纽约Brooklyn帮派头目Jason Soto谋杀案被定罪：2015年枪杀帮派首领Shakim Rivera，面临强制终身监禁
美国司法部纽约东区联邦检察官办公室宣布，纽约市Brooklyn的帮派组织Cypress Gangsta Crips头目Jason Soto（绰号「Twin」）被联邦陪审团裁定三项罪名全部成立，包括为敲诈勒索活动实施谋杀、用枪支致人死亡，以及持有可卡因意图分销。现年37岁的Soto在量刑时将面临强制性终身监禁。
本案审理历时两周，由联邦地区法官Ramón E. Reyes主持。庭审证据显示，Soto所属的Cypress Gangsta Crips是Eight Trey Crips的分支，盘踞在Brooklyn东部Cypress Hills Houses一带，成员以暴力维护帮派地位、执行帮规并恐吓对手，同时靠抢劫、诈骗、枪支与毒品交易牟利。
检方在庭上证明，2015年2月19日，该帮派成员Demetrius Graham（绰号「Duke」）在Brooklyn熟睡时被枪杀；帮派首领Shakim Rivera未经帮派授权下令行凶，理由是他认为Graham不忠。这起命案令帮派分裂。Soto认定Rivera是幕后主使，遂策划报复。2015年2月22日晚间，Soto将Rivera诱出Cypress Hills一栋公寓楼，开车把他带到Brooklyn的Canarsie社区一条住宅街道，与另一名帮派同伙一起将Rivera枪杀。2016年至2017年Soto服刑期间，他还写下一份手稿，描述自己杀害Rivera的动机、帮派身份，以及为「同伙所受的严重冒犯」报复的必要性。
纽约东区联邦检察官Joseph Nocella表示，这次定罪向Cypress Hills Houses及所有社区的居民传递了一个信息：执法部门将追究这类犯罪组织的暴力罪行，无论过去多久。联邦调查局（FBI）纽约外勤办公室助理主任James C. Barnacle Jr.表示，Soto对Rivera的报复性谋杀震动了当地社区，FBI与伙伴机构将继续识别并瓦解暴力犯罪者。纽约市警察局（NYPD）局长Jessica S. Tisch表示，Soto作为暴力帮派头目，冷血策划处决了自己的一名成员。
检方表示，此案源于FBI、NYPD与纽约东区联邦检察官办公室针对Cypress Hills Houses一带帮派暴力展开的长达十年的调查，该调查已起诉20多名被告，罪名涉及毒品交易、非法持枪、抢劫与谋杀。本案案件编号为24-CR-511，由该办公室有组织犯罪与帮派科负责起诉。
Brooklyn Gang Leader Jason Soto Convicted of Murder: Faces Mandatory Life Sentence for 2015 Killing of Gang Leader Shakim Rivera
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced that Jason Soto, also known as "Twin," a leader of the Cypress Gangsta Crips (CGC) in Brooklyn, New York, was convicted by a federal jury on all three counts of a superseding indictment: murder in aid of racketeering, causing the death of CGC leader Shakim Rivera through the use of a firearm on February 22, 2015, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine in late 2024. Soto, 37, faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment when he is sentenced.
The verdict followed a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Ramón E. Reyes. As proved at trial, the CGC is a subgroup of the Eight Trey Crips based in the Cypress Hills Houses of East New York, Brooklyn. Its members committed acts of violence to promote the gang, enforce its rules and keep rivals in fear, and earned money for the gang through robbery, fraud, and firearms and narcotics trafficking.
On February 19, 2015, CGC member Demetrius Graham, also known as "Duke," was shot and killed while asleep in his girlfriend's bed in Brooklyn. The murder was ordered by Rivera without the gang's authorization, because Rivera perceived that Graham had been disloyal, and it splintered the gang. Believing Rivera was responsible, Soto plotted his retaliation. On the evening of February 22, 2015, Soto lured Rivera out of an apartment building in Cypress Hills and drove him to a residential street in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, where Soto and another CGC associate fatally shot him. Between 2016 and 2017, while incarcerated, Soto wrote a manuscript describing his motive for killing Rivera, his membership in the Crips, and the necessity of retaliation for a grievous act committed against a comrade.
"Today's verdict sends a message not only to the residents of the Cypress Hills Houses who were terrorized by Soto and his Crips gang, but to all communities, that law enforcement will hold these criminal enterprises accountable for their violent crimes, especially cold-blooded murder as in this case, no matter how long it takes," stated U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. said Soto's retaliatory murder shook the Cypress Hills Houses and the surrounding community, and that the FBI/NYPD Metro Safe Streets Task Force will continue to identify and dismantle violent offenders. NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said that, as the leader of a violent gang, Soto orchestrated the execution of one of his own members in cold blood.
The case is the result of a decade-long investigation by the FBI, the NYPD and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York into gang-related violence in and around the Cypress Hills Houses, which has resulted in charges against more than 20 defendants for drug trafficking, illegal weapons possession, robbery and murder. The docket number is 24-CR-511, and the case is being handled by the Office's Organized Crime and Gangs Section.
来源：GSM·美国（原文链接）
图片来源：位于Brooklyn的西奥多·罗斯福联邦法院大楼（225 Cadman Plaza East，本案审理法院）。照片：Beyond My Ken，CC BY-SA 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons。当事人无官方照片，以法院标准建筑图代之。
