Leonard Mathews Ordered A Shooting In The Bronx That Injured Three Bystanders
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that LEONARD MATHEWS was convicted by a jury of assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering, as well as firearms, ammunition, and crack cocaine distribution offenses. The verdict followed a seven-day trial before the Honorable J. Paul Oetken.
According to allegations in the Indictment and evidence introduced at trial:
MATHEWS is a leader, or “big homie,” in the Gangsta Milla Bloods, or “GMB,” a subset of the United Bloods Nation gang that operates in the Bronx and engages in racketeering activity, including narcotics distribution. On October 20, 2017, MATHEWS ordered a subordinate gang member to shoot someone with whom MATHEWS previously had a physical altercation. The shooting resulted in the injury of three innocent bystanders on Morris Avenue between East Kingsbridge Road and East 196th Street in the Bronx. On the night of the shooting, following a closed-door meeting with MATHEWS and other members of the gang, the same Bloods foot soldier that MATHEWS ordered to do the shooting stabbed and left for dead one of the principal witnesses to the shooting.
MATHEWS, 27, of the Bronx, New York, was convicted of aiding and abetting or willfully causing assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; aiding and abetting or willfully causing the discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, which has a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison; aiding and abetting or willfully causing the possession of ammunition by a felon, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; and distribution and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. MATHEWS will be sentenced by Judge Oetken on January 17, 2019.
The statutory maximum and minimum sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for information purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant would be determined by the judge.
Mr. Berman praised the investigative efforts of the Bronx Violent Crimes Squad of the New York City Police Department.
