NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Crips gang leader who shot a rival gang member to death inside a Brooklyn hookah lounge in 2015 was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, prosecutors said.
A judge handed the sentence down to Larry Pagett, 41, of Brooklyn, nearly three years after he was convicted of murder in-aid-of racketeering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said in a press release.
“Larry Pagett will deservedly spend the rest of his life behind bars for brazenly committing an execution-style, gang-related murder inside a lounge in Brooklyn, Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis said in a statement.
“This office will continue working tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to eradicate the murderous violence of street gangs like the Eight Trey Crips and end their wanton disregard for human life,” Kasulis added.
Pagett, the East Coast leader of the Eight Trey Crips, was inside the Buda Hookah Lounge on Flatbush Avenue on Aug. 28, 2015 when he ran into Chrispine Philip, a member of the rival Folk Nation gang, prosecutors said.
The two gangs had been having a Brooklyn-based turf war “for years,” and Pagett believed Philip had murdered a Crips member in Trinidad that spring, the attorney’s office said.
Not long after the two saw each other, Pagett whipped out a gun and shot Philip several times, including once in the back of the head, prosecutors said.
He also shot and injured a bystander, according to prosecutors.