By Geoffrey Fattah
Deseret Morning News
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — “I’m still the king,” Tyrese Sharod Smith said in 2003 after a federal jury found him guilty of running a pattern of racketeering through his violent gang.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard McKelvie’s response was, “We’ll find out how well he rules in a maximum-security federal prison.”
Today, Smith is housed in a high-security penitentiary in Tucson and has served about five years of a life sentence. Smith, prosecutors say, was a prime example of how destructive gangs can be.
Smith claimed to be the “king” and founder of the King Mafia Disciples gang. In 1996, Smith was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a 19-year-old man he mistakenly thought was a rival gang member. Joey Miera was sleeping on the floor of his cousin’s Salt Lake house when he was killed by a shotgun blast fired through an open window.
Even in state prison, Smith continued to issue orders for killings of rival gang members and other crimes. KMD rules also called for members who failed to follow his orders to be “canceled.”
Authorities found that while they could put violent gang leaders behind bars, they continued to influence crimes on the outside.
That’s when federal officials decided to use the RICO statute, typically used to fight organized crime, to combat gangs. In the first case of its kind in Utah, the KMD RICO case not only resulted in the conviction of Smith but also the guilty pleas of nine other KMD gang members.
“KMD has not made a resurgence on the street that I’m aware of,” McKelvie said.
Since then, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah has successfully prosecuted members of two other violent gangs.
The second one to face RICO prosecution were the leaders of the Soldiers of Aryan Culture, a violent white-supremacist prison gang responsible for an array of violent stabbings, other attacks and drug dealing within the state prison system. Known for their copious tattoos on their bodies, SAC members built their standing in the gang based on violent attacks.
The gang was headed in part by two brothers, Steve and Tracy Swena. At the end, both brothers were sentenced to 12 and 20 years in federal prison, respectively.
In addition, about 10 other SAC members were also sentenced to federal prison time.
Prosecutors call the effort “scattering them to the winds,” in that gang members are separated and sent to various federal penitentiaries across the country.
McKelvie said the problem with gangs is that if you go after one, another member moves in to take his place. “If you have a garden and you live next door to a yard overwrought with dandelions, you need to go next door and eradicate the source -- that’s what we do with RICO,” he said. “We get to the core of the organization and bring it down as a whole.”
What prosecutors use are “predicate acts” in showing that crimes individual gang members commit are done with the intent to further the cause and standing of their gang. What are traditionally seen by the justice system as independent criminal acts are pulled together to show a larger scheme.
Last winter, federal officials sought indictments against members of the Tiny Oriental Posse. Surprisingly, what typically took months to prosecute was quickly wrapped up when 14 indicted TOP members all struck plea deals by early March.
TOP gang members have been accused of taking part in an array of assaults, home-invasion robberies, drug trafficking and even murders to bolster the standing of their gang.
Among their violent acts was the Nov. 7, 1998, fatal shooting of Bethany Hyde. Police say TOP members mistook Hyde’s car for that of a rival gang member.
Some have argued that by fragmenting violent gang members, federal prosecutors are simply seeding the federal system with new gangs. McKelvie said the Federal Bureau of Prisons has effective ways of dealing with in-house prison groups. “The prisons do a fairly good job of keeping track of the stuff,” he said.
Already gang investigators are hearing rumblings on the street about the RICO cases. McKelvie said investigators are hearing gang members are nervous that their gang may be the next target.
“The federal RICO statutes give us a very effective tool which we will continue to use against violent gangs disrupting the peace and safety of Utah communities,” said U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman. “Violent gang members ought to be on notice that their name might be the next one on the face of a federal indictment.”
Copyright 2008 Deseret Morning News