Murder Trial a Window Into Vicious Atlanta Gang

The long weekend of terror started brazenly: Nine Trey Blood members rolled up to a home, leapt onto the front porch and stabbed two men after one refused to let his girlfriend leave with the group.

Then it grew horrific: A reluctant Blood, thinking about cutting his ties to the crew, was executed two days later, along with a teenage sidekick, in a disciplinary ritual at an Atlanta park. When the dead man’s girlfriend had the temerity to make inquiries into his well-being, they came to her home and shot dead her 17-year-old son while he cowered in his closet. Their dog, Princess, was also killed. The woman survived the Oct. 6, 2008, attack only because the gun, aimed at her face, jammed.

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Four of those alleged gang members involved in the 2008 crime spree are now on trial in a Fulton County courtroom, where the armed guards sometimes outnumber spectators.

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The trial, set to resume this week, gives an inside look at a motley cast of characters who call themselves Nine Trey Bloods and the vicious code members lived by. {snip}

In all, six of the 10 originally charged have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors.

‘Bloods’ bible’

The testimony portrays a fiercely aggressive gang, held together by a core of recent New Jersey transplants and manned by some star-struck locals.

Christmas [Darryl “Mac Jones” Christmas, 31, one of the gang on trial] was in a hurry to build up a hearty core in his adopted city, prosecutors said. Authorities say he handed out the “Bloods’ bible” to recruits, a packet of papers laying out the rules that members were called to learn and live by. They were given 31 days to absorb their new creed and were to be tested. If they failed, they’d get a beat down.

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The “bible” spelled out gang vocabulary, loyalties and what a Blood should and should never do.

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But the reality was far from the resplendent gangsta life portrayed in hip-hop videos. Several members worked in food service and recounted taking MARTA to their gang meetings and criminal activities. Christmas drove a burgundy Cadillac but it was unreliable. Seemingly, the only Blood with dependable wheels was Tyeisha “Lady Tye” Marshall, a 26-year-old New Jersey native who ran a kitchen at Turner Field and ferried Christmas and other crew members in her Chevrolet Blazer.

Aside from being the driver, Marshall was to teach new female members the ways of the gang. The most recent recruits were two sisters who had to fight each other as their way in. It was at their home that the two men were stabbed on Oct. 3, 2008.

During that incident, witnesses said, Christmas ordered four gang members to attack, then called them off by yelling “Blat!”–which stands for “Blood love all the time.”

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Atlanta gangs have shifted from drugs and more violent endeavors to smash-and-grab burglaries that carry less risk of punishment if caught. The department has identified about 1,400 active gang members in Atlanta.

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‘Violation’ punished

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Maddox–a lean, young ruffian who two days earlier had pounded on the two men in the ruckus on the front porch–recounted the situation last week in court: “Dice was gonna get DP’d [disciplined]. Darryl Christmas said Dice was under a violation. He said, ‘Do you accept your violation?’ Dice said, ‘Yes.'”

It was to be a barbaric ritual. Five Bloods encircled Cintron and punched and kicked him for 120 seconds as he fought back. Maddox was selected to be a discipliner, as was 15-year-old Fernando “Snoop” Wingfield, a fledgling Blood who Dice had taken under his wing and brought to the park that night.

Well into the beating, Cintron fell for a third time and refused to rise. “Do what you want,” he told them.

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Auletta stood maybe five feet from the battered Cintron and aimed a gun at his head. Snoop turned from Blood discipliner to terrified kid: “Don’t do it!” he screamed. “He’s like my father.”

But young Snoop broke another Bloods’ rule, Ross said. “He showed compassion.”

Tobin, the Iraq veteran and Christmas’ roommate, finished off Dice, Ross said. He was shot through the eye. Auletta then turned and allegedly shot the fleeing Snoop. {snip}

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