Two murders, two maimings, multiple robberies: A Columbus gang case heads to trial in 2023
The damage allegedly done by more than 20 accused gang members headed to trial next year in Columbus takes time to track, through a 116-count indictment.
It includes fatal and near-fatal shootings, multiple armed robberies, car hijackings and arson, and an array of drug offenses, all charged as elements in an organized crime operation run by a Columbus street gang called 4MG, described as a “hybrid” association that through the Gangster Disciples is affiliated with Folk Nation, a gang alliance formed in the 1980s.
The man accused of leading this criminal enterprise is Reginald Jackson, whose aliases include “El Dorado Red,” “Landlord,” and “Da Mayor of the City.” He founded the gang in 2016 to sell drugs, authorities say, and is linked to a series of 2017 crimes.
Besides racketeering and gang offenses, Jackson faces charges of murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, arson, concealing a death, and home invasion, plus gun and drug offenses.
He’s among nine suspects still held in the Muscogee County Jail. All were brought into Judge Bobby Peters’ court Tuesday to hear motions and ensure each had an attorney, and to decide whether to sever some cases from the others.
Jackson had a lawyer, but some of the other suspects did not. Some out on bond did not show up for court and were ordered arrested.
Peters agreed to sever 11 defendants’ cases from the others, so they will be tried first. Jackson will be among the first to go to trial.
Lance Cross, a special prosecutor from DeKalb County appointed by the state, told Peters he expects to take any guilty pleas in February, to have a motions hearing in March or April, and then to have a trial in June.
Peters, who had wanted to hold the trial this past August, said he hoped the first cases could be ready for a jury by March.
“I think March is pretty quick, judge,” Cross said.
The homicides
Here is how the indictment details the gang’s operation, and the violence it allegedly spawned in the summer of 2017:
It alleges 4MG members Jackson, Kendrick “King Kendrick” Washington and Bobby “Bobby Dollar” Williams ran an open market for illegal drugs at Cusseta Road Apartments, 2613 Cusseta Road, a 12-unit complex where Williams, a Gangster Disciple, collected rent from his associates and sold drugs from his home.
This is where Jackson on July 10 gunned down Michael Fleming during an argument, shooting the 34-year-old in the leg and head in front of other gangsters, executing Fleming to demonstrate his authority. Jackson afterward told his associates to put Fleming’s body in a stolen Pontiac G6, drive the car to Harbison Court and set it afire. He also ordered blood cleaned up in the apartments parking lot.
Police found the burning car with Fleming’s body in the trunk at 5:30 a.m. that day.
Fleming’s homicide at the apartments led to another shooting there that left a woman with permanent brain damage, as Jackson tried to eliminate two people who witnessed the execution, fearing they might talk to police. On July 20, at 5:20 a.m., Jackson and Dennis Lee “51” Brown broke into their apartment and started shooting, maiming one who was hit in the head.
The two women living there had witnessed more than one killing, the gang indictment says:
On July 7, three days before Fleming’s death, Jackson and other 4MG members at 2:20 a.m. went to an apartment on Rigdon Road to rob the occupants of drugs and money. They started shooting at Brandon Scott and two others when they got there, and Scott, 34, died from his wounds. Another victim hit in the head was left with permanent brain damage.
Jackson had feared the two women also might give police information on Scott’s slaying, investigators said.
Amid these fatal or debilitating shootings were a string of armed robberies or attempts that authorities allege older gangsters coached their recruits to conduct.
The robberies
Among those Jackson and Washington “encouraged and assisted” in the robberies were Jamal “Buddha Man” Head, Marquis “Take Off” Johnson, Darious “D Man” Robinson, Fredrette “Fredo” Culliver, Travonne “Tae Tae” Washington and Keyonna James, the indictment said, noting Kendrick Washington is James’ father and Travone Washington’s uncle.
Here are the robberies or attempts listed in the indictment, and the suspects charged:
- June l8, 12:06 a.m., the Money Back, 1400 Double Churches Road; Head.
- June 19, 11:59 a.m., the Summit gas station, 5757 Buena Vista Road; Head.
- June 23, 8:15 p.m., the Lucky Food & Lotto, 5425 Forrest Road; Marquis Johnson and Travonne Washington, who police said fled when Washington couldn’t get into a secured cashier area.
- June 23, 9:01 p.m., the Circle K, 1801 12th Ave.; Johnson and Washington.
- June 23, 9:30 pm., Little Caesar’s Pizza, 3379 Buena Vista Road; Johnson and Washington.
- June 24, 2:30 a.m., Mike’s Market, 2705 Manchester Expressway; Washington.
- June 26, 3:30 a.m., the Circle K, 1715 S. Lumpkin Road; Johnson and Head.
- June 26, 10 p.m., Dinglewood Party Shop, 1520 Wynnton Road; Johnson and Washington.
- June 29, 2:20 a.m., Denny’s restaurant, 3239 Macon Road; Head and Johnson.
- July 9, 9:55 p.m., the Big Cat station, 2936 N. Lumpkin Road, where police said Johnson, accompanied by Robinson, Culliver, and James, hijacked a woman’s red 2006 Pontiac G6.
- July 9, the Circle K, 2102 Wynnton Road; Robinson, Johnson, Culliver, and James.
- July 12, 10:50 a.m., Village Pawn Shop, 937 Fort Benning Road; Head, Johnson, and Quantavious Marcel Pigler.
The arrests
During this string of robberies, Columbus police began capturing some of the suspects, and collecting evidence that led investigators to the gang’s base of operations.
On June 24, as Travone Washington allegedly robbed Mike’s Market, his accomplices hijacked a 2012 Dodge Charger, shooting up the car and setting it afire at the Cusseta Road apartments, where police found it at 5:33 a.m. and collected evidence tying the guns used on the car to other crimes.
On June 26, Marquis Johnson and Travonne Washington allegedly took a pistol while robbing Dinglewood Party Shop. Police later found the gun outside the Cusseta Road apartments, where they arrested Washington, questioned Jackson, and collected information on Jackson’s gray Ford Crown Victoria.
On July 4, 2017 at 2:45 a.m., Reginald Jackson and others in that car went to Club Fetish, 4504 Armour Road, where they got into a dispute with the bouncers and started shooting outside, the indictment says. Surveillance video recorded the Crown Vic there, and investigators later found it abandoned on Brown Avenue after a police chase.
On July 7, after Brandon Scott was gunned down on Rigdon Road, the assailants fled in Kendrick Washington’s black 2003 Ford Crown Victoria and wrecked it turning onto a dead-end street, the indictment says. They had to be rescued by their other associates, it says.
The red 2006 Pontiac G6 taken July 9 from a woman on North Lumpkin Road was the same car police found burning the next morning on Harbison Drive, with Fleming’s body in the trunk. That led police to identify Darious Robinson, Marquis Johnson, and Fredrette Culliver as suspects in the carjacking.
On July 12, after the robbery at Village Pawn Shop, Head, Johnson and Pigler fled to Pigler’s home, where police arrested all three, the indictment says.
Alexander Jackson was arrested Aug. 3 and charged with evidence tampering in Fleming’s death, as police traced the fatal shooting back to the Cusseta Road apartments.
Detectives got warrants for Reginald Jackson’s arrest on July 19 and captured him the following Aug. 28, on Morris Road, in a trailer owned by Bobby Williams.
Still he was able to orchestrate crimes, the indictment says: “Once Reginald Jackson was in jail, he continued to direct illicit drug transactions through the use of the jail email system.”
The first trial
Prosecutor Lance Cross moved Tuesday to sever the more serious offenses from others on the indictment, prioritizing murder and aggravated assault cases linked by ballistics or other common elements.
Besides Reginald Jackson, the 11 suspects he expects to try first are Kendrick Washington, Dennis Brown, Jamal Head, Bobby Williams, Fredette Shamar Culliver, Alexander Jackson, Dontavis Devonte “C-Ryder” Matthews, Jimmy Chatman IV, Alex Jamar “Pistol” Thompson and Ricardo Deandra “Rico” Williams Sr.
“Evidence in each of the charges that the state intends to try first are inextricably intertwined with evidence regarding the other charged offenses,” Cross wrote in his motion to split these cases off. “For example, ballistics evidence ties both murders and the three aggravated assault cases together. In addition, the motives for each shooting all relate back to the existence of the gang, and street gang activity.”
Cross noted also that these alleged crimes “all occurred in the same area, within a three week period,” and that pattern “clearly represents a crime spree committed by the gang.”
That initial trial would leave these suspects’ cases yet to be resolved: Marquis Lamar Johnson, Quantavius Marcel Pigler, Keyonna Latrice James, Cedrick Lamar Dent Jr., Antonette Nicole Cage, Tonisha “Queen” or “Phat Face” Archibald, Reginald “Pig” Smith, Hykeem “Peso” Lomax, Devon “Man” Shepherd, and William Kadale “Snow” or “Snowman” Leverich.
So far only one defendant has pleaded guilty: Darious Jamal “D Man” Robinson pleaded to two counts of armed robbery, to racketeering and to violating Georgia’s street gang law. On Aug. 26, 2021, Peters sentenced him to 45 years with 15 to serve in prison and the rest on probation.
This story was originally published December 23, 2022 at 11:55 AM.