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SDNY COURTHOUSE, Sept 6 – Kafano Jordan was up for sentencing on September 6 on two firearms counts he pled guilty to, and the courtroom was more full than usual for proceedings. The rap connection of one co-defendant Daniel Hernandez explained some of the attendees. More on Patreon here. But there were family members too. Inner City Press rode the elevator up with Kifano Jordan's uncle, who said he was very worried.

 The mandatory minimum sentence was 15 years, and that is what Judge Engelmayer ultimately gave. In doing so he ran through Kifano Jordan's year of gun play, and more obscure state crimes before them. Defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman said, "People don't hire me to plead guilty, they hire me to go to trial." (Full disclosure: Lichtman gave Inner City Press an update earlier in the day, as it got off the delayed subway, on his OneCoin crypto-currency case.)

 More on Patreon here.

 Kifano Jordan came from Trinidad; Lichtman said his father essential abandoned him and he joined a gang, Nine Trey, in order to fit in. When he gets out in 15 years, Probation can search his computer and phone, if those technologies are still in use; he would face a 25 year mandatory minimum if he used a gun again for a crime.

  Judge Engelmayer, who starts the related trial of remaining defendants later this month, recounted how he has overseen Bronx gangs cases with 76 and 26 defendants; he spoke of the need for general deterrence. This particular sentence will get multiply-covered. But most in the SDNY do not. Watch this site.

Tekashi 6ix9ine's video "Billy" was deemed partially admissible as trial evidence against his Nine Trey Bloods gang co-defendants on September 4 by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Paul A. Engelmayer.

   After citing a Federal Rule of Evidence about statements of a co-conspirator, Judge Engelmayer said he would exclude portions of the video showing "extreme misogyny." He chided the US Attorney's Office for not having addressed the issue and urged them to do better in future evidentiary arguments. Then Engelmayer declared a comfort break.

  Here is the video.  Inner City Press will have more on this.

Faheem Walter while awaiting sentencing in the Metropolitan Correctional Center used a contraband smart phone to live-stream on Instagram Live, here. This came up at his August 14 sentencing in the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods case best known for the involvement of rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine a/k/a Daniel Hernandez. Walter's lawyer said he wishes he'd never met Hernandez. More on Patreon, here.

  Judge Engelmayer wrote off the video as a statement of "I'm still standing," not any walk-by from the acceptance of responsibilities for which he lowered Walter's sentencing guideline to 68 to 74 months. He showed some mild surprise that the phone got in to the MCC for live-streaming.

  But will there be any follow up? There wasn't when Inner City Press on July 31 exclusively reported that Jeffrey Epstein was being allowed to dominate, all day every day, one of only two legal meeting rooms in the MCC's Special Housing Unit, just by having the money to have one lawyer after another come in and sit with him.

  Judge Engelmayer, after sitting revising his sentence in front of a quiet, half filled courtroom, looked up and read highlights from letter submitted by Walter's family members, asking in each case if the author was in the courtroom. Then after crediting Walter for not using the gun he carried, and for the colostomy bag he had has to use since himself being shot, Engelmayer imposed a below guidelines sentence of 62 months. This drew applause.

  Across Pearl Street in the courtroom used by Circuit Judge Richard J. Sullivan, in another gang case which the US Attorney's office characterizes as not "significant," a defendant is now facing an above-guidelines sentence. Call it a tale of two conspiracies - or of two judges. We'll have more on this. For now, more on Patreon, here.

Back on May 9 when Fuguan Lovick appeared in court shackled on May 9 to plea guilty, it began as a routine allocution.  Then Lovick implied, at least temporarily, that it was self defense. See below.

 On June 17, co-defendant Kintea McKenzie was granted his request to remain in New York City in a Bureau of Prisons facility until his sentencing, instead of being "farmed out." The filing: "ORDER as to Kintea McKenzie: On the application of LISA SCOLARI, attorney for KINTEA MCKENZIE and without objection from the government, IS HEREBY recommended that the United States Marshal Service and the Bureau of Prisons house Kintea McKenzie (AKA McKenzie Kintea) 86587-054 in a BOP facility in New York City until he is sentenced. (Signed by Judge Paul A. Engelmayer on 6/17/2019)."

 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.

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