearby taxi.

"I feel that what went on in that courtroom was obscene," Corey Gill said, contending that the witnesses got to keep the proceeds of their drug-dealing activity. "I submit that they're not cooperating with the government, but the government is cooperating with them, and this is what America has come to."

Herman Dawson, Michael's brother -- a former deputy commissioner for the city's department of juvenile justice who has also served as a state administrative law judge -- said the Park Hill community had always known who killed his brother.

"The sad part is, the whole community knew who did it. Everybody knew who did it," he said. "But the community was terrorized, and no one would come forward. It took 20 years for people to feel comfortable enough or feel compelled enough to actually tell what happened."

As for the testimony of Ford and Grigger, Herman Dawson said, "They did the right thing, but that doesn't make them good people. Don't get me wrong. I don't praise them for being good people, but I do appreciate they did come forward. Because if they didn't come forward, these guys would never have been held accountable for it." 

He called the verdict "a long time coming." He said he regretted their mother, who died six years ago, wasn't still alive to see justice served.

Ms. Felder-Diallo said she was most disturbed by how Dawson was killed by men he thought were his friends.

"I still miss Michael. Michael was a wonderful person, although he sold drugs. He wanted to be with the in crowd. He didn't have to. He wanted to be with a part of society that he was not fit for and it cost him his life, for being involved with people that have no value for life," she said.

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Park Hill murder trial, which included witness with ties to Guyanese death squad, goes to federal jury

20 years after murder at Park Hill Apartments, 3 brothers face federal trial




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The guyanese connection is interesting. The leader of the phantom squad was given 15 years in the US. His attorney was charged with witness tampering in that case. He was also the attorney for kenneth supreme mcgriff during his murder inc case.

Lawyer: More FBI documents must exist linking Wu-Tang Clan to murder