Telly Hankton, 12 associates charged in sweeping racketeering and ...

Federal authorities have unsealed a sweeping 22-count racketeering indictment that charges convicted murderer Telly Hankton and 12 associates with running a violent drug ring that has been in business since at least 1996. Five members of the group -- Hankton, 36; his cousins Thomas "Squirt" Hankton, 36, and Andre Hankton, 35; accused hitman Walter "Urkel" Porter, 37; and Kevin Jackson, 39 -- are charged in four specific killings and could face the death penalty, according to a news release issued Friday by U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office.

The other defendants include Hankton's mother, Shirley Hankton, 58; Nakia Hankton, 34; George "Black" Jackson, 38; Derrick "Dump" Smothers, 34; Troy Hankton, 28; Netthany Schexnayder, 33; Sana Johnson, 37; and Terrell Smothers, 36. All of the suspects are from New Orleans.

Many of the defendants, including Hankton's mother, were arrested by law enforcement officials in roundups that started Thursday night. Others, among them Telly Hankton, who is already serving a life sentence for murder, and Porter, who also goes by the name "Moonie," were already in custody.

A neighbor said FBI agents showed up about 5:30 a.m. outside Shirley Hankton's pink, wood-frame house on the 1900 block of Josephine Street -- near the alleged nexus of the Hankton's drug-dealing turf -- and took away bagfuls of property, along with Shirley Hankton.

Agents also towed away a champagne-colored Cadillac Escalade truck. According to the indictment, Telly Hankton and his associates bought?an Escalade for $50,000, and Shirley Hankton later had the title transferred to another family member.??

Shirley Hankton is accused of moving her son's?cocaine stash to hide it from law enforcement, lying to the federal grand jury, laundering money and conspiring in the drug operation.

Letten's office said in a news release that members of the Hankton organization ran a violent drug ring in and around the city starting in 1996. It was "primarily concentrated" in the section of Central City bounded by Jackson Avenue, St. Andrew Street, Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard and Simon Bolivar Avenue, the indictment says.

"During the course of this organization's existence, its members and associates murdered rival drug dealers, intimidated witnesses, attempted to obstruct the state criminal justice system by having associates provide false alibi testimony in state court, and murdered a witness' family member in an effort to obstruct justice," the news release says.

Some of the acts referenced in the indictment are well-known to New Orleanians. Porter has previously been linked to the shocking murder of Curtis Matthews, whose brother, John, was a key witness at Hankton's two trials for the murder of Darnell Stewart. Curtis Matthews was shot?just days?after Hankton, who was convicted in the second trial, was sentenced to life in prison.

The indictment accuses Porter of carrying out Curtis Matthews' killing.

Hankton's first trial in the Stewart case ended in a mistrial after what authorities described as a perjury plot designed to give Hankton a bogus alibi.

Porter, whose role in the Hankton organization is described in the indictment as "gunman," also is accused of committing two other murders. In all, he is named in 14 of the 22 counts in the indictment. Telly and Thomas Hankton, both described as "leader and principal supplier for the enterprise," each are named in nine counts.

According to the government, at least $43 million from the alleged?Hankton criminal network is subject to forfeiture. It's not clear how prosecutors arrived at that figure, but at one point, the indictment asserts that Telly Hankton was moving between 5 and 6 kilograms of cocaine every two weeks. The organization also trafficked in heroin and marijuana, the indictment says.

Both Schexnayder and Johnson were implicated in the alleged perjury plot in Hankton's first trial. Both face charges of conspiracy to commit misprision of a felony and accessory after the fact to murder. Both?left federal court?Friday on $25,000 surety bonds put up by family members.?

But the figure at the center of the alleged perjury plot, Danielle Hampton, was not charged in the indictment -- though she is mentioned, listed by her initials. Hampton, who was a manager at the Audubon Zoo, testified that she was on a date with Hankton when Stewart was killed.

Hampton said she had just met Hankton for the first time that day and was shocked when she saw him accused of the crime the next day on TV. Johnson corroborated her story.

Hampton has since confessed in a written statement that she lied on the stand, saying she feared retribution if she failed to come through for Hankton.

Her attorney, Robert Jenkins, said he didn't know why she wasn't indicted but that he didn't think Friday's?federal action?was the end of it. He declined to say whether Hampton was cooperating with authorities.

"It?could be they add her at a later date in a superseding indictment," Jenkins said. "It might be just the beginning. I think there's likely to be others."

Along with Matthews and Stewart, the other murders the federal indictment attributes to the Hankton organization are those of Jessie "TuTu" Reed and Hasan "Hockie"?Williams.

Telly Hankton was already facing state murder charges in the Reed case. Reed and Stewart had been suspected -- but never booked -- by New Orleans police in the murder of George "Cup" Hankton, Telly Hankton's cousin. Stewart was killed?on May 13, 2008. Reed was killed in a hail of bullets?on June, 20, 2009, while Telly Hankton was out on a $1 million bond.

The indictment charges Telly Hankton in both of those deaths. It also accuses Andre Hankton in the murder of Stewart, mirroring an earlier state charge, and it accuses Porter and Kevin Jackson in the murder of Reed.

Another man, Edward Allen, had been charged in state court, along with Telly Hankton, in Reed's killing. The indictment of Porter and Jackson in that murder is new, although Porter's name had been?linked?to the killing.

The indictment claims Kevin Jackson paid Porter at least $10,000 to help kill Reed. Kevin Jackson and George Jackson are both believed to be distant cousins of the Hanktons.

Williams was a witness to Reed's slaying. He was murdered two weeks after he saw Reed shot down. The indictment charges Porter and Thomas Hankton in that killing.

Those two, along with Telly Hankton, are accused in a fifth shooting included in the indictment -- that of daiquiri store owner John Matthews, Curtis Matthews' brother and a key witness at Telly Hankton's trial.

John Matthews was shot 17 times at his home in eastern New Orleans, but somehow survived to testify at both of Hankton's murder trials.

The same gun, a Glock 9 mm pistol, was used in both the murder of Jesse Reed and the attempted murder of John Matthews. According to the indictment, Porter sold the Glock sometime in the summer of 2011.

The indictment also includes a suspicion?that someone in the Hankton clan killed Hankton cousin Venice Brazley and Calvin Fox on June 12, 2000, in an ambush near a Gert Town nightclub.

Hankton suspected that Brazley and Fox had stolen "large quantities" of drugs or money from Brazley's mother's house, the indictment says.

A month earlier, Telly Hankton had shot at Brazley's mother over the stolen goods. Then the mother told Hankton that Brazley and Fox had the keys to the house, according to the indictment, which only uses their initials.

Like Darnell Stewart, Brazley was shot in the face.

In 2006, after a trial ended deadlocked, Kevin "Frog" Cockerham pleaded guilty to?the killings of Brazley and Fox, received a nearly five year sentence and was freed on credit for time served. It is not clear whether he was a Hankton associate.?

Cockerham, now 42, is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Yazoo City, Mississippi after pleading guilty in 2009 to a pair of federal drug counts.

Nakia Hankton is accused of being a drug runner for the family business. Derrick and Terrell Smothers are accused in a shooting within the Central City"nucleus" of the Hankton drug ring, and with various drug crimes, the indictment states.

Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/10/telly_hankton_12_associates_ch.html

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