| Murder of Shopkeeper from
The Gambia and The Bronx Forgotten By US
Attorney Press Office
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
Honduras
BBC
The
Times (UK)
The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Dec 11 – Bubacarr
Camara came to The Bronx from
The Gambia, hoping to bring
his wife and son to join him.
Every day he woke up and went
to work in the BNC General
Merchandise T-shirt Spot on
Manhattan's Upper West Side,
on Amsterdam Avenue near 104th
Street.
Then in
the middle of the day on June
18, 2015 he was shot and
killed by robbers. Along with
the $279 they stole from
Bubacarr Camara, they also
took the store's rudimentary
video surveillance
camera. They threw the
camera and storage device, but
not the money, into the river.
This
murder was revolved for seven
years in prison, below,
followed by a December 11
announcement that "LATIQUE
JOHNSON, a/k/a “La Brim,”
a/k/a “Straight 2 Business,”
a/k/a “Breezy,” a/k/a “Boss
Dog,” 39, of the Bronx, New
York, was sentenced today to
30 years in prison in
connection with his leadership
of the Blood Hound Brims, a
violent street and prison gang
that operated in New York City
and elsewhere, and his
participation in narcotics
trafficking and acts of
violence, including two
shootings in 2012.
JOHNSON was convicted on March
27, 2019, following a
five-week jury trial before
Judge Gardephe, who also
imposed today’s sentence.
..Donnell Murray, 39, of the
Bronx, New York, was convicted
following a jury trial of
racketeering conspiracy,
assault in aid of
racketeering, narcotics
conspiracy, and firearms
offenses. Murray was
sentenced in November 2019 to
20 years in prison.
Brandon Green, 36, of the
Bronx, New York, was convicted
following a jury trial of
racketeering conspiracy,
narcotics conspiracy, and
firearms offenses. Green
is facing a mandatory minimum
of 20 years in prison and will
be sentenced in
2020. David
Cherry, 39, of the Bronx, New
York, was convicted following
a guilty plea to a firearms
offense. Cherry faces a
mandatory minimum of seven
years in prison and will be
sentenced in 2020.
But what
about Bubacarr Camara's
killer?
Four and a half years later on
November 15, 2019 a man who
pled guilty to the murder of
Bubacarr Camara came up for
sentencing in the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
before Judge Paul G. Gardephe.
In the gallery where Inner
City Press was the only media,
there were a number of
Assistant US Attorneys but no
family member or friend of
Bubacarr Camara while he had
been alive.
AUSA Jessica Feinstein,
signing for US Attorney
Geoffrey S. Berman, had a week
before written to Judge
Gardephe that "we have been
unsuccessful at contacting the
family members of murder
victim Bubacarr Camara."
Of course, this can happen
when sentencing takes place
long after the murder and also
long after the guilty plea.
The government's letter gives
no indication of any attempt
to reach Bubacarr's friends or
co-workers such as Dong Kun
Cho, or his many family
members in The Gambia.
Why in the courtroom's gallery
along with Inner City Press
were there detectives and
Assistant US Attorneys? Was it
to avenge Bubacarr Camara or
avenge his distant family and
still-young son?
No. It's that
this defendant had, after the
murder, agreed to cooperate
with the US Attorney's office.
Now he was asking to be
released for "time served,"
and the US Attorney's office
in context supported the
request in their 5K1
letter.
Despite having covered the
trial in which this defendant
testified, Inner City Press is
choosing here not to publish
his name.
His
lawyer, whom we will also
leave unnamed, argued that he
will be in danger (though not
as much, it must be noted, as
Bubacarr Camara was at midday
on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan).
AUSA
Feinstein requested, and Judge
Gardephe granted, the sealing
of the transcript of the
sentencing and most documents
connected to it.
The court docket is left with
an indictment, under then US
Attorney Preet Bharara, that
did not even name the victim
and decedent, Bubacarr Camara,
and got the address of his
place of work and place of
death wrong, listing it as
2251 Seventh Avenue,
Manhattan.
While the US Sentencing
Guidelines in this case of
murder called for a life
sentence - plus 15 years -
Judge Gardephe imposed a
sentence of seven years, which
minus the 52 months to
defendant has already served
while cooperating with the
government comes to 32
additional months, or two
years and eight months.
Seven years for a human life
should be subject to scrutiny
and public debate; certainly
the victim's family, friends
and community have a right to
know, denied to them by the
sealing of these records. It
could have been worse, or more
lenient: recently a man who
bribed the United Nations,
Francis Lorenzo, got time
served at the urging of SDNY
prosecutors, here.
Inner City Press will have
more on this. It is also
covering at least three recent
trials in which cooperating
witnesses were used in
exchange for 5K1 letters and
requests for time served,
starting with Daniel Hernandex
a/k/a Tekashi 6ix9ine (who the
US Attorney's Office also
called a model cooperator), to
be sentenced by SDNY Judge
Paul A. Engelmayer on December
18. Inner City Press will
live-tweet the proceeding if
it can.
Then there are those who took
greater risk in testifying
against the brother of
Honduras' current president.
One, Magdaleno, whose
notebooks were introduced at
trial before SDNY Judge P.
Kevin Castel has since been
assassinated in a supposedly
maximum security prison in
Honduras.
It is
unclear if the SDNY US
Attorney's Office or DOJ have
done anything about this
crime which is presumptively
traceable to the president of
Honduras Juan Orlando
Hernandez.
Most recently Inner City Press
has been covering the
cooperation of OneCoin found
Ruja Ignatova's brother
Konstantin Ignatov, part of a
$4 billion fraud. Inner City
Press' coverage has been
credited by the BBC,
The
Times (UK),
Daily
Mail,
and in the crypto-currency
media.
But
who will cover this sentencing
for the murder of Bronxite
Bubacarr Camara originally
from The Gambia? And not to
write about it, even with this
self-imposed restrictions,
would be to become complicit
in this very human life cut
short right in Manhattan in
the Southern District of New
York, and to leave its judges
and prosecutors without any
oversight. Watch this site.
***
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