Six indicted in fatal shooting after massive Brooklyn marijuana robbery
A band of robbers face federal charges for ambushing an upstate pot seller in a Brooklyn Airbnb, fatally shooting the dealer as the thieves tried to grab hockey bags full of weed, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn announced Wednesday they’ve indicted a half-dozen suspects in connection with the Dec. 3, 2021, robbery turned bloodbath in Brighton Beach.
The victim, Gregory Baratta, 46, of Poughkeepsie, and his nephew Jonathan Zephir rented an Airbnb on Brighton 4th Court near Ocean Parkway the night before the shooting, expecting to make a wholesale marijuana sale.
Just after midnight, Zephir and two more men arrived with four large duffle bags of marijuana, worth at least $500,000, prosecutors said.
But their buyers turned out to be part of a crew that’s targeted drug dealers in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island, according to court filings; just after 2:15 a.m., the rental home became the scene of a shootout.
The gunfire left Baratta mortally wounded , and his nephew hit in the leg.
Two of the robbers, Marcus Ricketts, 45, and Mark Goulbourne, 48, fled with their guns, but a third, Romeo Jonas, 34, was shot in the stomach.
Ricketts hopped on a Citibike, propping one of the duffel bags on the handlebars as pedaled off, prosecutors said. Goulbourne, meanwhile, called his brother, Jonathan Goulbourne, 43, who showed up with a car to escape.
Cops found Baratta’s body in the Airbnb, along with two guns, 15 shell casings, a money counting machine, a vacuum sealing machine, a bag containing real and counterfeit U.S. currency and a duffel bag with vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana inside.
Nearby, police found two more guns and two large duffle bags with about 140 pounds of marijuana. The fourth duffel bag was never found, prosecutors said.
Authorities arrested Jonathan Goulbourne, Ricketts and Baratta’s nephew in February.
Two more suspects, Chevonne Williams, 43, and Amari Webber, 31, were arrested Tuesday in Georgia for their role in the heist, while another, Juvanie Crossgill, 27, was charged on June 15.
Mark Goulbourne remains on the loose.
