Last of Pine Ridge conspirators convicted of terrorism, scheduled for sentencing

May 22—A jury in Pike County found two women guilty of terrorism, kidnapping and robbery for "orchestrating" an attempted takeover of a gated Lehman Twp. community in November 2019, the county district attorney's office said.

The weeklong trial concluded Friday with the convictions of Tonia Scott and Keeba Harris on 33 counts.

The verdict settled cases against the last of the seven people charged in the attack on Pine Ridge. Jurors deliberated more than three hours before returning their verdict.

Scott, 53, and Harris, 46, face potential decades in prison when they next appear before President Judge Gregory Chelak at 10 a.m. June 27. Chelak has already sentenced others involved in the case to lengthy prison terms.

"This crime shocked the Pine Ridge and surrounding communities with the brazen attack in broad daylight to kidnap an armed uniformed security guard," District Attorney Raymond Tonkin said in a statement.

Attempts to reach attorneys Oressa Philips Campbell, who represented Harris, and Brett J. Riegel, who represented Scott, were unsuccessful.

Assistant District Attorney Alec Colquhoun prosecuted the two women.

State police charged in 2019 that Scott waged a yearslong campaign in courtrooms claiming her heritage made her the rightful owner of land covering Pine Ridge and Saw Creek. Those claims were fraudulent, prosecutors said.

However, she and Harris convinced five men associated with a security company to attack the community in exchange for housing, money and employment, authorities said.

Those men are Sekou Rashid-Abdullah, 29, of Houston, Texas; Troy Sutton, 53, of Brooklyn, New York; Sushane Adams-Heylinger, 30, of Binghamton, New York; and brothers Musa and Adam Abdur-Rahim, 31 and 35 respectively.

Musa Abdur-Rahim lived in Binghamton and his brother lived in Houston, Texas.

The morning of the raid, they gathered in New York City, armed themselves and then traveled to Pike County, state police said.

They took a security officer, John Derbyshire, hostage. However, the plan unraveled and state troopers arrested the conspirators and freed Derbyshire.

A jury convicted Sutton and the Abdur-Rahim brothers in January with counts of kidnapping, robbery burglary terroristic threats and recklessly endangering another person.

They claimed they were sent to eject trespassers at Scott's request by acting as tribal police of what ultimately proved to be a fraudulent Native American nation, prosecutors said.

Sutton was sentenced to 40 to 80 years in prison. Adam Abdur-Rahim was sentenced to 25 years and 2 months to 69 years and 1 month; his brother received 23 years to 52 years and 4 months in a state prison.

Rashid-Abdullah and Adams-Heylinger each pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to commit kidnapping to facilitate a felony, robbery and burglary.

Rashid-Abdullah was sentenced to 3 1/2 to 8 years in prison and Adams-Heylinger was sentenced to 3 1/2 to 10 years.

Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9100, x5187; @jkohutTT on Twitter.