2 New Defendants Charged In Savage New City Beating, Carjacking: Feds

NEW CITY, NY — Additional defendants have now been charged in connection to a violent Rockland County assault and robbery, according to federal prosecutors.

Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the return of a superseding indictment charging Wayne Hicks, a/k/a “Weez,” Brian Thomas, a/k/a “BT” and Jordan Woodbine, a/k/a “Jay Woods” for their participation in a February 2021 brutal beating and robbery of a victim in New City.

Thomas and Woodbine were arrested on Tuesday and arraigned. Hicks had previously been arrested in the case, and will be arraigned on the superseding indictment at a later date, according to Justice Department officials.

Dwayne Hicks and Tnaiya Williams, who both participated in the attack and robbery, were sentenced to 12 years and 44 months, respectively, for participating in a conspiracy to commit a Hobbs Act robbery. U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel sentenced Hicks on April 18, and Williams was sentenced on June 24.

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"As alleged, this was a brazen and brutal robbery, as Judge Seibel recognized in imposing substantial prison sentences on Dwayne Hicks and Tniaya Williams," U.S. Attorney Williams said. "Our unsealing of charges against the other participants shows our Office’s continued commitment to identifying and prosecuting perpetrators of violent crime in this District. Thanks to the tenacious work of the FBI and the other agencies involved in the FBI’s Westchester County Safe Streets Task Force, the participants in this attack are in custody and facing justice in federal court."

At the sentencing hearing for Hicks, the judge remarked that the attack was “sickening,” “vicious,” “stomach turning, and the sort of thing that you really can’t imagine how any human being could partake in.”

After a marijuana dealer who worked for Wayne Hicks was robbed, he contacted his brother Dwayne Hicks to arrange retribution, according to the complaint. Dwayne Hicks then lured a victim, who the conspirators believed had participated in the earlier robbery, to a residence in New City, prosecutors said. Once the victim arrived there, Dwayne Hicks and multiple other assailants, including Williams, Thomas and Woodbine, viciously attacked the victim, prosecutors contend. At times, Wayne Hicks is believed to have monitored the attack via a video-chat application. The assailants forced the victim to strip naked, stole his belongings, including a quantity of marijuana the assailants believed the victim had stolen, then beat the victim with a baseball bat, belts, and their hands and feet, and repeatedly slashed and stabbed the victim with a large knife. The victim ultimately fled, after being left naked and covered in blood in a pile of snow, police said.

Dwayne Hicks, 28, of Spring Valley and Tnaiya Williams, 27, of New City each pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit a Hobbs Act robbery.

Wayne Hicks, 32, of Hawthorne, Thomas, 20, of Haverstraw, and Woodbine, 22, of Chestnut Ridge, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit a Hobbs Act robbery, one count of Hobbs Act robbery, one count of Travel Act Assault and one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

United States Attorney Williams praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Westchester County Safe Streets Task Force, which is comprised of special agents and task force officers from the FBI, U.S. Probation, New York State Police, New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Putnam County Sheriff's Office, Westchester County DAs Office, Rockland County DAs Office, NYPD, Westchester County PD, and the Yonkers, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, Greenburgh, White Plains, Peekskill, Ramapo and Clarkstown Police Department. He added that the investigation is ongoing.

The case is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division. Assistant United States Attorneys Derek Wikstrom and Josiah Pertz are in charge of the prosecution.