10-18-05 -- Warner, Rondell et al. -- Guilty Pleas -- News Release

Four of Remaining "Lex Mob" Gang Members Plead Guilty; Jersey City Street Gang Eliminated Through RICO Prosecution

NEWARK - Four members of the murderous Jersey City street gang known as "Lex Mob" (or L.E.X Mob) pleaded guilty today, admitting their involvement in a racketeering enterprise that involved retaliatory murder, conspiracy to murder rivals and drug distribution, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

The four pleas - which came just as the gang members were about to go to trial - brings the number of guilty pleas in the case to 26 and eliminates the Lex Mob as an organized gang enterprise in Jersey City. A fifth and final guilty plea scheduled to occur was adjourned and is expected to be rescheduled soon.

Facing a RICO trial beginning today, the last five Lex Mob defendants - including leader Rondell Warner, 34, signed plea agreements, after jury selection was halted upon word that the defendants wanted to negotiate pleas with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Melissa Jampol. Each of the defendants appeared today before U.S. District Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh, with four of the five entering guilty pleas to respective roles in murder, murder conspiracies and cocaine trafficking.

Their guilty pleas expose them to sentences ranging from 20 years to life in prison. Sentencings are scheduled for Feb. 6, and all of the defendants were returned to custody, where they have been since their arrests in February and March 2002. There is no parole in the federal system, and defendants must serve most or all of their sentences.

"The Lex Mob is no longer," said Christie. "It was targeted by all levels of law enforcement and dismantled, piece by piece, member by member, until the gang ceased to exist. This is the kind of prosecution we've used before and one that all organized gangs in New Jersey should fear."

The Lex Mob took its name from the corner of Lexington and Bergen Avenues, the base of operations for cocaine distribution and an area where numerous drug- and gang-related murders and shootings had taken place between 1993 and 2002, the time period covered in a Superseding Indictment.

Of the 27 defendants first charged federally in a criminal complaint in March 1, 2002, twenty-two had already pleaded guilty leading up to the scheduled trial of Warner and his co-defendants. Of those 22, about half of them had signed cooperating plea agreements and were expected to testify at trial.

The guilty pleas were as follows:

• Warner, to two racketeering acts contained in Count One of the Superseding Indictment, charging Racketeering Conspiracy. Warner specifically admitted that he shot Tyrone Stevens on Dec. 8, 1993, on the corner of Lexington and Bergen. At the time, Stevens was a member of a rival organization, which was attempting to take over Lex Mob's drug distribution turf. He also admitted conspiring to murder an individual who had assaulted a close associate. In the shooting that occurred on Aug. 23, 1999, co-defendant Marcel Simmons fired into a crowd, killing William Simms, instead of the intended victim. Warner agreed to accept a 20-year sentence without parole.

• Marcel Simmons, 25, to Count One, Racketeering Conspiracy. Simmons specifically admitted the killing of Simms. Additionally, he admitted attempting to kill a rival drug dealer on orders from Warner. Simmons faces a maximum sentence of 20 years.

• Timothy Johnson, 26, to a separate criminal Information, charging Racketeering Conspiracy. He admitted conspiring to commit the Aug. 23, 1999 murder, as well as a 1995 shooting in which two people were wounded. Additionally, he admitted being involved in the Leb Mob's seven-year-long cocaine distribution conspiracy. Johnson also faces a maximum of 20 years.

• Rashawn LeGrande, 26, (the only of the defendants not charged with racketeering), to cocaine distribution conspiracy. LeGrande faces a theoretical maximum of life in prison but will likely receive a sentence closer to 10 years.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has four times used the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute to target street gangs. As with traditional organized crime, for which the RICO statute was originally created, street gangs like Lex Mob and Bloods gangs in New Jersey have sophisticated hierarchies with multiple layers of leadership. That hierarchy tends to insulate the top and most powerful members of gangs, who use lower-level members to commit individual crimes. That has made local prosecutions of the leading gang members difficult.

Instead, as was the case with Lex Mob, Jersey City police and the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office combined forces with the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office, which could employ the RICO statute, which allows prosecutors to focus on the organization as a whole, rather than focus on individuals or individual offenses.

Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Leslie Wiser, Jr.; officers and detectives of the Jersey City Police Department, under the direction of Chief Robert Troy, and members of the homicide and narcotics squads of the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Edward DeFazio, with an outstanding cooperative effort and effective prosecution of the Lex Mob members.

-end-

Defense Counsel:

Warner: Michael Robbins, Esq, Newark

Simmons: Timothy Donohue, Esq. West Orange

Santana: Gerald Ballarotto, Esq. Trenton

Johnson: Ruth Liebesman, Esq. New York

LeGrande: Cynthia Hardaway, Esq. East Orange