| In SDNY Tekashi 6ix 9ine Co
Defendant Kifano Jordan Asks To Postpone
Sentencing 8 Weeks
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon,
Periscope
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
June 11 – When Fuguan Lovick
appeared in court shackled on
May 9 to plea guilty in the
Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods case
best known for the involvement
of rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine
a/k/a Daniel Hernandez, it
began as a routine
allocution. Then Lovick
implied, at least temporarily,
that it was self defense. See
below.
Now on June
11 counsel for another co
defendant who has pled guilty,
Kifano Jordan, has asked to
adjourn his sentencing from
July 10 for eight weeks until
September 6. The reasons given
by defense attorney Jeffrey
Lichtman are that "it is
taking longer than we had
anticipated to locate and
retrieve certain records
concerning the defendant's
personal history and
characteristics (see 18 U.S.C.
Section 3553(a)(1)) as well as
certain financial records,
which we believe will be
relevant at sentencing."
On June 10
when Aljermiah Mack appeared
before U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
Paul A.
Engelmayer in
shackles, Lichtman
and his
associate were in
the audience -
and Engelmayer
demanded twice
that they stop
speaking. He
asked, Who are
you? Then he
added that
they practice
in this court.
Call it it off
day.
With a
September 4
trial date,
Assistant US
Attorney
Michael
Longyear said
that only Mack
and two others
have not pled
guilty, and
that one of
those two is
on the verge.
So will
Tekashi6ix9ine
not have to
testify?
Mack's
lawyer Louis
Fasulo said
his client is
eager for a
speedy
resolution; he
will begin
reviewing
discovery
immediately.
The government
seized two of
Mack's phones
when he was
arrested on
June 6; they
are seeking
search
warrants for
those and his
Instagram
account. The
whole
proceeding had
the feeling of
a very genteel
push to plead
guilty. We'll
have more on
this.
Back on May 9
when Lovick, also known as Fu
Banga, offered his own
description of what he did on
April 21, 2018 at the Barclays
Center in Brooklyn, Judge
Engelmayer did
not accept it.
Lovick said that
outside the door of a boxer, a
group ran at him; he drew a
gun and fired it into the air
to make them step
back.
Judge Engelmayer
said this allocution wouldn't
do, with its implication of
self defense and failure to
mention the Nine Trey Gangsta
Blood organization. He urged
Lovick, still in chains, to
spend ten minutes with his
defense lawyer Jeffrey G.
Pittell to discuss a prepared
allocation which would jibe
with counts six and seven of
the superseding indictment to
which he was ostensibly
pleading
guilty.
Pittell, with
whom Inner City Press spoke
just outside the courtroom,
had previously filed a motion
to suppress and to dismiss. He
had an interesting argument
that the New York State crime
of menacing - trying to cause
the fear of bodily harm -
would not fit even the
superseding lesser included
charge to which Lovick was
pleading guilty. Pittell told
Inner City Press this is an
issue of first
impression.
But as Judge
Engelmayer put it when after
two breaks he accepted
Lovick's guilty plea, lawyers
can always make arguments but
it was his view that there was
no real claim of self-defense
in this case. Pittell referred
to a video of the incident but
Judge Engelmayer said he had
not seen it. Venue was also
questioned; that too was
smoothed over.
As more and more
of the initial defendants in
the overall USA v. Jones
/ Tekashi 6ix 9ine case
plead guilty, to some the
remaining question is the
pleading-out of the
defendant(s) who are NOT
affiliated with the Nine Trey
Gangsta Bloods. Inner City
Press will continue to cover
this case. For now, a bit more
on Patreon, here.
For more on this case, including
the April 30, 2019 multiple defendant discovery
conference before Judge Engelmayer, click here.
***
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