PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Federal prosecutors are charging eight suspected gang members in the death of a teenager in North Philadelphia, among other crimes.
U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, says a gang known as Omerta, based in Strawberry Mansion, would kill people for money.
The defendants are accused of killing 24-year-old Chaundra Jones, a Delaware County mother of two, and injuring two other women in a botched murder-for-hire plot in September 2021.
Prosecutors say two months later, the defendants killed 14-year-old Samir Jefferson in broad daylight while he waited for a bus on a Feltonville street corner because they felt the boy mocked their gang.
The defendants names in the nine-count indictment include Jahlil Williams, a.k.a. "Kill Bill," 25, and Kyair Garnett, 23, who were already charged in Jefferson's death; Rakiem Savage, 26; Haneef Roberson, 23; Biheis Moore, 24; Rakiem King, 25; Ward Roberts, 25; and Harry Draper, 46, who also went by "Coach" and "Unk."
Charges include murder, racketeering, conspiracy to commit counterfeiting, among other offenses.
Prosecutors say the gang was funded through a million-dollar counterfeiting operation up and down the Eastern Seaboard and by defrauding COVID-19 pandemic unemployment programs.
If convicted, some defendants may receive prison sentences of a 20-year maximum, while others could be sentenced to life.