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Me and this KILLER were in fifth grade together.
Drug Gang Leader Gets 109 Years In Slayings
Delafield Co-Defendant Sentenced to 79 Years
By Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 20, 2004; Page B01
The leader of a murderous Northwest Washington gang that intimidated a community with one brazen shooting after another was sentenced yesterday in D.C. Superior Court to 109 years in prison.
Brion X. Arrington, the 25-year-old who prosecutors say was behind the bloodshed that engulfed a neighborhood for more than a year, told the judge that he had nothing to say before he was sentenced. Harrell E. Hagans, 23, who stood trial with Arrington on many of the same charges, also said nothing in court before he was given a 79-year prison term.
Convicted in December along with two other co-defendants after a trial that lasted two months, Arrington and Hagans each faced a minimum of 30 years for murder alone and a maximum of life in prison.
Looking at the men, slouched in their chairs as they had been throughout the hearing, even when the victims' families spoke, Judge Robert I. Richter said he had seen no evidence of responsibility or remorse and was obligated to hand down sentences that would amount to nothing short of life.
"When I put this all together, there really can only be one sentenced imposed," Richter declared before enumerating each of the penalties on charges ranging from conspiracy and car theft to first-degree murder.
The other two defendants, who were convicted of some of the same charges, will be sentenced today. Five others pleaded guilty before trial, some to murder charges, others to weapons or drug charges.
Known as the Delafield Mob, Arrington's gang dealt drugs in and around the 300 block of Delafield Place NW, according to prosecutors. In 1999 and 2000, the crew was locked in a deadly feud with the Mahdi Brothers, another loosely knit gang of drug dealers that was operating around the 1300 block of Shepherd Street NW.
Armed with heavy firepower and often using stolen cars that members would later dump around Rock Creek Cemetery, the Delafield Mob was linked to 18 shootings that targeted the Mahdi gang. The Mahdis, in turn, struck back at least eight times, prosecutors said.
Sometimes, no one was hit. Sometimes, a Mahdi member was shot. And sometimes, an innocent bystander was struck by gunfire, as happened May 17, 2000, when Eva Hernandez was killed in the 3900 block of 14th Street NW.
That slaying threw the spotlight on the area's deadly rivalry and the Delafield Mob's criminal conspiracy to crush the Mahdis.
"People were afraid to literally step out of their house or stand on a porch or walk down the street," said Seth B. Waxman, who prosecuted the case with fellow assistant U.S. attorney Michael D. Brittin.
The killing of Hernandez, a 39-year-old mother of three shot on her porch as she was carrying laundry into her home, even rattled members of the Delafield Mob, persuading some of them to cooperate with prosecutors -- a turning point in the investigation, Waxman said.
Moris Melara, 18, one of Hernandez's sons, was among the many relatives who stepped before the judge yesterday to ask for justice for their loved ones.
"She was everything for us," Melara said of his mother, "and since that day, everything has changed for us." It has been almost four years and still that day haunts them, he said, adding, "It's really hard when your little brother wakes up in the middle of the night and asks, 'Why?' "
Growing up, they were taught by their mother not to hate, he said, but that does not mean the people who killed her should be spared. "They have to pay for what they did," he said.
It was a sentiment echoed by other relatives. But if there was anger, it was overtaken by the pain in their voices.
"You hurt my family and me deeply," said Lynn-Sheree Webb, whose son, Danny, described by prosecutors as a Mahdi associate, was killed Feb. 29, 2000.
Diangelo Wood, Brian Green and Michael Brice were victims as well. Described as associates of the Roxboro Crew, another Northwest gang, they were allegedly killed by Arrington, who has yet to be tried on those charges. But evidence of the slayings was introduced in this trial, and the families of those men were given the chance to speak as well.
"I hope you ask God for forgiveness," Wood's father, Paul, told the two defendants, "and through it you ask Him to change your outlook on life so that you don't spend an eternity in Hell. "
His wife, Pamela, stepped forward, saying she felt compelled to speak. "I do forgive you, even though you haven't asked for it," she told Arrington and Hagans. "I don't want you to be lost."
But, she told them, "you don't belong here anymore."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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