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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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No wonder the jail is overcrowded when it takes 5 years to prosecute the alleged Pierson Hood gang.
Flint Pierson Hood cases draw closer to completion after plea agreement reached
By Gary Ridley | gridley@mlive.com
on January 10, 2013 at 5:45 PM, updated January 10, 2013 at 7:30 PM
FLINT, MI --
The end to more than five years of legal battles over the alleged Pierson Hood street gang drew nearer this month after prosecutors reached a plea agreement with one suspect and a judge upheld a plea agreement with a second suspect.
Marte Fordham, 28, of Flint, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and one count of felony firearms Friday, Jan. 4, in front of Genesee Circuit Judge Joseph J. Farah.
Fordham was facing charges of two counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, carrying a concealed weapon, felon in possession of a firearm and felony firearm in the shooting deaths of Curtis Wade Jr., 24, and Gregory Baines, 26, at Club Xclusive on Sept. 10, 2005.
The plea agreement includes a Cobbs agreement for Fordham to serve 10 years to 22 years, 6 months in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 5.
His attorney, Kraig Sippell, could not be reached for comment.
Fordham was charged in late 2007 following the bust of the alleged Pierson Hood street gang, which authorities said operated a violent drug-dealing operation on the city’s north side.
Nearly three dozen people faced state charges following the raid, with accusations ranging from drug dealing to murder. Federal cases were also levied against some of those involved.
Those arrested in the raids dispute that they were gang members, saying they were part of a neighborhood group named after nearby Pierson Elementary.
Many of the cases have concluded in the state court system, but a handful of cases, including Fordham’s, remain on Farah’s weekly docket.
“It’s a long time coming,” Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said of the plea.
Samuel WoodGenesee County Sheriff
The prosecutor noted the complexities of the case, which included many of those charged reaching plea agreements in exchange for their testimony.
However, prosecutors have not always been particularly pleased with the cooperation that they received from the suspected gang members, with many changing their stories multiple times and nearly every one providing a different set of facts.
One such suspect who provided information that didn’t meet prosecutor’s standards was Samuel Wood.
Wood, 31, of Flint, reached an agreement with prosecutors in October 2008 that he would testify against his co-defendants in exchange for reduced charges.
The agreement called for Wood to plead guilty to second-degree murder and have more than two dozen other charges dropped -- including multiple murder and assault charges. He would be sentenced to a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Authorities believe Wood, along with a number of other co-defendants, sought to kill members of the rival Merrill Hood gang when they shot up a room at the Super 8 Motel on Pierson Road in Mt. Morris Township in September 2004 in retaliation for an attack on Wood’s older brother, Garner Wood.
Bobby Younger, a suspected Merrill Hood member, was believed to have shot Garner Wood -- who is still facing state charges as part of the raid -- and Pierson Hood members believed Younger was at the motel.
However, Younger was not in the room when Pierson Hood members allegedly opened fire on the rooms with 9-millimeter handguns and an AK-47 assault rifle, according to court testimony. Kenneth M. Edwards, 19, of Clio, and Marcus L. Ballard, 25, of Flint, were killed. Three others were injured.
Authorities also believed that Samuel Wood, along with other Pierson Hood members, killed Baines outside of Club Xclusive in retaliation for the killing of Wood’s sister’s boyfriend, Alvin Hicks.
Samuel Wood testified on both killings, but prosecutors sought to withdraw his plea agreement after he failed a polygraph test on information connected to an arson at Westwood Manor apartments in Mt. Morris Township that killed 25-year-old Kokona Vaughn and her 7-year-old daughter, Zeona Burress, on Sept. 9, 2005.
The fire happened the day before the double shooting at Club Xclusive.
Prosecutors said Samuel Wood and three other Pierson Hood members set the fire at the apartments to flush out Baines, who they believed was at the apartments. The Pierson Hood members were outside of the apartment ready to shoot Baines when he fled.
However, Pierson Hood witnesses have testified that the fire was started at the wrong building. Vaughn and Burress were killed when they were trapped on the third floor.
Samuel Wood’s attorney, Michael Ewing, argued that prosecutors could not withdraw the plea agreement because his client was not charged in the Westwood Manor case at the time of his testimony and that he already provided testimony against dozens of other people that the prosecutors used.
On Wednesday, Jan. 9, Farah ruled that prosecutors improperly withdrew the plea, saying that Samuel Wood’s testimony in the motel and club shooting fulfilled his plea agreement and that his false testimony in the Westwood case should not affect the agreement.
Assistant prosecutor Karen Hanson objected to Farah’s ruling, saying that the decision makes it acceptable for suspects to “almost” cooperate in order to fulfill a plea agreement.
"We objected on the record to the reinstatement of the plea," Leyton said.
Farah disagreed, saying that Samuel Wood’s failure to cooperate in the arson case was rectified when prosecutors filed conspiracy, murder and arson charges against him in a separate case.
“What he did was the right thing to do,” Ewing said of Farah’s ruling.
Samuel Wood is scheduled to be sentenced on the second-degree murder charge March 26. The arson case is still ongoing. He is currently serving 20 years in federal prison on multiple drug-related charges.
The case against Garner Wood is still pending. |
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Thu Jan 10, 2013 9:51 pm |
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