Yonkers Gang Member Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison

A Yonkers-based street gang member was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday for crimes he committed, including a murder.

Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Da’Quan Johnson, 25, a member of the “Grimy Mother*******” (“GMF”) gang, pled guilty January 7, 2016, to participating in the GMF racketeering conspiracy and to conspiring to murder rival gang members.

Bharara said Johnson and fellow gang members participated in a shooting that resulted in the death of Tyrone Arthur.

“Da’Quan Johnson was a leader of a violent, vicious street gang that terrorized the streets of southwest Yonkers with shootings, assaults and drug dealing,” Bharara said.

From the documents filed in the case and statements made in court:

GMF, formed in or about 2008, was based in the Schlobohm Housing Project. GMF was initially aligned with the Strip Boyz, a different gang likewise based in the Schlobohm Housing Project. Up until late June and early July 2012, when 20 members of the Strip Boyz were arrested and charged with narcotics and firearms offenses, GMF and the Strip Boyz together controlled crack cocaine and marijuana distribution in and around the Schlobohm Housing Project, including an area of Palisade Avenue known as the “Strip.”

Following the 2012 arrests of the Strip Boyz, GMF members continued to engage in acts of violence and intimidation to preserve GMF’s dominance within the Schlobohm Housing Project and the surrounding areas. Members of GMF worked together to distribute narcotics, but above all, they were aligned in their disputes with rival gangs in southwest Yonkers. GMF members had disputes with gang members from various nearby neighborhoods, including Cottage Place Gardens, Warburton Avenue, Highland Avenue and Riverdale Avenue. These disputes resulted in a number of violent incidents among the gangs, including assaults, stabbings and shootings.

From approximately 2008 to 2014, GMF was engaged in a violent dispute with members of a rival gang from Highland Avenue known as “Highland.” This dispute resulted in a lethal cycle of shootings and acts of violence. The dispute culminated on the evening of December 27, 2013, when a shooting occurred in the vicinity of Palisade Avenue and Elm Street in Yonkers, which was territory controlled by GMF. After the shooting, members of GMF received information that members of Highland were responsible for the shooting. The same night, DA’QUAN JOHNSON obtained a loaded firearm and traveled with other GMF members to territory controlled by Highland with the intent of retaliating. A GMF member then shot into a crowd that had congregated for a candlelight vigil at the intersection of Highland Avenue and Jackson Street. One of the bullets hit Tyrone Arthur in the chest, killing him.

A grand jury returned an indictment July 16, 2014, charging Johnson and two others in connection with the murder of Arthur. On December 10, 2014, a grand jury returned an indictment charging 13 members and associates of GMF—including the initial three—with the same offenses, as well as additional racketeering, narcotics and firearms offenses.

To date, all but one of the remaining defendants have pled guilty.

Johnson was sentenced to 20 years in prison on the racketeering conspiracy and 10 years in prison on the murder conspiracy, to run consecutively, followed by three years of supervised release.