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Reputed gangleader Charles Willis, 27, and nine members of his “Get Money Boys” gang are charged with various counts that include murder, attempted murder and conspiracy, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said.
They were among 16 reputed members and associates of “Get Money Boys,” or “GMB,” who Grewal said sold heroin and cocaine in and around the Oakland Street Apartments.
New Jersey State Police seized several guns, along with nearly 20,000 individually wrapped heroin doses stamped “Dope Dick” and “Fruit Loops,” during the joint investigation, the attorney general said.
Davion Fenderson, 25, is charged with murder in what the attorney general said was the assigned killing of Michael Barnes, 32.
Willis ordered Barnes killed after he and other GMB members threatened his life on social media, Grewal said.
Fenderson carried out the order, shooting Barnes in the face on Commonwealth Avenue in Trenton this past Dec. 27, he said.
Detectives who arrested Willis and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Daysha M. Brown, at their Willingboro home earlier this month found a defaced gun within access of a toddler and an illegal high-capacity magazine, Grewal said.
The charges against Willis, an ex-con, include being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, as well as child endangerment.
In another incident, this past February, GMB members shot at two men whose car then crashed, then fired at a pursuing police officer, the attorney general said.
The Hamilton Township police officer, who was assigned to the New Jersey State Police Crime Suppression Central Unit Task Force, was in an unmarked car when he saw the shooting in the area of West State Street and Parkside Avenue, Grewal said.
He followed the suspects, who shot at him, he said.
Shaiquan Hearns, 21, Dion Battle, 28, and Yahonatan Salter, 28, all were charged with attempted murder of the officer (see mugshots above).
All three men and Willis also are charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder for shooting at the two civilians, Grewal said.
Hearns was also charged with attempted murder after Grewal said he shot a man in the leg on Lamberton Street last September.
In another incident, five GWB members opened fire on a group of people on Sanhican Drive, wounding two men, on May 1.
Willis, Hood, David Williams, 28, Shawn Anderson, 21, and Zaire Jackson, 24, are all charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder in that shooting.
“Gang violence has taken the lives of too many young people in Trenton, and the Get Money Boys have been a major contributor to that violence,” Grewal said.
The attorney general said state authorities also “plan to work closely with the community in the coming months to develop programs that have the power to turn young people away from the false glamor of gang life and show them a healthy and positive path forward.”
State Police Supt. Col. Patrick J. Callahan said success fighting the cycle of gang involvement, violence, and incarceration requires cooperation from “our partners in the community to develop programs that present positive alternatives for the youth of our capital city.”
For a complete list of those charged, along with more details, go to:
“Get Money Boys” Gang Linked to Four Shootings in Last 10 Months (NJ Attorney General’s Office)
Grewal commended the prosecutors, detectives, investigators and officers who participated in the investigation for the state Division of Criminal Justice, Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, New Jersey State Police, Trenton Police Department, Trenton Shooting Response Team and New Jersey Department of Corrections.
Deputy Attorneys General Cassandra Montalto and Mohammad Mahmood are the lead prosecutors in the case.
The investigating detectives are Sgt. Brian Woolston, Sgt. Kevin Gannon, Detective Scott Caponi, Detective Zachary Grey, and other members of the Gangs & Organized Crime Central Squad.
Grewal also thanked several agencies that assisted with arrests and warranted searches – among them, the U.S. Marshals Service New Jersey/New York Regional Fugitive Task Force, the Mercer County Tactical Response Team, and police from Hamilton Township, Ewing Township, West Windsor and Falls Township, PA.
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