3 Brooklyn Brick Squad Gang Members Get Life In Prison

BROOKLYN, NY — Three Brick Squad gang members are sentenced to life in prison, and six others have been sentenced to lengthy prison sentences between four and 12 years, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said on Wednesday.

The nine men have been charged with conspiracies to murder, sell narcotics, and commit other crimes, Gonzalez said.

The DA said the gang is also known as the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation, which is a subset of the Bloods.

In Brooklyn, the gang's territory included Brownsville, Ocean Hill, East New York, Cypress Hills, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, and Vinegar Hill, according to court evidence.

Between March 2017 and December 2019, Brick Squad members used violence to establish dominance in their territory, and some gang members participated in murder and shootings, Gonzalez said.

The gang also made money selling heroin, crack cocaine and marijuana, which they funneled to their ringleader Howard Smith and other Brick Squad members who are incarcerated. As of September 2019, Smith had over $19,000 in his personal prison commissary account, the DA said.

According to the DA, the first murder was on Dec. 7, 2017, in Ocean Hill on Bainbridge Street, when gang members Jashaun Washington and Christopher Garcia shot and killed a fellow Brick Squad member, John Fernandez, who they mistakenly believed was cooperating with law enforcement. Both were convicted of second-degree murder.

The second murder was on April 18, 2018, on Hart Street in Bed-Stuy, when Quazeer Farmer and Markel Pender shot and killed rival Claudell Gary in the culmination of a year-long feud. Pender pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and Farmer was convicted at trial of second-degree murder.

Garcia, Farmer, and Washington all received life sentences. Lee Kennedy, Andrew Marquis, Jerome Noble, Pender, Howard Smith, and Dayshawn Speed received between 4 and 12 years of prison.

"These sentences send an unequivocal message: violent gang activity and the destruction it causes will be met with serious consequences in Brooklyn," Gonzalez said. "These gang members terrorized our neighborhoods, peddled narcotics, and committed heinous acts of violence, including the senseless murders of two individuals."