Dipset affiliate Max B was ordered held on $2
million bail yesterday (January 9) in his first court appearance in connection
with a 2006 murder in Fort Lee, NJ.

As previously reported, Max (born Charly Wingate) was arrested in September
under suspicion of masterminding the murder of a Florida man, 29-year-old David
Taylor, during a botched robbery at a Fort Lee, NJ Holiday Inn.

According to The Star-Ledger, Prosecutor Catherine Fantuzzi told Judge Harry
G. Carroll that Max B’s girlfriend, erotic dancer Gina Marie Conway, told Max
of meeting two men that drove expensive cars and flashed large amounts of money,
leading him to set up the robbery. Fantuzzi also claimed yesterday at Bergen
County Superior Court, that Max B recruited Kelvin Leerdam, a friend from New
York, to rob Taylor and Allan "Jay" Plowden, who were staying in two
separate rooms at the Fort Lee Holiday Inn.

Authorities claim Conway knocked on Plowden’s door about 4 a.m. while Leerdam
waited out of sight with a handgun. Plowden was then forced to telephone Taylor,
who was shot in the head almost as soon as he entered the room. The suspects
purproieteley made off with cash and bound Plowden with duct tape. But they
apparently missed about $30,000 in cash, which was found on Plowden after he
broke free and tried to leave the hotel, authorities said. Fantuzzi said cell
phone calls immediately before and after the murder link the Dipset affiliate
to Leerdam.

Gerald Saluti, Max B’s attorney, who claims his client was not even in New
Jersey at the time of the fatal shooting, called the evidence third-hand or
"hearsay" and argued for a lower bail. Conway is being held on murder,
robbery and conspiracy charges in Bergen County. Leerandam is also being held
on the same charges but in New York, where an extradition hearing is pending.
He is also charged with weapons possession. Max B remains in custody at the
Bergen County Jail. The Harlem, NY rapper is presently signed to Jim Jones’
Byrd Gang Records and has appeared on numerous Dipset songs.