Pubdate: Fri, 03 May 2002
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Copyright: 2002 Richmond Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesdispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365
Author: Tom Campbell

DRUG CONSPIRACY CASE OPENS

The Fulton Hill Hustlers drug-racketeering and conspiracy case that federal 
prosecutors say clears six metropolitan Richmond murders from the middle 
1990s opened yesterday in U.S. District Court.

All but three of more than a dozen original defendants have pleaded guilty. 
Marcus "Pep" Johnson, Angelo "Peedie" Irving and Corey "Popeye" Murchison 
are facing a jury.

Some of their convicted co-defendants will be testifying for the 
prosecution in the trial, which is scheduled to run through next week.

The prosecution case holds that Johnson is responsible for three killings 
and Irving for one, among other violent acts that are alleged in the 
indictment as part of the racketeering charges. Murchison is accused of 
drug-trafficking conspiracy.

All three are alleged to be members of the Fulton Hill Hustlers, described 
as a drug gang made up of neighborhood boys - most now adults - who used 
violent initiation rites and gang signs. Members hustled drugs to make 
money and defended even minor violations of their Fulton Hill turf with guns.

In his opening statement yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert E. Trono 
outlined the alleged murders, a couple of drive-by shootings in which one 
man was shot in the eye and an attempted murder, all of which took place in 
1995 or 1996.

"It's a very serious case," Trono told the jury. "A lot of people were 
killed, a lot of drugs were sold, a lot of violence was used."

David Lassiter Jr., lawyer for Irving, told the jury not to be easily 
convinced by the prosecutors that the defendants were all members of an 
organization devoted to drug trafficking at a level sufficient for 
conviction under the racketeering laws cited in the indictment.

"What they're going to show you is simple guilt by association," Lassiter 
said. "What they're trying to say is, if you live in Fulton Hill . . . 
you're a Fulton Hill Hustler."

Lassiter also told the jury that many of the prosecution witnesses will be 
testifying in order to qualify for a sentence reduction. "For some of them, 
if [they are] ever going to see the light of day again, this is the only 
bus that's coming."

He urged the jury to "peel the layers away" after hearing testimony about 
the crimes alleged by the prosecution.

"You're going to hear three or four different stories about how they 
happened. . . . The most you're going to hear is guilt by association."
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