Prosecutors: Accused in brutal North East attack, gang members planned to decapitate victim
Five men, all members of the same gang, left an Erie residence on the evening of Dec. 28, 2021, and headed east on a journey that would lead them to a cemetery in North East Township.
Four of the men had plans to kill the fifth member, believing that he was not fully participating in the responsibilities of their gang, the Gangster Disciples, according to a statement prosecutors read in Erie County Judge David Ridge's courtroom on Friday afternoon.
Their plan was to not only kill the victim, Julieus Windham, but to cut off his head with drywall knives two members of the group had purchased at a local home-improvement store, Assistant District Attorney Steven Liboski read from the statement.
Windham was shot twice in the cemetery, but attempts to shoot him more times were thwarted by the malfunctioning weapon. Windham's head was not cut off, but the drywall knives were used to stab him more than 20 times and were inserted repeatedly into his eyes, according to the statement.
The attack didn't kill Windham. He crawled to a nearby house after his attackers fled, and a resident there contacted the Pennsylvania State Police.
The subsequent police investigation would lead to the identities of the four suspects charged in the crime.
Windham is now blind in one eye and has limited vision in the other eye, according to prosecutors.
The motive in the attack on Windham and details on what the accused did and planned to do to the victim were revealed in court on Friday as two of the four suspects pleaded guilty to charges in the case.
Mark R. Smith, 33, of Erie, pleaded guilty before Ridge on Friday morning to attempted homicide and possession of a firearm prohibited.
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Dreshaun D. Jordan, 24, of Erie, pleaded guilty before Ridge on Friday afternoon to conspiracy to commit homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, and terroristic threats.
The pleas came as jury selection was scheduled to begin on Monday for Smith and Jordan's trials on charges including attempted homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, possession of a firearm prohibited and aggravated assault in the attack on the victim.
The trials are now off, with Smith facing sentencing on Jan. 19 and Jordan scheduled for sentencing on March 1.
Erie County Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Lightner told Ridge at Smith's plea hearing on Friday morning that his office and Smith's court-appointed lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Emily Antolik, agreed to a recommended sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison on Smith's guilty pleas. The two charges Smith pleaded guilty to carry a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison, Lightner said.
Ridge is not bound by the sentencing recommendation.
There is no sentencing recommendation for Jordan, who faces a maximum of 75 years in prison on the charges he pleaded guilty to, Liboski told Ridge Friday afternoon.
The two other co-defendants, James A. Terrell, 29, and Sammy Carrasquillo Jr., 19, are awaiting trial in the case.
A long ride, attack in a cemetery
According to information released by Pennsylvania State Police investigators and testimony given at the preliminary hearings for the four suspects, Windham believed he was being given a ride home when he left a friend's residence in Erie with the suspects on Dec. 28, 2021. They instead drove to St. Gregory Cemetery in the 9500 block of West Main Street in North East Township.
According to the statement read in court by Liboski on Friday afternoon, the suspects had previously decided on taking Windham to that location.
More:Victim attacked in North East woods testifies group was 'torturing, beating me'
Windham testified at the preliminary hearings that, after the group arrived at the cemetery, he was told to get out of the vehicle and to follow the others as they headed to a wooded area. He said he turned around at one point to see Smith pointing a gun at his head.
Windham testified at a hearing in September that as he ducked and tried to move away, he heard a gunshot and felt his back go numb. He said members of the group then beat, kicked, stomped and "poked" him repeatedly in the body with something. He said he passed out, and when he later awoke the others were gone and he crawled to a nearby house for help.
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Windham was shot in the arm and the back, suffered multiple stab wounds on his stomach and back, and was left blind in one eye and with limited vision in the other eye, according to his testimony. A state police trooper who also testified at the September hearing said he had never seen anyone beaten so badly in his 25 years in law enforcement.
According to the statement read by Liboski, some of the suspects had acquired the drywall knives, as well as supplies to tie up Windham and to clean up after the attack, before they headed to North East. He said Jordan provided a gun to Smith sometime prior to the attack, and that all four of the suspects had stabbed Windham during the assault.
Jordan took out one of the knives and inserted it in Windham's eyeballs repeatedly, and the group continued to beat Windham until he was unresponsive, Liboski read from the statement. He said the group then dragged Windham into a wooded area and left him there in the dark and in blizzard conditions.
The four suspects fled the area after the attack but were later apprehended in Chautauqua County, New York, authorities reported.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Suspects in shooting, assault of Erie man in North East plead in case
