Oakland Gang Leaders Sentenced For Baby's Murder

OAKLAND, CA — Two members of a West Oakland gang have each been sentenced in federal court in Oakland to 43 years in prison for conducting a gunfire attack that killed a 23-month-old boy in 2011.

Dionte Houff, 36, and Houston Nathaniel III, 28, were given the prison terms on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton.

They pleaded guilty before Hamilton in August to charges of racketeering conspiracy, using a gun during a violent crime that resulted in the child's death, and assaulting and attempting to murder six other people
who were wounded in the shootings on Nov. 28, 2011.

Hough and Nathaniel admitted in their plea agreements that they were affiliated with the Acorn gang, based in the Acorn housing project in West Oakland.

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Hough, Nathaniel and a third gunman, Frederick Coleman, who was 16 at the time, carried out the evening gunfire attack after they heard that members of a rival gang, the Lower Bottoms, were filming a music video that allegedly disrespected the Acorn gang.

They drove to the location in the parking lot of a West Oakland liquor store and opened fire on the group.

Hiram Lawrence Jr., who was one month short of his second birthday, received a bullet in the head and died 11 days later, after being taken off life support.

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While pleading guilty to using guns in a violent attack that resulted in the child's death, Hough and Nathaniel did not plead guilty to an additional charge of murder of the child in aid of racketeering. That charge, which prosecutors dropped as part of the plea bargain, would have carried a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Coleman was prosecuted separately in the state court system. He pleaded guilty in Alameda County Superior Court in 2015 to the first-degree murder of the child and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

In addition to pleading guilty to the federal charges in the Nov. 28 attack, Nathaniel pleaded guilty to attempted murder, assault and use of a gun in two attacks on Nov. 6, 2011, that wounded a 14-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy.

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Federal charges remain pending against two other alleged Acorn members, John Devalier Daniels and Jermaine Earnest, who were accused in the same federal grand jury indictment as Hough and Nathaniel in 2015.

They face charges of racketeering conspiracy and the murder in aid of racketeering of a man perceived to be a rival gang member in Oakland on April 16, 2014. The indictment alleges that Earnest was the shooter and
Daniels was the driver in a drive-by shooting.

— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock