A jury found Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff guilty of murder
conspiracy and drug dealing early Thursday afternoon (February 1) for paying $50,000
to have two rivals gunned down in 2001.
After five days of deliberation, McGriff, 46, was convicted in a federal death
penalty case for ordering the murders of Queens rapper E-Money Bags (born Eric
Smith) and Troy Singleton, his associate, two years after E shot and killed
one of McGriff”s friends in a 1999 dispute. Singleton was apparently targeted
because McGriff feared he would retaliate.
After founding the Supreme Team, a notorious Queens drug crew in the early
80”s, and serving an earlier prison sentence for drugs, McGriff pursued his
dream of producing movies teaming up with Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo,
a neighborhood friend who headed Murder Inc Records. But according to prosecutors,
McGriff resumed his drug dealing operations in both New York and Baltimore,
and instead used Murder Inc. to launder more than $1 million in proceeds.
McGriff was originally indicted along with Lorenzo and Lorenzo”s brother Chris,
a Murder Inc. executive. After being granted a separate trial, the brothers
were acquitted in 2005 of money-laundering charges. "That man sitting in
the courtroom is one of the most dangerous, feared, ruthless gangsters in all
of Queens," prosecutor Carolyn Pokorney said during closing arguments.
"And when Supreme gets in a fight with somebody … he doesn”t go to the
cops. He doesn”t hire a lawyer. He hires a hit team to assassinate them, to
blow them away, so that their moms can barely recognize them when they go down
to the morgue."
It was originally reported that McGriff faced life in prison with no parole,
after U.S. District Judge Frederic Block determined Supreme did not warrant
a death sentence, he still faces the death penalty. The prosecution did not
heed Judge Block”s advice and are still awaiting the jury to decide Supreme”s
fate. McGriff was acquitted on lesser drugs and weapons charges.
”Preme appeared accepting and emotionless when the forman presented the verdict.
Supreme had requested of his family, friends and supporters not to scream, yell
or cry out when his verdict was read, but to "just roll with it."
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