Last Defendant in Bakersfield Gang Operation Enters Guilty Plea
| U.S. Attorney’s Office May 31, 2013 |
FRESNO, CA—United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today that Sidney Walker Sr., 38, of Bakersfield, pleaded guilty today before United States District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill to distribution of cocaine base. Walker was the last of remaining defendant of 25 people charged with federal felony charges as part of a lengthy investigation by the Kern County Violent Crime Gang Task Force, an FBI task force composed of Bakersfield Police Department, Kern County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that targets the drug and gun activities of Bakersfield gang members. All but one, a fugitive, have been convicted.
Throughout 2011, the Kern County Violent Crime Gang Task Force targeted the criminal activities of the East Side Crips, a criminal street gang in Bakersfield, and those who supply guns and drugs to the gang. The federal charges were announced at the time of the arrests in November 2011. Parole has been abolished in the federal system, and each defendant will be required to serve at least 85 percent of the prison sentence imposed.
U.S. Attorney Wagner said, “Members of the East Side Crips gang were warned that if they continued to engage in violence, law enforcement would respond. They disregarded that warning, and many of their members are now serving significant prison terms. Keeping our communities safe from violent crime is this office’s highest priority.”
As a result of this initiative, the following persons, all of Bakersfield, have been convicted and sentenced in U.S. District Court:
- Bobby Alexander, 46, received 57 months for distributing cocaine base
- Ronnie Alexander, 43, received 91 months for distributing cocaine base
- Ray Allen, 28, received 21 months for gun trafficking
- Fellie Martin Bradford, Jr., 45, received 70 months for distributing cocaine base
- Michael Deshawn Charles, 34, received 60 months for distributing cocaine base
- Bruce Leon Daniels, 45, received 60 months for distributing cocaine base
- Dupree Demery, 31, received 57 months for distributing cocaine base
- Charles Denwitty, 48, received 92 months for distributing cocaine base James
- Jerome Gage, 36, received 57 months for distributing cocaine base
- Joseph Gage, 32, received 60 months for distributing cocaine base
- Stacy Hodges, 39, received 60 months for distributing cocaine base
- Andre Johnson, 35, received 60 months for distributing cocaine base
- Samuel Johnson, 27, received 120 months for distributing cocaine base
- Tyrone Joseph Johnson, Jr., 38, received 46 months for gun trafficking
- Dorian Jones, 37, received 37 months for distributing cocaine base
- Ernest Joe Kerr, 48, received 48 months for distributing cocaine base
- Darius Dewayne Key, 28, received 60 months for distributing cocaine base
- Tyrone Leon Paul, 33, received 60 months for distributing cocaine base
- Tonriko Shropshire, 25, received 60 months for distributing cocaine base
- Elbert Stokes, 41, received 60 months for gun trafficking
- Demetrius Tanner, 24, received 70 months for distributing ecstasy
- Frank Wright III, 43, received 60 months for distributing cocaine base
- Wyman Young, 40, received 57 months for distributing cocaine base
- H.C. Bryant, 39, of Bakersfield, also indicted as part of the operation, remains a fugitive
The cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elana Landau. In addition to the defendants being prosecuted federally, a large number of additional gang members and associates identified in the course of the investigation were prosecuted by the Kern County District Attorney’s Office.