Gang leader and Brooklyn rapper Ra Diggs sentenced to 12 life terms plus 105 years

[mson]

UPDATE:

That Ronald Herron would be sent to prison for the rest of his life was a foregone conclusion when he strode into Brooklyn federal court on Thursday, winking and smiling at friends and family.

But before that happened, Mr. Herron, 33, a onetime rapper who performed under the name Ra Diggs, and who was convicted of violently running a branch of a notorious drug gang and killing three people, set off fiery exchanges involving his supporters, the judge, prosecutors, the weeping sister of one of his victims and court officers.

“You guys sit here and continue to paint this picture that I’m the devil incarnate, the scourge of righteousness — it’s all crap,” Mr. Herron said, seething at prosecutors before he was sentenced. “Even the most dim prosecutor could have secured a conviction under this atmosphere of guilt they built. They did all but point a big, red arrow of guilty up on that projection screen.”

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis sentenced Mr. Herron to 12 life terms plus 105 years. He told Mr. Herron that his speech proved that he was smart and well-spoken, and that he possessed not a scrap of empathy for his victims.

“You have shown a complete lack of remorse for your abhorrent conduct,” the judge said during the hearing, which lasted about an hour and a half. “Even today, in this courtroom, you give answers that show you are clueless about the misery you have inflicted on other people and you are reconstructing through some fantastic thoughts what has happened in this case.”

Mr. Herron was convicted after one day of jury deliberations in June 2014 on 21 counts, including three murders, racketeering and drug trafficking. Prosecutors said he rose to the top of a “set” of the Bloods gang called Murderous Mad Dawgs that controlled the cocaine and heroin markets in the Gowanus and Wyckoff Houses in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood.

In court, Elizabeth Zapata, the sister of Victor Zapata, whom Mr. Herron killed in 2009, addressed the court alongside Mr. Zapata’s daughter, Skylar, 5, who wore white bows in her pigtails and clutched a pink teddy bear.

“Since the day he murdered my brother,” Ms. Zapata wept, “my life has never been the same.”

As she spoke, several of Mr. Herron’s supporters stood up and walked out.

Later, after Mr. Herron’s lawyer, Kelley Sharkey, asked that he be held in a facility where his own 5-year-old daughter could visit him, Judge Garaufis asked if there was a facility where Mr. Zapata could receive visits from his family. More than a half-dozen of Mr. Herron’s supporters stood up and shouted down the judge, prompting court officers to escort them out.

“It’s a sham!” yelled Shanduke McPhatter, 36, one of Mr. Herron’s friends.

Outside the courthouse, he said he thought the judge’s comments were unprofessional. “I was hoping the system wouldn’t be biased, and sentence him to make an example,” he said.

That is exactly what an assistant United States attorney, Shreve Ariail, had asked for. He told the judge that Mr. Herron was perhaps the worst criminal he had ever prosecuted. “A message needs to be sent that this kind of behavior, this kind of obstruction, this kind of contempt for the law cannot be tolerated,” he said.

Mr. Ariail added that another reason to impose a long sentence was to minimize any future effects Mr. Herron could have on his community. Even in solitary confinement, Mr. Ariail said, Mr. Herron was recently found with a dozen razor blades hidden in his mattress.

“I really don’t think there’s a good chance Mr. Herron will stop committing crime in prison,” Mr. Ariail said.

Throughout the court session, Mr. Herron winked at his friends and his family, rolled his eyes, sighed and stared at the overhead clock. When he had his chance to speak, he reasserted his innocence and said that his incarceration violated the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery.

“As you sit here, you denigrate me like I’m some sort of societal pestilence,” he said. “What have you contributed to my community?”

Speaking just before delivering his sentence, Judge Garaufis turned the question back on Mr. Herron.

“You personally exacerbated one of your community’s greatest blights,” he said. “You’re obviously an intelligent person, and an articulate person. You could have done something different. Instead you chose to lead a criminal organization and commit violent robbery and murder.”

As the judge spoke, Mr. Herron stared up at the clock.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/n...-ra-diggs-gets-12-life-prison-terms.html?_r=2

--------------
How dangerous was the Gowanus Houses five years ago? Even the project’s most violent gang leader wore a bulletproof vest for protection.
Charismatic kingpin Ronald (Ra Diggs) Herron also happened to be the cause of much of the mayhem, as a jury will hear this month when he goes on trial for murder and drug trafficking.
Herron, charged in a 23-count racketeering indictment, could go away for life if convicted. His reign of alleged dope selling was brought down by snitches, posting rap songs about committing crimes on YouTube and littering in the Brooklyn housing project he had terrorized.
“I stopped hundreds of people in my career and he’s first person who was wearing body armor,” Police Officer Carlos Anchundia testified in Brooklyn Federal Court recently.
Herron wasn’t carrying a gun when he was stopped by the cop, but he received a summons for tossing a cellophane gum wrapper on the ground. The next day, the feds issued a grand jury subpoena for the heavy military-style body armor he was wearing.
I stopped hundreds of people in my career and he’s first person who was wearing body armor.
Herron’s case is the federal government’s third prosecution strike since 2005 against drug crews in the Gowanus and the neighboring Wyckoff Houses. Past gang leaders Gerald and Robert Price are serving life terms and more than a dozen of their minions are also incarcerated.
“As time went on, Herron’s status in the Bloods rose along with the reputation and strength of his enterprise, until Herron became one of the highest ranking Bloods in New York,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Shreve Ariail said in court papers.
Despite the takedowns, Gowanus remains one of the most crime-ridden housing projects in the city, with 62 index crimes in 2013 — a category that includes murder, rape, robbery and assault. That’s more than triple the number of serious crimes reported in 2009, the year before Herron was taken off the streets.
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said that federal investigations have made projects like Gowanus safer for residents, but the takedowns are not a panacea.

Susan Watts/New York Daily News Herron terrorized the Gowanus Houses in Brooklyn, which is one of the most crime-ridden housing projects in the city.
“We do not imagine we are going to eliminate crimes in any particular areas which include housing projects, but we do believe the prosecutions have improved the quality of life for residents,” Lynch said. “We are part of the solution ... but we are not able to federally prosecute every crime that occurs in a housing project.”
Longtime tenant Ed Tyree, 65, said things have gotten better at the 1,100-unit complex compared to the Wild West atmosphere of the past when drug dealers, and not the Housing Authority, appeared to rule the area. “They (drug dealers) sat in the swings on the playground and dealt so your kids couldn’t use the swings,” he recalled. “I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I think it’s gotten better.”
Herron, 32, is a larger-than-life figure — handsome with the chiseled physique of a body builder. He was half of a budding rap duo called the “Murda Team” with partner Uncle Murda. They recorded a CD called “Pray for My Enemies” featuring boastful lyrics about murder, mayhem and the grim realities of project life. He hung out with rapper Waka Flocka and former Knicks forward Al Harrington and promoted his songs on Internet radio shows.
He landed on the feds’ radar around 2000 as an up-and-coming hoodlum. Herron was shot by a drug rival in Gowanus and allegedly ordered his associates to kill the gunman two days later, according to court papers.

Mark Bonifacio/New York Daily News Police are regular sight at NYCHA houses. Herron was stopped by a cop in Gowanus Houses for tossing a cellophane wrapper, but later got in more trouble for the body armor he was wearing.
Herron rapped these lyrics: “I don’t respect the shooter because he shot me in the legs and two days later he was dead, the little n-----. See, if he was smart he would have shot me in the head because I can get ya shot from my hospital bed.”
He beat the murder rap and returned to the streets in 2007. Herron allegedly killed Richard Russo in the elevator of a Gowanus building in 2008 and Victor Zapata in a Wyckoff courtyard in 2009.
When Herron was arrested wearing the body armor, he told the cops he had to protect himself because he had been shot in the past.
Defense lawyer Robert Soloway declined to comment.




http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...ght-littering-article-1.1747249#ixzz2y8KlCDHd

 

[TrifeGod]

awwwwwwwwww shyt.....good but read

 

[Still Benefited]

Does he rap any better than Uncle Murda?if not throw em under the jail...nah but I hope if I ever get locked up they talk about how good looking I am in the write up

 

[charmander]

Does he rap any better than Uncle Murda?if not throw em under the jail...nah but I hope if I ever get locked up they talk about how good looking I am in the write up

ra diggs was actually aight, him and uncle murda made some good music together before he got jammed up

 

[Kings County]

 

[Black smoke and cac jokes]

“As time went on, Herron’s status in the Bloods rose along with the reputation and strength of his enterprise, until Herron became one of the highest ranking Bloods in New York,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Shreve Ariail said in court papers.

how many you got out there?

 

[Suicide King]

ra diggs was actually aight, him and uncle murda made some good music together before he got jammed up

He was average, but Murda stepped it up when they was on a track together.

 

[Scientific Playa]

project goons on attack again ....

NYCHA units see spike in crime that outpaces city, leaving residents in fear
In the last five years, the New York City Housing Authority projects saw a 31% spike in major crimes, while the rest of the city experienced a 3.3% increase, records obtained exclusively by the Daily News show. Some public housing residents say they are afraid to leave their homes or even open their doors.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...-housing-soar-article-1.1747195#ixzz2y8tWpWXJ

 

[Krazy]

Good read looks like they gone throw the book at him though

 

[torcher]

He was actually a ok rapper

 

[FreshAIG]

Free Ra Diggs!

 

[FreshAIG]

how many you got out there?

A lot. He ran his set under Pete Rollack aka Pistol Pete

 

[the cac mamba]

 

[FreshAIG]

He was cool with Slim Dunkin too

"I had Diggs in the A, knocking nikkas tooth out (Big HOMIE!)" - Slim Dunkin

 

[Flav]

i never heard this.somebody need to post a link to the mixtape.

i love that real stupid nikka try me if you want to street shyt.