Say His Gang Terrorized Brooklyn Neighborhoods
Following a five-week trial, a federal jury convicted the reputed leader of a violent street gang responsible for six murders and other crimes across Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York, prosecutors announced.
Christian John, 30, the leader of a violent criminal enterprise called the “Hull Street Crew,” was found to be responsible for six murders, two attempted murders, armed robberies, murder-for-hire, narcotics distribution, and gambling on dog fighting.
Also convicted was Marvin Johnson, 30, who committed a brutal murder with John that the jury found to have aided the criminal enterprise.
When sentenced by United States Senior District Judge Frederic Block, both defendants face mandatory life sentences.
The verdicts were announced by U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta E. Lynch; FBI New York Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos and Police Commissioner William Bratton.
John was found guilty of the 2000 murder of Charlemagne Lormand, the 2008 murder of Barry Haynes, the 2008 murder of Daquane Shelton and the 2011 murders of Jason Bostic and Aaron Formey. Both defendants were found guilty of the 2006 murder of Earle Kevin Obermuller.
During the Obermuller murder, the defendants lured the victim to an abandoned building where they duct taped his entire head and watched him suffocate to death. The defendants then set him on fire.
In the 2011 murders of Bostic and Formey, the defendant Christian John ordered his crew members to bind the victims with duct tape and to kill them.
Among his many other crimes, John was also found guilty of assaulting a crew member by tying him up and pouring scalding water over his body.
Lynch extended her grateful appreciation to the FBI and the NYPD for their outstanding assistance in this case.
The government’s case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Celia A. Cohen, Soumya Dayananda, and Robert T. Polemeni.
