By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Nov 8 – Daniel Hernandez a/k/a Tekashi 6ix9ine was sentenced to 24 months of total imprisonment in a proceeding live tweeted by Inner City Press before U.S. District Court Judge Paul A. Engelmayer.
Now Hernandez' co-defendant and car-jacker Anthony Ellison a/k/a Harv, already serving a long sentence, has been indicted again for a smuggle conspiracy while in the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Inner City Press went to the detention of release hearings of Griffith-McKnight, lead defendant Perry Joyner and another inmate, Valerio, and live tweeted it here and here (podcast here)
The case was assigned to Judge Andrew L. Carter.
Jump cut to October 26 when this was docketed: "Minute Entry for proceedings held before Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr:Arraignment as to Anthony Ellison (6) Count 1s,3s and Starlin Nunez (11) Count 1s,2s held on 10/19/2023. Defendants arraigned and enter pleas of NOT GUILTY to the Superseding Indictment. Jury Trial & Selection set for 11/20/23 at 10 a.m."
On November 28, Inner City Press attended the trial, opening and then the prosecutor's critique. Counsel for Starlin Nunez referred to the cooperating witnesses as rats who made a deal with the Devil.
Later, outside the presence of the jury, the AUSA noted this, and argued that to compare the gravity of the cooperators' admitted crimes with those the defendants are being tried for is akin to nullification. Judge Carter said he would address things as they arose, that invoking the Devil might be inappropriate but the use of the word rat, at least in closing argument, probably was not.
On November 29, cooperator Alamo was on the stand, describing how he was moved to Tier 9 and hid the cellphone he bought in the wall behind defendant Starlin Nunez' bed. We said everyone used CashApp, and some cigarettes were broken up during boofing...
On November 30, Alamo was cross examined about how much he fights and smokes in jail, from Fort Dix to FDC in Philadelphia, and why he cooperated (faced a 20 year minimum). Video of the empty MCC was shown again, unable to be muted, at least initially. The question "did you ask your father's advice on drug deals" was objected to, and withdrawn.
On December 4, on cross was a member of the BOP Special Operations Response Team which search the MCC for a gun, and phones. But he could not remember when phones had been found, while testifying that not all BOP facilities have phones in them. With him off the stand, talk turned to the past acts of witness Jose Reynoso, and the defense's duties under Rules 608 and 609.
On December 5, Reynoso was on the stand, being asked to explain his CashApp transfers to people he said he didn't know. Musta been Junior who told me to do it, he said repeatedly. There were test payments of $1, and a variety of Cash Tag names including ones with dollar signs in them. These were not shown on the video monitor facing the courtroom gallery.
On December 6, another cooperator was on the stand, a man with many names. Nunez' lawyer demanded he answer yes or no, ICE was letting him stay for this testimony? Yes. Indicted for drug trafficking in Texas in 2000? Only found out about it in 2018. Jurors looked on.
On December 7 cooperators Taveras was on the stand describing how "Chino" got in trouble after "that man died" -- seeming, from the timing, to be a reference to Jeffrey Epstein -- as he was perceived as ratting out the guards involved. But it was the Bloods who tried to get to Chino - he gave Tavares a phone and told him NOT to delete the text messages, as he managed to escape to another part of the prison. The name used: Arepa.
On December 8, Taveras was on re-direct. The AUSA pointedly asked if the death of "the man" in 2019 had anything to do with the gun. Taveras said no. He disclosed another drug deal, paying "the Chinese" and then the Mexican cartels, and an arrest in Massachusetts. He explained his knowledge of 5K1.1 letters and that he wants time served.
On December 11 a witness Kearse in a green prison uniform testified about the relative price of K2 leaf or paper in MDC and MCC - and how Joyner brought him both, and oxtail. It emerged that due to the stopping of visitors during COVID, the guards became the only way to get contraband.
On December 12, the jury was shown photographs of SIM cards and phone charges founds in Ellison's can of coffee creamer - other contraband could not be attributed, because it was found in a closet no one could provide who had been in last.
On December 13, the jury heard how CashApp payments by inmates' family members coincided with Officer Joyner's tours on 7 North. The mother of inmate Kearse, who testified about the oxtail meals he got in the MCC, sent Joyner $800....
Then the trial went into a publicly-unexplained hiatus; a lawyer not directly involved in the case told Inner City Press it was health related. On December 15 it was said that Juror 12 felt sick then, COVID confirmed. Then one of the lawyers, and a court reporter. Nothing more in the docket until this, on December 26: "ORDER as to Anthony Ellison, Starlin Nunez. The trial will resume at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. The parties should report to the courtroom at 9:15 am (Jury Trial set for 1/3/2024 at 09:30 AM before Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr).
On January 3, Inner City Press was there when the AUSA delivered the rebuttal summation, arguing that the cooperators' interest was to tell the truth, about Deuce heads and spicy mackerel, and that the money transfers were not as argued sports betting, because the payments flowed to Joyner and not the other way.
On January 5, guilty verdicts - and then the clean up: "ORDER as to Anthony Ellison, Starlin Nunez. IT IS HEREBY ORDERED the New York Police Department (NYPD) and United States Marshals Service (USMS) permit counsel and their paralegal, Renee Foggia, to enter Pearl Street with their vehicle, 2021 BMW Wagon X3, Registration No. D16SMC, and temporarily park outside the side entrance 40 Foley Square in order to retrieve and remove trial boxes from the courthouse. (Signed by Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr on 1/5/2024)(jw)."
On April 12, Mario Feliciano was sentenced to five months to begin on July 11, anywhere "with the exception of the MDC-Brooklyn."
On November 8 on Nunez, the US wrote in asking for 41 months. Sentencing is set for November 14.
The case is US v. Joyner, et al., 21-cr-673, (Carter). More on Patreon here.
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