| Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that four current and six former inmates have been indicted for violent attacks in Rikers Island jails. Three men were brutally beaten during a “war” between alleged Bloods and Crips, and one man was left with deep wounds after a petty dispute.
District Attorney Clark said, “We continue to prosecute violence in our jails, even when the victims do not cooperate with the investigation out of fear, because we must send the message that no one should be subjected to wanton brutality. Along with our Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, I started the Rikers Island Violence Reduction Initiative to target crime drivers who have committed multiple or extreme acts of violence to other inmates.”
District Attorney Clark said the 10 defendants were charged in three indictments with Attempted Gang Assault in the first-degree, second-degree Assault–nine defendants were also charged with third-degree Assault. The alleged Bloods gang members are Marlon Willocks, 28, Joshua Straud, 26, Akieme Nesbitt, 43, Javon Morris, 26, Donnell Hickman, 23, Kali Brown, 23, Jacquin Gordon, 27, Durail Miles, 31, and Andy Punnette, 37. David Gonsalves, 33, is the 10th defendant.
Nesbitt, Gonsalves and Miles were arraigned this week in Bronx Supreme Court. Bail was set at $200,000 cash/$200,000 bond each for Nesbitt and Gonsalves, and at $100,000 cash/$100,000 bond for Miles. The other defendants are awaiting arraignment.
According to the investigation, on October 8, 2022, in the George R. Vierno Center, Willocks, Straud, Nesbitt, Morris, Hickman and Brown allegedly beat an alleged Crip gang member they believed had attacked a Blood on the street. When another inmate stepped in to help his fellow Crip, he was also assaulted. Both victims were punched and slashed and one was beaten with a cane.
According to the investigation, on October 13, 2022, in the George R. Vierno Center, Gordon, Miles and Punnette allegedly attacked a rival Crip gang member from behind while the victim was using a jail telephone. The defendants slashed the victim and then punched and stomped on him.
According to the investigation, on March 10, 2023, in the Eric M. Taylor Center, Gonsalves approached a new detainee who was moving his bedding near Gonsalves and his crew. The defendant and his cohorts allegedly trapped the victim in a corner and beat him. Gonsalves then allegedly slashed the victim in the back twice causing deep wounds.
The cases are being prosecuted by Jonathan Abramovitz, Director of Rikers Island Violence Reduction Initiative, and Senior Investigative Assistant District Attorney Miriam Bell-Blair of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, under the supervision of Jose Arocho, Deputy Chief of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, and Francis Alberts, Chief of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, and under the overall supervision of Denise Kodjo, Deputy Chief of the Investigations Division, and Wanda Perez-Moldonado, Chief of the Investigations Division.
District Attorney Clark thanked Trial Preparation Assistant Roderick Kelly for his assistance in the case.
District Attorney Clark thanked DOC Investigators Korab Hasangjekaj, Walter Holmes, Jeffrey Rios and Cecil Phillips of the Department of Correction Intelligence Bureau for their work in these investigations.
An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.
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Author: The Bronx Chronicle
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