Brooklyn gang leader, two members convicted on three counts of murder
A Brooklyn federal jury found three members of a violent street gang, the Folk Nation Gang, guilty of committing three murders in furtherance of gang activity, racketeering and other related charges.
Defendants Yasser Ashburn, Jamal Laurent and Trevelle Merritt are scheduled to be sentenced on July 10. Ashburn and Laurent face mandatory life imprisonment while Merritt faces 10 years to life.
During the three-week trial, federal prosecutors established that Ashburn, 31, led a Folk Nation set of 20 to 25 members that operated in the Ebbets Field Houses public housing community located in Crown Heights. Over a four-year period, beginning in 2007, the defendants, prosecutors argued, were responsible for numerous acts of gang-related violence, including homicides, non-fatal shootings, and robberies in and around Crown Heights and Flatbush, and elsewhere in the tri-state area. The violence escalated in the spring of 2008.