Last Members of Harvery Hustlers Federal Indictment Plead Guilty to Drug Dealing and Murder Charges

U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that JOEQUELL LEWIS, age 28, ANDRE ADDISON, age 24, and TERRENCE KELLEY, age 29, all of the Waggaman/Avondale areas, pled guilty this week to conspiring to distribute heroin and/or crack cocaine.  KELLEY also pleaded guilty to murdering a man to further his group’s drug trafficking activities and admitted to his role in two other shootings where the victims lived.  The three men were the last defendants in a twelve-defendant federal indictment charging drug and gun conspiracies, multiple shootings, and four murders against an off-shoot of the Harvey Hustlers gang.

LEWIS and KELLEY pled guilty to count one of the Superseding Indictment, which charges twelve defendants with trafficking more than a kilogram of heroin and 280 grams or more of crack cocaine.  The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of at least ten years up to life in prison.  KELLEY also pled guilty to Count 12, charging him and three others with causing the death of a man through the use of firearms, which is punishable to any term of years up to life in prison.  ADDISON pled guilty to a one-count superseding Bill of Information charging him with conspiring to distribute 28 grams or more of crack cocaine.  U.S. District Judge Lance M. Africk set sentencing for all three defendants on February 18, 2016.

According to court documents, LEWIS, ADDISON, and KELLEY were part of a drug trafficking organization that moved significant quantities of heroin and cocaine base on the West Bank.  Beginning in 2012, the group engage in a series of violent acts, beginning with a drive by shooting into a another vehicle where the driver and his front seat passenger were shot with an AK-47 while two young children, who were not hit, were in the back seat.  The group is alleged to have participated in four additional shootings, two of which ended in death.  KELLEY pleaded guilty to the murder of Emeal Washington and admitted to his participation in two other shootings.  Other defendants had previously pled guilty and admitted their roles in the murder of Doreatha Richardson.  In addition to the shootings and drug conspiracy, members of the group are charged with a weapon conspiracy, in addition to several substantive distribution counts.

HARRY SMOOT, ISAAC SMITH, RICHARD THOMAS, TERRELL WADE, LANCE SINGLETON, FRANKIE HOOKFIN, CLIFFORD SONNIER, and CHRISTOPHER BROWN have previously pled guilty and are awaiting sentencing.  KELLEY, LEWIS, and ADDISON were scheduled for trial on November 16, 2015, and were the last defendants to pled guilty.  Their pleas resolve the pending federal indictment, but several additional members of the Harvey Hustlers are still being prosecuted in Jefferson Parish.

The Superseding Indictment is a product of an ongoing investigation into the violent acts in furtherance of the drug trafficking by the Harvey Hustler gang and its various offshoots on the West Bank.  It represents the continued coordinated effort of the federal and state law enforcement authorities within the Multi-Agency Gang Unit (“MAG”), including the United States Attorney’s Office, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office, Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and officers of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Assistant United States Attorneys Greg Kennedy, David Haller, and Myles Ranier and Special Assistant United States Attorney Collin Sims, who is a former Assistant United States Attorney and the Criminal Chief at the St. Tammany Parish District Attorney’s Office, are in charge of the prosecution.