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Skylar “S-Dot” Davis, 22, a “Southside” gang leader, pleaded guilty this week to his role in a racketeering conspiracy, and to murdering Samuel Stubbs during a robbery as he was playing cards on Lander Street in 2015.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said that as part of his guilty plea, Davis - who was already in prison for weapon and drug charges - also admitted to committing or helping to commit an additional six nonfatal shootings of Southside’s gang rivals in Orange County over a nine-month period in 2015 and 2016.
According to Berman, from 2014 through June 2017, the Southside street gang operated around the intersection of South Street and Chambers Street in Newburgh.
“In order to gain funds for the gang, protect the gang’s territory, and promote the gang’s standing, members of Southside engaged in, among other things, narcotics trafficking, robbery, and acts involving murder,” Berman said. “To that end, Southside members sold heroin, crack cocaine, and marijuana in the gang’s territory, promoted their gang affiliation on social media sites such as Facebook, possessed firearms, and engaged in shootings as part of their gang membership.
On Aug. 13, 2015, Davis and other members of the Southside gang, decided to rob the high-stakes card game Stubbs was playing near the intersection of Lander and Courtney Streets. Davis and a co-conspirator approached the three players, guns drawn, and began firing. Stubbs, 67, died from his injuries and two others were hospitalized.
Berman noted that beginning in the summer of 2015, Stubbs and other gang members engaged in several retaliatory shootings with the Yellow Tape Money Gang, their biggest rival.
As part of his plea, Davis also admitted to committing or assisting in the attempted murder of Yellow Tape Money Gang members on six separate occasions over his nine-month reign of terror throughout Newburgh.
Davis, who was arrested in June 2017 as part of a multi-year investigation into gang violence in Newburgh, was already serving a 16-year sentence. He was charged along with three other Southside members of the racketeering conspiracy and murder in an indictment that was unsealed in January last year. When he is sentenced later this year, Davis will face a mandatory minimum term of 25 years and a maximum term of life in prison.
“Skylar Davis’s string of shootings terrorized the residents of Newburgh for far too long, and his cold-blooded actions tragically caused the death of Sammy Stubbs, a longtime Newburgh resident who was just playing a neighborhood card game,” Berman said. “Davis now rightfully faces decades in jail for his crimes.”
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