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http://myfox8.com/2013/08/14/latin-kings-leader-jorge-cornell-sentenced-to-28-years-in-prison/

Latin Kings leader Jorge Cornell sentenced to 28 years in prison
Posted on: 1:54 pm, August 14, 2013, by Mitch Carr, updated on: 06:15pm, August 14, 2013

WINSTON-SALEM, NC — Federal Judge James A. Beaty sentenced Latin Kings leader Jorge Cornell to 28 years in federal prison Wednesday.

Last year, a jury convicted Cornell of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and using a firearm in a crime of violence.

On Wednesday, Judge Beaty ordered Cornell to serve two 216-month sentences concurrently for the first two charges. The third charge carries a mandatory 10-year minimum, which Judge Beaty ordered Cornell to serve after the other sentences. The combination of the two sentences amounts to 28 years, which is on the low-end of sentencing guidelines which allowed Beaty to impose up to 50 years on Cornell.

US Attorney Leshia Lee-Dixon characterized Cornell as a dangerous gang leader who influenced members of the Latin Kings to attempt murders, sell drugs, assault rival gang members and commit other crimes.

Speaking on his own behalf, Cornell took the opportunity to attack the government and the criminal justice system as a deep web of conspiracies.

“I have no faith in this system,” Cornell told Judge Beaty while shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit.

Cornell compared his Almighty Latin Kings Nation to a church and himself to a pastor, saying a church and pastor are not guilty if a member of the congregation makes a mistake.

“I never ever have ordered for anyone to do any act of violence,” Cornell said.

Cornell then teared up, mentioning that his daughter was present. He then went on to predict his own assassination.

“I’ll be lucky if I last a year in [federal prison],” Cornell said. “I believe the government will pay someone to assassinate me.”

Cornell asserted the assassination would be part of the whole larger conspiracy against him, and claimed the only reason he was in chains before a judge was because the government had manipulated former associates to speak out against him.

“Everything came word of mouth from a bunch of liars, a bunch of scared kids who did what the FBI told them to do,” Cornell said.

Cornell had witnesses come to the stand to ask Judge Beaty for leniency, saying Cornell was neither dangerous not a bad influence.

“He’s a wonderful individual and I think many of us would like to be like him,” said Dr. Bryan Simms, a professor at North Carolina A&T who got to know Cornell through his community work.

Cornell has 14 days to file a written appeal, and he already had it filled out in the courtroom.

“This isn’t goodbye, this is see ya later,” Cornell said. “I know I am innocent and I will remain innocent no matter what happens in this court room today.”

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http://yesweeklyblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/variance-in-latin-kings-leaders.html

Variance in Latin Kings leader's sentence reflects 'good works'

(snip)

Cornell spoke extensively before receiving the sentence, telling the court he doesn’t hold faith in the justice system although he expects the verdicts to be overturned on appeal.

“When I founded this nation, I kicked out everyone who committed crimes,” said Cornell, wearing an orange jumpsuit and chains around his waist. “Individuals who took the stand, they didn’t understand the true nature of what it meant to be a King. You look at the lessons: It doesn’t say, ‘Go kill.’ It doesn’t say, ‘Go sell drugs.’

“I never, ever gave any order to anyone to commit any act of violence,” he continued. “Never.

“I’m an innocent man,” he continued. “I will continue to say I’m innocent ’til the day I die. To the community, I say, ‘It’s not goodbye; it’s see you later.’”

Anticipating the judge’s sentence, Cornell said, “I forgive you and I forgive those that wronged me. I forgive those that took the stand, because I knew they were under pressure. They were mad because I kicked them out because they wanted to be gangster. These very people who wanted to be gangster were the first to break when the indictment came down. If you’re a so-called gangster, you’re supposed to take responsibility. I said to them: ‘Why would you want to be gangster when you can be royalty?’ Being royalty is helping your community.”

About 20 people, mostly from Greensboro but also from Chapel Hill, attended the sentencing to demonstrate support for Cornell, and six testified on his behalf.

Brian Sims, a faculty member at NC A&T University, said he got to know Cornell while speaking with him on a panel on the topic of black-brown unity at Guilford College in 2008. Later, Sims invited Cornell to speak to a night class at A&T as a guest lecturer. He testified that Cornell was an effective communicator who engaged his students so well that some “stuck around for hours to talk” with him – uncharacteristic for a group that was usually out the door the minute the class concluded.

“I want to counter the notion that Jorge Cornell was anything other than a positive, sometimes essential contributor to the lifeblood of the community,” Sims said. “Look out into the courtroom and you’ll see people of all races and ages, people who are believers and non-believers. What all of us, despite our differences, have seen is a very dignified, humble, wonderful individual who all of us want to be.”

Signe Waller Foxworth testified about living with Cornell for most of 2011 when she and her husband rented a spare, upstairs room to him at their home in Greensboro. Foxworth said she “respected” and “admired” Cornell and spoke of “the great love he had for his daughters. Foxworth said she knew Cornell had been seeking employment during that period and might have secured some temporary jobs, but wasn’t certain.

“I can speak about how he used my kitchen a couple times to make candy lollypops with his daughters that he sold just to get a little money,” she said.

Terence Muhammad, a community activist who worked extensively with the defendant said, “If Jorge Cornell was a drug dealer, he was the brokest one I ever met.”

Muhammad described taking part in a meeting that Cornell convened in the basement of Genesis Baptist Church in 2008 to develop a peace accord among street organizations. While there was no apparent conflict at the time, Muhammad said the participants engaged in “an in-depth, long discussion, a frank and open discussion.”

Muhammad said, “Jorge Cornell is not a thug. Jorge Cornell is not a gangster. In my 42 years in Greensboro, I have not lived in terror of gang violence.”

A number of witnesses spoke about Cornell’s unsuccessful bids for Greensboro City Council and his effort to establish a non-profit temporary labor agency to employ ex-felons.

Lewis Pitts, managing attorney for the Advocates for Children’s Services unit of Legal Aid of North Carolina, said became involved with Cornell after reading in a newspaper about the peace accord among street organizations.

“When I read that several of the gangs – and I use that term in quotes – had been meeting together with the intent of ceasing any physical conflict and violence between each other and pursuing racial and economic justice, based on my many years of work with groups pursuing racial and economic justice, it prompted me to be concerned whether there would be retaliation for that.”

Pitts, who began his career as a criminal defense lawyer, addressed Beaty directly.

“I want to be more than a name on a piece of paper to you, Judge Beaty, to refute the idea that I have been duped by some kind of smokescreen,” Pitts said. “As a criminal defense attorney I’ve dealt with some pretty unsavory people who have done heinous things. I think I’m pretty good at sizing people up.”

Pitts said he recognized that the jury had spoken in finding Cornell guilty of racketeering activities, but that he found it impossible to believe that the allegations were true. He asked Beaty to consider allegations that the Latin Kings’ civil rights had been violated that are outlined in a 2010 complaint to the U.S. Justice Department.

“Keep in the back of your mind that this was an improper prosecution,” he said. “Some people at the lower level might have been squeezed to provide false testimony.”

Cornell began his statement to the court by accusing the government of engaging in prosecutorial misconduct. He alluded to evidence the prosecution put on to the effect that Cornell ordered members in Charlotte to procure weapons for the purpose of retaliation after he was shot in 2008.

“They had information that an officer of the Greensboro Police Department CSI said the police set me up to be shot,” Cornell said. “They have a duty as officers of the law to seek justice, but they did not want to investigate this; they wanted it to blow over.”

Former Greensboro police officer AJ Blake filed a complaint against police employee Patricia Caffey alleging that she told US Attorney Robert AJ Lang that Blake shot Cornell. Blake said the statement was completely false.

Cornell said the defense didn’t have an opportunity to enter the information into evidence because his lawyer Michael Patrick misplaced the document. Patrick declined to comment after the sentencing except to say that that was not his recollection.

Cornell attempted to submit the document to the court. Judge Beaty said he would not allow it to be entered into evidence.

Cornell also alleged that the government prevented him from presenting evidence by placing a gag order on the Greensboro Police Department to thwart public records requests by his supporters.

“This is serious, judge,” Cornell said. “Mr. Lang from the US Attorney’s office was the one who put the veil of secrecy to keep me from getting the documents.”

(snip)

The sentencing drew Randall Westmoreland, a delivery driver from Stokesdale who served on the jury.

Westmoreland said before the sentencing that the jury had been split, with one group favoring conviction of all six defendants who pleaded not guilty and went to trial, and another favoring acquittals for all. Westmoreland was in a third group that was adamant that some should be convicted but not all. He said the jury had been confused about whether the instructions required that participation in the enterprise was sufficient to convict or an individual defendant had to commit a specific racketeering act. The jury ultimately resolved the impasse to avoid a mistrial, Westmoreland said, by taking the compromise approach of finding some defendants guilty and others not guilty.

[What would a lacrosse jury have done?]

Westmoreland took the view that Randolph Kilfoil, Cornell’s younger brother who was also known as King Paul, should be acquitted. His fellow jurors ultimately agreed.

“One of the problems I had with [convicting] Paul is he had been in prison the majority of the time,” Westmoreland said. “Maybe he communicated in prison; I don’t know.”

He said that he had no doubt about Cornell’s involvement in the Maplewood apartments shooting, and found the evidence presented by the government to be compelling. The shooting accounted for the three guilty counts, including the violence crime in aid of racketeering act, which added 10 years to Cornell’s sentence.

The sentencing of Marcelo Ysrael Perez, the admitted shooter in the Maplewood incident, along with Richard Robinson, Charles Moore and Luis Rosa, are scheduled for today at 10 a.m. All four pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government.

[What was Nifong trying to do--find someone who would cooperate in exchange for leniency? Is that the way prosecutors work? Have they sufficient unchecked power that they can try to convict
persons even when there was no crime?]

Sentencing for Russell Kilfoil, another of Cornell’s brothers — also known as Jonathan Hernandez — is scheduled for Aug. 28.

Cornell’s supporters left the courtroom in solemn but good spirits, having been prepared for the worst.

“I think the sentence in relationship to what I believe to be his innocence is harsh and unwarranted,” the Rev. Nelson Johnson said. “In relationship to the courts and the legal guidelines, the judge seemed to take the lenient side.”

Justin Flores, an organizer with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, came to court to show support for Cornell. The two had worked together since meeting at Black-Brown Unity Conference in 2009.

“It’s sad,” Flores said. “Thirty years is a long time for something that we all know he was innocent of.”

Cornell concluded his remarks by pledging that the sentence would not be the end of his story.

"I want the community to know that I love them," he said. "This is not an end; it's a beginning. I'm going to take that trip to Puerto Rico real soon and eat pizza. I'm a slave now, but these chains can only hold me so long."

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http://yesweeklyblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/five-north-carolina-latin-kings-who.html

Five NC Latin Kings who pleaded guilty receive sentences

Compared to the sentencing hearing for Jorge Cornell yesterday, which lasted almost four hours, the federal legal machinery made quick work of five cooperating NC Latin Kings defendants who pleaded guilty.

(snip)

James Craven, the defense lawyer for Luis Rosa, said his client's family has endured hang-up phone calls and strange cars driving by at night.

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[Six degrees of separation (from 2012):

A reaction directly from Nifong was unavailable, but his lawyer, James Craven, through a secretary called the filing “the most remarkable legal document [he’d] ever seen.”

Craven also relayed word that he’d mailed a copy of the filing to Nifong on Tuesday, as the former prosecutor “may not even have seen it yet.”]

"I can't say enough good about this young man," Craven said. "This has been a god-awful learning experience for him."

Craven related that after Rosa was arrested two Latin Queens called him to make sure that he knew that his client had a serious heart condition. He mentioned it to Rosa on their first meeting.

"He said, 'No, no, I just made that up,'" Craven recalled. "The Latin Kings swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Even the Latin Kings gave him a pass because of it. He even had his girlfriend drive him to the clinic and then she picked him up around back. For my money, it was extremely clever, but it also shows how badly he wanted out."

Rosa's mother and father and his girlfriend attended the sentencing.

"Thank you for having me. I'm sorry for the circumstances. I'm just trying to get my time done so I can get back to my family."

Rosa received an active prison sentence of three years and seven months.

Afterwards, his lawyer said, "We're not going to appeal; we're going to rejoice." Leaving the courtroom, Rosa's mother reached over and squeezed the hand of Guilford County Sheriff's Deputy Nicholas Combs, who worked on the case under the supervision of the US Justice Department.

Charles Moore received a sentence of one year and eight months and an order to participate in mental health treatment, while his mother, seated beside Moore's stepfather, wiped away tears.

Moore's defense lawyer, Robert McClellan, noted that his client had a serious alcohol problem and joined the Latin Kings to avoid being homeless.

US Attorney Robert AJ Lang spoke in support of a lenient sentence. He said Moore's cooperation affirmed the government's belief that the prosecution was "in the right place and focused on the right person. Jorge Cornell, Lang said, drew in people who were vulnerable "to create an organized crime enterprise to wreak havoc in the community."

Richard Robinson, along with Perez, Rosa and Moore, received a 50 percent reduction in his sentence thanks to a letter from the government recognizing his substantial assistance in prosecuting the case.

Judge Beaty sentenced Robinson to four years in prison, in contrast to sentencing guidelines calling for eight to 10 years.

[Subtract credit for time served; and for good behavior (usually a third of the time remaining) and how much will he actually have to serve?]

Robinson's lawyer, David B. Smith, noted that his client is an aspiring chef.

"He enrolled in two culinary art schools — one in Charlotte and one in Durham," Smith said. "He was at the one in Durham when he was arrested. He has done everything he could to turn his life around, and that began even before he was arrested."

Smith said that, unlike three of the other defendants, Robinson had no family members in the courtroom to support him, adding that his client was estranged from both of his parents. The lawyer said the geographic location of the prison where his clients would serve his sentence didn't matter because he doesn't anticipate visits from family members.

"I personally apologize to my family," Robinson told the court. "My mother, even though she raised me better, I disgraced her by my actions. I ask you to show mercy on me."

Among the five defendants on the docket for sentencing today, one did not agree to assist the government in exchange for a recommendation for time reduction.

Jason Paul Yates, a longtime rival of Cornell's for leadership of the Latin Kings, received a sentence of about 17 years. As Yates' mother, partner and daughter sat in the courtroom, the defendant's lawyer said his client took responsibility for his role in the Latin Kings' activities.

Joseph M. Wilson, Yates' lawyer, told the court his client had always worked, including stints managing retail shoe stores, even while active in the Latin Kings. He added that Yates "has taken care of his child, to the best of his ability."

"I'm remorseful for what has happened," Yates told the court. "I accept responsibility for falling back in with the wrong crowd."

The judge sentenced the 32-year-old Yates to about 17 years in federal prison — which falls in the middle of the guideline range. But the judge agreed that Yates could serve his federal sentence concurrently with an active state sentence. Yates is serving 27 years in the North Carolina corrections system for armed robbery and second-degree kidnapping