By Forum Staff
On Thursday and today, a federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Moeleek Harrell, Derrick Ayers, Franklin Gillespie and Anthony Kennedy on 21 counts of an eighth superseding indictment charging them variously with racketeering, murder, murder conspiracy, robbery, drug offenses, money laundering and bribery of state correction officers.
The defendants are members of a violent Brooklyn-based street gang known as the “Bully Gang,” which operated and committed crimes in and around Bedford Stuyvesant with a headquarters located at 1625 Fulton Street. However, many of the crimes described below occurred in Queens—including on Rikers Island.
Harrell was one of the founders and the leader of the Bully Gang; Ayers was a high-ranking member; Kennedy was a longstanding member; and Gillespie was a violent enforcer for the gang.
Tuesday’s verdicts followed a 13-week trial before United States District Judge Brian M. Cogan. When sentenced, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of life in prison and mandatory minimum sentences ranging from 15 to 55 years.
Ayers was convicted of murdering Jonathan Jackson, an associate of the rival “Stukes Crew” gang, at a gender reveal party for Harrell’s child on March 3, 2018, in Brooklyn. Gillespie was convicted of conspiring to murder Mike Hawley in April 2020 to prevent him from informing authorities about the murder of Paul Hoilett in Brooklyn on April 11, 2020. Hawley was murdered in Queens four days later, on April 15, 2020.
Photo Courtesy of U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of NY
Anthony Kennedy
Ayers and Harrell were convicted of conspiring to murder Chris King, who had previously killed a Bully Gang member. King was stalked, including having his court appearances tracked, and was ultimately shot outside a Queens restaurant. A woman who was with King at the time was also wounded. Both survived their injuries.
Finally, Harrell, Ayers, Gillespie and Kennedy were convicted of illegal possession, brandishing and discharge of firearms.
Harrell and Kennedy were convicted of conspiring to smuggle drugs into Rikers Island from at least 2019 until 2021. During that time, members of the Bully Gang arranged for papers and comic books soaked in synthetic cannabinoids, also known as “K2,” to be mailed to inmates at Rikers, smuggled in by third parties, including correction officers and sold to inmates. Once inmates received the K2-soaked papers, they sold smaller quantities to other inmates at a substantial profit.
Harrell, Ayers, Kennedy and Gillespie were convicted of a separate, years-long scheme to transport large quantities of drugs, including cocaine base, heroin and fentanyl, from New York and New Jersey to Maine, where members and associates of the Bully Gang sold the drugs out of stash houses. The narcotics were transported in vehicles equipped with concealed compartments, also called “traps,” that were professionally installed. Ayers was also convicted of running numerous “stash houses” in Maine, from which his underlings sold drugs on behalf of the conspiracy.
Harrell and Kennedy were convicted of participating in the Rikers Island drug trafficking scheme by bribing correction officers at Rikers. Harrell’s leadership of the gang continued even after his detention at Rikers, where he led a drug trafficking, bribery and money laundering scheme responsible for smuggling drugs into the jail through the use of co-conspirators and the payment of bribes to correction officers.
