A federal court jury convicted a longtime Salt Lake-area gang member of federal racketeering charges Wednesday night.
The U.S. District Court jury found Tyrese Sharod Smith, 29, guilty of conspiracy to conduct the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering, murder in aid of racketeering and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.
"I'm appealing, and I'm still king," Smith said, referring to his title in his gang.
"We'll find out how well he rules in a maximum-security federal prison," prosecutor Richard McKelvie said.
Defense attorney Deirdre Gorman said the verdict set a dangerous precedent.
"We do not have organized crime in Salt Lake City," Gorman said. "We have a gang problem."
The case marked the first time Utah prosecutors used the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act against a local street gang, the King Mafia Disciples.
McKelvie said Smith's case is only the beginning. "We're going to focus our attention to other gangs now and put them on notice."
Nine other gang members pleaded guilty in the May 2002 indictment and will be sent to federal prisons throughout the United States, effectively dismantling the gang. That's the goal of RICO prosecutions, McKelvie said.
During closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutors told jurors that Smith continued as the mastermind of a criminal enterprise even after he was sent to prison.
But the defense portrayed Smith as an isolated inmate with a lot of imagination but little influence over inept gang members who bungled crimes, including killing a man they mistook for a rival gang member.
Smith is serving a life sentence after being convicted of the 1996 murder of the 19-year-old man, who was not associated with a gang. Joey Miera was asleep on the floor of his cousin's house when he was killed by a shotgun blast fired through an open window.
Excerpts from transcripts of several telephone conversations Smith had while in prison were read Wednesday to the jury, complete with obscenities and gang-related slang. Gang members who failed to follow his orders were to be "canceled."
Defense attorney Catherine S. Conklin said during her closing argument gang members don't necessarily follow Smith and they are "certainly not the most talented criminals in the world. In fact, they seldom achieve what they set out to do." She said one of Smith's accusers was an informant paid nearly $50,000 by the FBI. Smith will be sentenced Aug. 5.
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