Bloods Gang thought he’d testify, so they shot him dead. 3 sentenced in N.C. killings.
Three Bloods street gang members who pleaded guilty to conspiracy involving murder were sentenced in Charlotte to 35 years in prison this week, federal prosecutors said.
Two of the gang members — Tyquan “Savage” Powell, 24, of Charlotte, and Lamonte “Murda Mo” Lloyd, 26, of Scotland Neck in Eastern North Carolina — committed two murders and three attempted murders in early 2016, prosecutors said.
The pair fired bullets into a car in Scotland Neck, killing their intended target, 22-year-old Jimmy Ray Daniels Jr. of Scotland Neck, court records show.
Powell and Lloyd believed Daniels was cooperating with police and would testify in a criminal case against one of their “close associates,” prosecutors said.
Powell and Lloyd also killed 29-year-old Cheeontah Howard at a Red Carpet Inn and Suite in Gastonia in 2016, Charlotte Observer news partner WBTV reported..
In connection with the Gastonia murder, Thomas “Mr. Trippbadd” Oliver, 34, of Gastonia also was sentenced to 35 years by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Frank Whitney, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray’s office..
Court records show Oliver was a local Bloods gang leader who was present when Howard was killed. The Bloods gang also is referred to as UBN, short for United Blood Nation, according to prosecutors.
Whitney sentenced a fourth UBN member, 23-year-old Marquel “Mayhem” Cunningham of Kings Mountain, to 15 years in prison for his role in the 2014 attempted murder of a man he believed to be a member of the rival Crips gang, according to court documents.
Cunningham pointed the man out to fellow Bloods members and flashed UBN gang hand signs, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release. They fired at least a dozen shots at the man as he left a car and ran, according to documents.
Luckily for him, records show, they missed.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Bloods Gang thought he’d testify, so they shot him dead. 3 sentenced in N.C. killings.."