Jury convicts alleged gang members Hay and Hang in 2018 drive-by slaying of David Page

PROVIDENCE – Gangs were feuding and shooting indiscriminately in the city the summer of 2018, when 57-year-old David Page landed in the line of fire early one summer morning.

A Superior Court jury last week convicted two alleged gang members in Page’s death and the shooting of two others shortly after midnight June 26, 2018, outside 100 Lowell Ave. A jury found Chandanoeuth “Big K” Hay, 33, and Jaythan “Ah-Jay” Hang, 24, guilty of first-degree murder and discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence that ended in death in Page’s slaying – charges that require mandatory consecutive life sentences.

The jury also convicted Hay and Hang, who authorities say are members of the Providence Street Boys and 864 street gangs, of conspiracy, drive-by shooting and two counts each of assault with a dangerous weapon, plus additional firearms charges, in the shooting of Carol Pona and her son Eddy Lee that same morning. Neither Pona nor Lee were injured, though prosecutors said Lee was the intended target. Page, who Pona had called for a ride, was in the "wrong place at the wrong time," prosecutors said.

Previous coverage: 57-year-old man shot dead in Providence

Pona is the mother of convicted killer Charles “Manny” Pona and served her own time in prison for leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in the death of a woman she had quarreled with.

According to authorities, the Providence Street Boys and 864 affiliated gangs were warring with Clowntown and the Trinitarios rivals at the time of the shootings.

Earlier that year, 22-year-old Jamal Contreras, a friend and Providence Street Boys associate, was shot and killed on Michigan Avenue. That death set gang members, including Hay and Hang, on edge and seeking retaliation.

The case relied heavily on the testimony of cooperating witness and Hanover associate, Kennedy Terrero, who told of holding the gun used in the shooting, a .22 caliber Smith & Wesson, as a community weapon and retrieving it at Hay’s direction shortly before the shooting.

Witnesses described a world of stolen cars, targeted shootings, drugs, pulling off “rips” and embarking on “rides” in search of rivals.

Prosecutors John M. Moreira and Jeffrey Q. Morin also brought Leslie Pereira to the stand in the trial before Judge Kristin E. Rodgers as an alternately weeping and aggressive witness. She had dated Terrero and was with him and the others at the time of the shooting.

Prosecutors portrayed Hay – “Big K” – as the boss who directed Kennedy and Hang to exact revenge and was often the target of shootings himself.

“[Terrero] is not a good person,” Morin conceded in closing arguments last Tuesday. His life is spent “inside a hornet’s nest.”

Lawyers for Hay and Hang tried use Terrero’s past as a registered sex offender and convicted drug dealer to seed doubt in the minds of the jury.

“No honor, no scruples, no loyalty,” Kara Hoopis Manosh said of 30-year-old Terrero. He jumps from gang to gang and has lived a “lifetime of despicable choices.”

“He betrays everyone he knows,” said Manosh, who represented Hay with Judith Crowell. “He lies, cheats, steals and that’s how he treats people he likes.”

She accused Terrero of only coming forward to spare himself from facing the murder charge.

“Their bad bargain takes him at his word and they want you to do the same,” Manosh said.

Maria F. Deaton emphasized that records showed her client, Hang, across town moments after the shooting.

“The state needs you to believe Kennedy Terrero,” Deaton said. There was no evidence of a conspiracy nor any evidence, circumstantial or direct, linking Hang to the crimes, she said.

Further, she said, the justice system had been “tainted” by money spent to protect Terrero as a witness and leniency extended to him throughout the case.

“David Page deserves better than this,” she said.

Despite those arguments, jurors returned guilty verdicts on all the charges Thursday afternoon.

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha praised the jury's finding in a statement.

“This case is about senseless and indiscriminate gun violence. And this violence, which too often results in death, can be traced to one thing, the very thing that is at the heart of this case: illegal firearms wielded by criminals all too willing to use them at a moment’s notice to settle minor disputes and ridiculous scores,” Neronha said. “I am grateful that the day of consequence and justice has arrived for these defendants, who now face entirely deserved long sentences in state prison for so blithely taking the life of another.”

He expressed admiration and gratitude to the Providence Police Department.

The state has requested that Hay be declared a habitual criminal, a finding that carries a consecutive sentence of up to 25 years be added to any other sentence imposed.

Motions for a new trial are to be argued Nov. 1. Rodgers ordered Hang, who had been free on bail, held at the Adult Correctional Institutions following his conviction. Hay has remained held without bail since his arrest in December 2019.

Providence Police Detectives Michael Otrando, Stephen Sullivan, and Theodore Michael led the investigation.

Manosh declined comment Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: David Page murder: Two convicted in 2018 Providence drive-by shooting