02-18-2011, 12:38 AM
Gang member gets three life sentences for two murders, kidnapping
September 22nd, 2010 3:43 am ET
A 26-year-old member of the street gang International Robbing Crew received three life sentences Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to two murders and a kidnapping with bodily injury.
Mr. Daquan Stevens already was serving a life sentence plus 75 years for another gang-related murder and attempted armed robbery when officers linked him to the other three crimes, according to the Atlanta-Fulton County District Attorney’s office.
Investigators originally charged Mr. Stevens in a 60-count indictment with 11 other members and associates of the criminal street gang, the district attorney's spokeswoman Ms. Yvette Brown said.
The original indictment charged the IRC with eight murders, several armed robberies, kidnapping, and tampering with evidence, Ms. Brown said.
The gang, some evacuees from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit five years ago, may have killed up to 30 people within a two-year period in an attempt to dominate the Atlanta crime scene, according to media reports.
The district attorney’s office provided these details on the three crimes:
Mr. Stevens and other gang members planned to burglarize Mr. Mamadou Barry, a Warehouse owner and business associate of Mr. Steven’s father. But when the African businessman returned home unexpectedly that November in 2005, the defendants hog-tied, handcuffed, duck taped, and suffocated (with a plastic bag over his head) him and left his body inside the bathtub of his West End apartment.
Less than a year later, gang members gunned down Ryan Harmon, a soldier who had just returned home after completing his tour in Iraq. Days before his murder, Mr. Harmon and his friends had a dispute with Mr. Stevens and his co-defendants outside a local nightclub. In the early morning hours of April 13, 2006, Mr. Stevens and his co-defendants saw Mr. Harmon driving and followed him. Mr. Stevens pulled out an AK 47 assault rifle and shot at the back of Mr. Harmon’s vehicle at least 14 times; hitting Mr. Harmon twice and causing him to crash.
Less than five months later Mr. Stevens and co-defendants held at gunpoint a man they were previously gambling with, intending to rob him. On Sept. 11, 2006, they forced Mr. Gary Lester into a vehicle and ordered him to call his girlfriend at their East Point apartment. While some gang members held Mr. Lester hostage in one location, other IRC members and associates burglarized his home, forced his girlfriend to strip naked and eventually took many of the victim’s personal belongings. The IRC members took Mr. Lester to a remote location, handcuffed him and tried to suffocate him with a plastic bag. But Mr. Lester broke free. Someone pointed a gun at the victim’s head but it jammed when the trigger was pulled. The gang members let Mr. Lester go at that point, concluding that it was an “Act of God” that he survived death twice.
http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-atlanta...kidnapping
September 22nd, 2010 3:43 am ET
A 26-year-old member of the street gang International Robbing Crew received three life sentences Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to two murders and a kidnapping with bodily injury.
Mr. Daquan Stevens already was serving a life sentence plus 75 years for another gang-related murder and attempted armed robbery when officers linked him to the other three crimes, according to the Atlanta-Fulton County District Attorney’s office.
Investigators originally charged Mr. Stevens in a 60-count indictment with 11 other members and associates of the criminal street gang, the district attorney's spokeswoman Ms. Yvette Brown said.
The original indictment charged the IRC with eight murders, several armed robberies, kidnapping, and tampering with evidence, Ms. Brown said.
The gang, some evacuees from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit five years ago, may have killed up to 30 people within a two-year period in an attempt to dominate the Atlanta crime scene, according to media reports.
The district attorney’s office provided these details on the three crimes:
Mr. Stevens and other gang members planned to burglarize Mr. Mamadou Barry, a Warehouse owner and business associate of Mr. Steven’s father. But when the African businessman returned home unexpectedly that November in 2005, the defendants hog-tied, handcuffed, duck taped, and suffocated (with a plastic bag over his head) him and left his body inside the bathtub of his West End apartment.
Less than a year later, gang members gunned down Ryan Harmon, a soldier who had just returned home after completing his tour in Iraq. Days before his murder, Mr. Harmon and his friends had a dispute with Mr. Stevens and his co-defendants outside a local nightclub. In the early morning hours of April 13, 2006, Mr. Stevens and his co-defendants saw Mr. Harmon driving and followed him. Mr. Stevens pulled out an AK 47 assault rifle and shot at the back of Mr. Harmon’s vehicle at least 14 times; hitting Mr. Harmon twice and causing him to crash.
Less than five months later Mr. Stevens and co-defendants held at gunpoint a man they were previously gambling with, intending to rob him. On Sept. 11, 2006, they forced Mr. Gary Lester into a vehicle and ordered him to call his girlfriend at their East Point apartment. While some gang members held Mr. Lester hostage in one location, other IRC members and associates burglarized his home, forced his girlfriend to strip naked and eventually took many of the victim’s personal belongings. The IRC members took Mr. Lester to a remote location, handcuffed him and tried to suffocate him with a plastic bag. But Mr. Lester broke free. Someone pointed a gun at the victim’s head but it jammed when the trigger was pulled. The gang members let Mr. Lester go at that point, concluding that it was an “Act of God” that he survived death twice.
http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-atlanta...kidnapping