Jury Still Out in Brooklyn Brutal Drug Gang Case

By MARCO POGGIO & ELIZABETH KELLY

Two Brooklyn gang bangers who allegedly tortured and killed six victims in the East New York, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Bushwick areas of Brooklyn were in Federal Court on Tuesday as a jury continued to ponder their fates.

Christian John, 31, was charged with racketeering and six counts of murder. Marvin Johnson, 30, was also charged with racketeering and one count of murder.

Tensions purportedly were running high in the jury room as reports emerged that on the first day of deliberations last week an altercation arose between two jurors, one of whom told the other, “Don’t point your finger at me otherwise I’m going to hit you.”  The two then had to be separated by a court officer.

The theme of violence ran through the long trial as the jury heard some 50 witnesses, many of them cooperating gang members, gave vivid testimony of the brutal methods used by the alleged drug gang leaders.

Given this background Johnson’s lawyer, Ephraim Savitt made the unusual prediction that his client was likely to be convicted. “It would be shocking if there was no conviction,” he said. “The death penalty was very nearly sought.”

The indictment alleges that John and Johnson, were part of a street gang known as the “Hull Street Crew,” who committed a series of crimes between 2000 and 2011. Those crimes include racketeering, drug trafficking, gambling on dogfights, and savage murders. Key cooperating witness and gang member Shaquan Jones,31, testified that one victim, Earl Obermuller, was tied to a chair, bound with duct tape, and set on fire. Two other victims, Jason Bostic and Aaron Formey, were thrown down a flight of stairs and shot several times, Jones added.

John’s family members who were in the courtroom denied that John was guilty portraying him as a family man who “has never been in trouble” and who has a wife and two kids.

“We are hoping for the truth to come out,” said John’s mother, who did not give her name. “Somebody needs to speak the truth.”