'Prominent member' of Erie 4-Nation gang gets hit with first sentence in big RICO case

Erie's biggest criminal case has produced its first prison term with the sentencing of the eighth-highest ranking member of the Erie gang 4-Nation.

The defendant, Marius L. Russell, 32, was sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison immediately after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Erie.

He is the first defendant in the 58-defendant 4-Nation case to plead guilty and get sentenced. The defendants were indicted in late May.

The prosecutor described Russell in court as a "prominent member" and "an earlier member" of 4-Nation. The indictment lists Russell as the eighth-highest member of the gang.

Russell, who has a prior record for crimes including dealing in heroin, apologized in court.

"I accept full responsibility for my actions," Russell told U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter. "I affected the community. I affected a lot of people."

Baxter said the sentence reflected the severity of the crimes but also took into account that Russell pleaded guilty — and is the first defendant in the case to get sentenced.

Russell took "acceptance of responsibility early in the matter," Baxter said.

4-Nation called 'wide-ranging narcotics-trafficking' gang

With the plea, Russell, known as Gifted, admitted to violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, by participating in gang activity, and he admitted to dealing in 6,215 fentanyl pills as part of the gang, according to court records.

The RICO crimes occurred between 2012 and until he and the 57 other defendants were indicted on May 30, and Russell's dealing in fentanyl occurred between August 2021 to the date of the indictment.

The indictment, unsealed on June 8, launched the largest-ever criminal prosecution in federal court in Erie. It is also the first case in federal court in Erie in which the U.S. Attorney's Office brought charges in Erie under RICO, the federal law used to target the mob and other organized crime operations.

Not yet arrested: 3 of 58 defendants in Erie 4-Nation gang case are at large. FBI is looking for them

The first 22 defendants in the case, including Russell, are accused of being members of 4-Nation, which operated in the area of East 24th and Wallace streets in Erie, according to the indictment. The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Sellers, described it on Wednesday as "a wide-ranging narcotics-trafficking organization and street gang," and called Russell a "prominent member."

The U.S. Attorney's Office alleges 4-Nation had a hierarchy and other organizational structure. The accused leader of the gang is Davante Q. Jones, 30, known as Smoov. He is in prison as he awaits prosecution.

The 22 defendants are each charged with a RICO count — on allegations that the gang was a criminal enterprise that distributed illegal drugs and engaged in other crimes — and a charge that they conspired to traffic in cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl and other drugs for the past 10 years.

The other 36 defendants are accused of conspiring to traffic in illegal drugs, with some of those defendants connected to the 4-Nation defendants. Some of the defendants are also accused of weapons offenses.

As part of the probe, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies seized 19.2 pounds of methamphetamine; 180,018 fentanyl pills; 5.22 kilograms of cocaine, or about 11.5 pounds; 4.9 kilograms of fentanyl powder, or about 11 pounds; 709.5 grams of fentanyl-related drugs, or about 25 ounces; several pounds of marijuana, 33 guns and $235,151 in cash.

Judge gives Russell a concurrent sentence as part of plea deal

Russell pleaded guilty to both the conspiracy and RICO counts. Under the plea deal, Baxter sentenced Russell to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years on both counts, and she ordered him to serve the sentences concurrently, leading to a term of 10 years.

She also sentenced Russell to five years of supervised release and made him eligible for drug counseling while he is in prison. Russell, a father of three, had been using marijuana and fentanyl before he was incarcerated once he was indicted, his court-appointed lawyer, Neil Rothschild, of Oil City, said in court. Russell also abused alcohol, according to court records.

Rothschild credited Russell for being the first defendant to get sentenced in the case after pleading guilty. He said Russell's decision to move quickly with a plea "is helpful to the government in terms of how this case plays out."

The conspiracy count and the RICO count each carry maximum sentences of life. The plea deal spared Russell, with his prior record, a sentence of more than 10 years.

Other guilty pleas, sentencings on way in 4-Nation case

One other defendant in the case has pleaded guilty: Erie resident Anthony J. Stufflebeam, 36, who is listed as 48th of the 58 defendants indicted. He is not listed as one of the 22 defendants accused of being part of the 4-Nation gang.

Stufflebeam pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to traffic in methamphetamine in the 4-Nation case. The indictment alleges that Stufflebeam and an accused 4-Nation gang member, Darian Beasley, 31, also known as Terry Hasberry, Chewy and ChewDollaz, trafficked in methamphetamine in Erie in November 2022.

Stufflebeam is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 27.

Another defendant in the 4-Nation case intends to change his plea of not guilty. That defendant, Rayshawn M. Woodard, 23, known as RDollaz, has a change-of-plea hearing scheduled for Dec. 21, according to a docket entry dated Wednesday. The indictment lists Woodard as the 10th-highest ranking member of 4-Nation.

The other defendants in the case have pleaded not guilty, but court records show that plea negotiations have commenced for several of them.

Fentanyl at center of 4-Nation's operations, feds say

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies used wiretaps and cooperating witnesses to develop a case against the accused 4-Nation members, according to court records. Investigators also alleged 4-Nation was linked to a number of violent acts over the past several years.

In the case of Russell, Sellers, the prosecutor, said in court that his cellphone was tapped, and that investigators used the phone calls to tie him to the trafficking in fentanyl. Sellers also said the investigators connected him to violence — in particular, a fatal shootout at a short-term rental house in Erie in early 2022.

Members and associates of 4-Nation triggered the events at the house, in the 3900 block of McClelland Avenue on Jan. 27, 2022, according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges the members and associates "attempted to commit an armed robbery of the drug suppliers" of two high-level members of the gang: Jones, the accused of heading 4-Nation, and Russell. The robbery attempt, the indictment alleges, resulted in "a target of the robbery sustaining gunshot wounds and the death of a member of the enterprise who was participating in the robbery."

Jones, Russell and the other 56 defendants named in the federal indictment are not charged directly in connection with the fatal shooting. Four other defendants are charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of the victim, 30-year-old Shannon Crosby, who the indictment alleges was a member of 4-Nation. That case is pending in Erie County Common Pleas Court.

The U.S. Attorney's Office used the fatal shooting and other incidents to build a RICO case against Russell and the other defendants. The probe revealed that 4-Nation was intertwined with drug dealing and violence, Sellers said in a sentencing memorandum in Russell's case.

"Throughout the investigation, a pattern emerged whereby membership and association with 4-Nation facilitated and amplified the dispersal of staggering quantities of fentanyl and other drugs into the community," according to the memo. Russell, according to the memo, "participated in and promoted this network, profiting all the while at the expense of those to whom he sold."

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: First sentence handed down against gang member in Erie 4-Nation case