By: Richard L. Smith
A Newark man was sentenced to multiple life terms in federal prison Tuesday for his central role in a violent street gang based in Jersey City’s Marion Gardens Housing Complex, authorities announced.
Myron Williams, 31, also known as “Money” and “Tunchi,” received life sentences for racketeering conspiracy and for murder in aid of racketeering.
He was additionally sentenced to 20 years for drug distribution and 10 years for using a firearm during a violent crime. U.S. District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz ordered the sentences to run consecutively.
Williams was one of several defendants convicted or pleading guilty in connection with the long-running investigation into the Marion Gardens street gang, which prosecutors said has committed numerous acts of violence since 2013, including three murders.
Another gang member, Khalil Kelley, 26, of Jersey City, was previously sentenced on June 5 to life in prison, plus 10 years, for his role in a fatal 2021 shooting.
A third defendant, Jawaad Davis, 23, also of Jersey City, was sentenced Tuesday to more than 14 years in prison for helping to orchestrate a robbery that ended in a deadly shooting in 2022.
Eight additional individuals await sentencing. One of them, Roger Pickett, 24, of Jersey City, was convicted at trial alongside Williams and Kelley.
The others, including individuals from both Newark and Jersey City, pleaded guilty before trial and will appear before Judge Farbiarz in the coming weeks.
Court documents and testimony revealed the gang used social media to lure victims to their deaths.
In two separate murders—March 29 and November 20 of 2021—gang members posed as acquaintances on Instagram to get rival gang members to open their doors before ambushing and fatally shooting them.
In the third murder, which occurred on November 1, 2022, Davis arranged a fake drug deal that led to a robbery at the housing complex.
During the robbery, gang members held two men at gunpoint. One man escaped, but the other was shot and killed by Pickett.
Investigators documented hundreds of drug deals around the housing complex and identified Herbert Thomas as a key supplier of heroin, fentanyl, and crack cocaine to the gang.
During a coordinated arrest operation in March 2023, law enforcement recovered narcotics, ammunition, packaging materials, bulletproof vests, and a loaded firearm from multiple locations tied to the defendants.
All remaining defendants will be sentenced in Newark federal court.