Three members of Philly street gang sentenced to decades in prison for 2021 murders
The men were convicted in the 2021 fatal shooting in Strawberry Mansion of Chaundrah Jones, 24, a Delaware County mother of two, whom they mistakenly targeted.
Three members of a Philadelphia street gang have been sentenced to decades in prison for committing several murders in 2021, including the fatal shooting of a woman they mistakenly targeted, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Monday.
Dontae Sutton, 21; Jamir Brunson-Gans, 22; and Elijah Soto, 20 — members of Big Naddy Gang, or BNG — were convicted and sentenced last month, Krasner said.
In September 2021, Chaundrah Jones, 24, a mother of two from Clifton Heights, Delaware County, was killed and two other women were wounded in an ambush shooting on 33rd Street near Diamond Street in the city’s Strawberry Mansion section.
The women had just left a birthday celebration at the 7th Star Lounge at 27th and Sergeant Streets in North Philadelphia, Krasner said.
At the time, police said one of the shooters was armed with an AK-47 rifle and another with a 9mm handgun when they fired 49 rounds.
Sutton, Brunson-Gans, and Soto realized the next day that they had targeted the wrong people, Krasner said.
The men, investigators later determined, had been hired for $10,000 by Jahlil Williams, the leader of another street group known as Omerta, to conduct the attack, Krasner said.
Williams was subsequently indicted federally for racketeering, homicide, and related offenses.
Sutton, Brunson-Gans, and Soto also killed Jordan Murray on the 2200 block of Huntingdon Street that same month. Murray was shot nine times over what investigators determined was a dispute on Instagram, Krasner said. Also that month, Sutton and Soto killed Jerrick Jenkins on the 2900 block of York Street.
Sutton pleaded guilty to three counts of third-degree murder and related offenses and was sentenced to 40 to 80 years in state prison.
Soto pleaded guilty to three counts of third-degree murder and related offenses and was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.
Brunson-Gans pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 to 70 years in prison.
“These young men have been held accountable for taking the life of a completely innocent woman and mother of two and for terrorizing a community with their wanton disregard for public safety,” Krasner said in a statement.
Krasner thanked Assistant District Attorney Joe Lanuti of the DA’s Gun Violence Task Force for prosecuting the case, Detective Timothy Hartman, who is assigned to the task force from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and Paul Haggerty, a task force analyst, “for poring over mountains of digital evidence,” as well as the Philadelphia Police Department, the ATF, and the U.S. Marshals Service.