A Black Guerrilla Family gang hit man has been convicted of carrying out execution-style shootings in East Baltimore on the gang's behalf, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Kenneth "Slay" Jones, 28, one of 48 defendants charged in a gang case in November 2013, was convicted last week of murder, attempted murder, assault, gun and gang charges, the Baltimore state's attorney's office said.
The conviction came after 13 of the other defendants went free and a jury found the gang's reputed leader, Gerald Johnson, not guilty of all charges.
Twenty-seven of the alleged BGF members charged pleaded guilty. Only a handful of those convicted have received more than five years in prison.
The sweeping case relied on a seldom-used gang statute that allowed prosecutors to tie all the defendants to the violence in the Greenmount neighborhood over the span of eight years.
Jones was found guilty of the January 2007 murder of Gregory Rochester in the 200 block of E. 25th St. after Rochester was rumored to have been cooperating with police, prosecutors said.
The attempted-murder charges stemmed from a second incident four years later, in which Jones shot Perry Johnson, another man the gang suspected of talking to police, on East North Avenue, prosecutors said.
In October 2013, Jones shot Lamontae Smith twice while he was in the 300 block of E. 24th St., prosecutors said. Jones also was linked to the shell casings found at the scene when he discussed the gun in a phone call from jail in 2013, prosecutors said.
In all three cases, witnesses identified Jones as the shooter, prosecutors said.
Of all the convictions so far, defendant David Hunter has received the stiffest sentence, two life terms plus 40 years, after two trials. Two other men, Wesley Brown and Montell Harvey, received sentences of 10 and eight years, respectively.
Jones faces three life sentences, plus 70 years. His sentencing is scheduled for August.
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