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Trayvon Hall - also known as “Tru,” and “G Tru,” 31, of Baltimore, was sentenced to 454 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release for racketeering and drug conspiracy charges related to his activities as the leader of the Eight Tray Gangster (ETG) Crips gang.
Another ETG Crips member, Marcus Williams, also known as “Gangsta C,” and “GC,” 34, of Baltimore, was also sentenced to 87 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for his role in the conspiracy.
US Prosecutor Erek Barron said that the ETG Crips were a violent subset of the Crips gang that originated in California in the 1970s, eventually operating on the streets and in correctional facilities in Maryland beginning in the 2000s.
For years, prosecutors say that the ETG Crips controlled the drug trade in particular territories in Baltimore City, including:
- The area around the intersection between West Baltimore Street and South Hilton Street in West Baltimore (the “Baltimore Hilton neighborhood”);
- The area around the intersection between West Lexington Street and North Fremont Avenue (the “Lexington Terrace neighborhood”);
- The area around the intersection between Frankford Avenue and Sinclair Lane in North Baltimore (the “Frankford Sinclair neighborhood”).
The ETG Crips members from the Baltimore Hilton and Lexington Terrace neighborhoods referred to themselves as the Baccwest ETG Crips—modeling themselves after the Baccwest ETG Crips in Los Angeles, according to officials, while ETG Crips members from the Frankford Sinclair neighborhood called themselves the Nutty North Side ETG Crips, with both groups working together for common criminal purposes.
According to their guilty pleas, Hall was the leader of the Baccwest ETG Crips in Baltimore, referred to as the “G” of the gang and Williams was a member of the gang.
The Baccwest ETG Crips operated street-level drug distribution “shops” in their neighborhoods, where they distributed heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, and marijuana, while targeting non-members of the gang who attempted to sell drugs in their territories.
Using social media, the ETG Crips asserted their claims to drug territories, intimidated rival gangs, witnesses, and rival gang members "to enhance the status of the ETG Crips and of individual members within the gang.”
Prosecutors say that gang members would post photos and rap videos to social media websites flaunting weapons and threatening to kill those who stood in the way of the gang.
Between May 2016 through November 2016, Hall and other ETG Crips conspired to murder members of the Black Guerilla Family (BGF) gang who operated a rival drug shop in the Lexington Terrace neighborhood, with Williams taking the lead in the murder.
On June 23, 2016, ETG Crips members attempted to murder two BGF gang members, instead shooting two innocent bystanders who were in the area at the time. The gang also shot BGF member Albert Pittman to death in the 4800 block of Midline Road in July 2016.
Officials said that on Nov. 11, 2016, in the 800 block of West Lexington Street, Hall opened fire on members of the rival BGF gang, killing BGF member Shyheim Brown and wounding two other victims
Immediately after the murder, prosecutors said that Hall sent a series of text messages about the shooting to a co-conspirator, saying “he had ‘Jus bashed the monkeys' (a derogatory term for members of BGF), and they ‘Wasn’t exspecting (sic) me be out early lmGCao (laughing my Gangster Crip ass off).”
As part of their plea, the two also admitted that between July 2017 and July 2019, they conspired to murder members of the Abington Avenue drug trafficking organization after taking over their territory.
They also planned to murder someone they believed cooperated with law enforcement and threatened a witness who testified against a fellow gang member in a state murder trial.
In total, Hall and Williams were sentenced for their roles in shooting or killing more than a dozen victims, according to the Department of Justice.
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