Photo Courtesy of U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of NY
Christopher Acevedo
By Forum Staff
A federal jury in Brooklyn returned a guilty verdict late Monday afternoon against Christopher Acevedo, the leader of “Wood City,” a violent criminal enterprise which also used the names “Yellow Tape Boyz” and “YTB,” of murder in-aid-of racketeering and causing death through the use of a firearm in connection with the August 2019 fatal shooting of a rival gang associate, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Photo Courtesy of U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of NY
Christopher Acevedo
The evidence at trial established that since at least 2010, the Wood City gang has been engaged in racketeering activity, including murder, drug trafficking, and various forms of fraud and identity theft. Acevedo, 28, was the founder and leader of the gang which was so named because many of its members lived around Woodhull Avenue in Jamaica, New York. Since at least 2011, Wood City has been involved in a war with rival “Snow Gang,” another violent gang based in Queens. During this period, members of Wood City and Snow Gang would regularly taunt and insult each other using social media platforms and phone calls. On Aug. 26, 2019, members of Snow Gang, including one of its leaders, robbed a gold “YTB” chain from a high-ranking member of Wood City while he was at a recording studio in Queens. Shortly after the robbery, the Snow Gang leader posted a photo himself wearing the YTB chain on social media. As a leader of Wood City, Acevedo was expected to retaliate for the chain-snatching to protect his gang’s reputation. The defendant and other Wood City members drove to Snow Gang territory and spotted a vehicle with the Snow Gang leader who had robbed the chain and other members and associates of Snow Gang. After following that vehicle to the front of a deli in the vicinity of 140th Avenue and Springfield Boulevard, Acevedo pulled alongside the vehicle and fired a dozen shots, killing the driver David Hutchinson.
When sentenced, Acevedo faces a mandatory term of life imprisonment.
