Drug kingpin gets 50 years for reign of 'mayhem and violence' in Clifton

Updated on March 31, 2017 at 7:09 PM Posted on March 31, 2017 at 3:49 PM

BY MIRA WASSEF mwassef@siadvance.com

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- The Clifton man convicted of running a violent and deadly drug enterprise in the Park Hill Apartments for two decades maintained his innocence before a judge slapped him with 50 years behind bars.

"This case was built on lies," said Harvey Christian, 44, in a statement to the judge during his sentencing Friday in Brooklyn federal court. "I felt my trial was unfair."

Christian, garbed in light green prison gear and sporting a beard, smiled and blew kisses to his family members sitting in the courtroom, but showed no emotion when U.S. District Judge Eric Vitaliano handed down his decision.

"The evidence is overwhelming," the judge said. "The reign of terror in the Park Hill community happened. [There's a] history of fear of the good people trapped in a community wrought by guns and drugs on the streets of Staten Island."

In October 2014, Harvey (Black) Christian was convicted at trial on charges of racketeering -- including two murder conspiracies, firearms possession and trafficking in crack cocaine.

His brother, Anthony (Nitty) Christian, 43, was convicted of racketeering -- including the 1999 murder of Jerome Estrella, 17, and three murder conspiracies -- as well as gun possession and crack cocaine trafficking, said authorities. He was sentenced to life last year.


Attorney Sally Butler, who represents Harvey Christian, argued against the life sentence the prosecution recommended because while he was convicted of racketeering charges, he was not charged in the murder.

"There is no reason to die in jail," she said after the hearing. "There has to be a light at the end of the tunnel."

The brothers, prosecutors said, led a violent narcotics distribution ring in Park Hill from 1991 to 2011. In the mid-1990s, the Christian brothers and their associates - including co- defendant Jason Quinn - sought to take control of more drug territory within Park Hill.

They engaged in massive gun battles for months, and in one of the battles, in May 1995, law enforcement recovered 77 shell casings inside a residential building, outside on the street, and on a rooftop, officials said.

One of the Christian brothers' associates was murdered in that battle.

"He terrorized the community of Park Hill," said U.S. Attorney Allon Lifshitz, who argued for a life sentence. "Harvey Christian picked up one of the officers and threw him down the stairs, sending him to the hospital. The mayhem and violence continued with the daily crack sales and shootings."

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. Christian gave Humphreys the gun used to kill the victim, said prosecutors.

"They were my friends," Harvey Christian said of Estrella and Brooker in his statement to the court. "Me and my brother did not participate in these actions."

Humphreys and Ford both testified for the prosecution at the Christian brothers' trial.

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.

A gun and large quantities of crack and powder cocaine were recovered in 2011 in searches involving the siblings' confederates, said prosecutors.

At trial, the Christian brothers' lawyers argued the government's cooperating witnesses, eight in total, lied in the hope of shaving years off their own prison sentences.

"They were wrongly convicted," said a woman who identified herself as the mother of Harvey Christian's child. "They were drug dealers, but everything else was a lie."


The brothers' mother, who was there with several family members, declined comment after the proceeding.