But Nicholas’ voice does not appear on any of the phone calls, nor is he mentioned in the conversations expect in a passing reference by Rankin regarding alleged Sex Money Murder member and King’s step brother Lee “Justice” Gray. Assistant District Attorney Gerald Van Loan told jurors that Gray, who is currently serving 12 years in state prison for robbery and assault, was initially a suspect in the gang’s hunt for the informant. In a January 2010 phone call to then-girlfriend — and now prosecution witness — Dametria “Meaty” Kelley, Rankin refers to Gray as “That little blazer Maino stack drop.” In gang parlance, prosecutors argued “Blazer” is SMM soldier while “stack drop” refers to the practice of drug dealers using lower-level agents to sell their product.
Silencing a witness … forever
In Van Loan’s version of the conspiracy, backed up by recorded phone conversations between Rankin and his associates, once Gray was cleared by the gang, attention turned to King and, as family, Gray was assigned to deal with the problem.
On Feb. 6, three days before King’s murder, the crew gathered at Nicholas’ Furnace Street residence for a drunken party. Rankin calls gang associate Amanda “Blazer Bitch” Miller and asks her to pas the phone to Gray. Rankin is heard on tape telling Gray “Your man with the ponytail, holler at him” to which Gray replied “Already DOA.”
Van Loan told jurors that the alleged drug supplier-seller relationship between Nicholas and Gray and the fact that Nicholas was a bona fide member of the gang (photos presented at the trial show him throwing up the crossed pistols gang sign of Sex Money Murder in the company of fellow gang members) argued for the fact that he knew Mattis was bent on murder of the night of Feb. 9 when he spotted King at the Cedar Deli and called Miller’s cell phone and told her to “put me on with Little T.”
Van Loan also argued that Nicholas’ actions at the deli before the shooting and in the getaway car driven by Miller afterwards pointed to evidence of his guilt. Countering defense counsel Paul Gandin’s surmising that Nicholas may have thought the gang merely wanted to intimidate or threaten King when they arrived at the deli minutes after the phone call, Van Loan noted that video from the deli shows the 6’4” alleged gang leader Gary “G Money” Griffin and the 6’1” Nicholas waiting outside the deli while the 5’4” Mattis walks the equally diminutive King up Cedar Street alone.
“If the plan was to break his legs or beat him up, why didn’t they do it right there?” asked Van Loan.
I think that it is wrong when the person that created the incident Det. Eric Van Allen hasn’t been charged for leaking the information that Charles CJ King was testifying in another shooting. Because of that leak CJ was shot and then they let two of the main player in the plot testify against others and they are being let go free. White Supremacy at it’s finest.
[Editor’s note: The allegations in the above comment have been denied both by Van Allen and District Attorney Holley Carnright.]
Of course they would deny what I said but how did the information get out about Charles King tesifying? To be truthful about the real deal is a crime to leak information about Grand Jury witinesses.