November 23, 10

NEWS / Edison Man Pleads Guilty to First-Degree Racketeering in Gang-Related Murder in New Brunswick In 200

TRENTON – Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced that a member of the Nine Trey Headbustas set of the Bloods street gang has pleaded guilty to racketeering for his role in a gang-related murder in New Brunswick in 2008.

According to Director Taylor, Davon Parker, 22, of Edison, pleaded guilty late Friday, Nov. 19, to first-degree racketeering before Superior Court Judge Kevin G. Callahan in Hudson County. In pleading guilty, Parker admitted that, acting on behalf of the gang, he assisted co-defendants Syree Hakins and Tyrane Mathis in the murder of fellow gang member Devin Thompson, 19, who was fatally shot on Nichol Avenue in New Brunswick on June 2, 2008. Parker admitted that he assisted in planning and carrying out the shooting. Murder charges are pending against Hakins and Mathis. Thompson’s friend Christopher Whitsett was shot in the back but survived.

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Parker be sentenced to 12 to 15 years in state prison. He must serve 85 percent of the sentence imposed without possibility of parole under the No Early Release Act. Parker is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 11. Supervising Deputy Attorney General Lauren Scarpa Yfantis took the guilty plea for the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau.

Parker, Hakins and Mathis were charged in a Nov. 4, 2010 state grand jury indictment obtained by the Division of Criminal Justice, which charged the alleged leader of the Nine Trey Headbustas, Michael Anderson, and 18 other members and associates of the gang with first-degree racketeering. Anderson, 38, allegedly led the gang from New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. The crime of racketeering carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in state prison. Anderson and Hakins are also charged in separate counts with promoting organized street crime, which carries a sentence of 15 to 30 years in state prison.

The indictment stems from “Operation Hardhat,” an investigation that began in 2007 and was conducted by the New Jersey Department of Corrections Special Investigation Division, the State Police Street Gang North Unit, the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and the New Brunswick Police Department. They were assisted by the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, Jersey City Police Department, Newark Police Department, Paterson Police Department and other law enforcement agencies.

http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases10/pr20101122a.html