Telly Hankton started buying 2-pound packs of cocaine as a teen on the streets of Central City, and over the years built up a major drug ring that meted out violent street justice to defend the family business and punish snitches, according to the U.S. attorney's office. His mother, Shirley Hankton, tried to mediate an angry dispute that threatened to turn deadly, but also hid the product, laundered cash for nearly a decade and ultimately lied to a grand jury, federal agents say.
The Hankton team -- made up mostly of near and distant cousins -- dealt heavy quantities of drugs, shot and killed for the cause, the feds say. Women backed up the crew, flouting the justice system with an alibi con that worked, if only for a minute.
Walter Porter was the hired gun, paid at least $10,000 each for a pair of murders within a few weeks of each other in 2009 -- first killing a rival, then an eyewitness to the hit job, and finally the visiting brother of a man who helped send Telly Hankton to prison for life, agents say.
A sprawling racketeering indictment that U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office tossed at 13 people on Friday alleges a brutish family enterprise knee-deep in cocaine, heroin and shared guns.
Along with attaching new names to some high-profile murders, the indictment provides by far the most detailed look yet at the alleged scope of a drug operation with its epicenter in one of New Orleans' most beleaguered neighborhoods.
The Central City area bordered by Jackson Avenue, St. Andrew Street, Simon Boliver Avenue and Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard is where Telly Hankton and several of his relatives lived.
It was the territorial stronghold for an alleged Hankton drug ring that, in at least one case, killed its own: a young female relative who was suspected of swiping cash and product, according to the 22-count indictment.
Hankton, labeled by Mayor Mitch Landrieu as the city's most dangerous scourge, and 12 associates are accused of running a violent drug business since at least 1996.
Five members of the group -- Hankton, 36; his cousins Thomas "Squirt" Hankton, 36, and Andre Hankton, 35; accused hitman Walter "Urkel" Porter, 37; and Kevin Jackson, 39 -- are charged in four specific killings and could face the death penalty, according to a news release from Letten's office.
The rest include Shirley Hankton, 58; Nakia Hankton, 34; George "Black" Jackson, 38; Derrick "Dump" Smothers, 34; former LSU football recruit Troy Hankton, 28; Netthany Schexnayder, 33; Sana Johnson, 37; and Terrell Smothers, 36.
All of the suspects are from New Orleans.
Many of the defendants, including Hankton's mother, were arrested by law enforcement officials in roundups that started Thursday night. Others, among them Telly Hankton, who is already serving a life sentence for murder, and Porter, who also goes by "Moonie," were already in custody.
A neighbor said four cars with FBI agents showed up Friday about 5:30 a.m. outside Shirley Hankton's pink, wood-frame house in the 1900 block of Josephine Street and took away paper bagfuls of property, along with Shirley Hankton.
Agents also towed away a champagne-colored Cadillac Escalade truck. According to the indictment, Telly Hankton and his associates bought an Escalade for $50,000, and Shirley Hankton later had the title transferred to another family member.
The perjury charge against Shirley Hankton relates to testimony she gave to a grand jury nearly a year ago about the sale of the truck. It was unclear form the indictment why federal prosecutors were interested in the sale.?
Shirley Hankton also is accused of moving her son's drug stash to hide it from law enforcement, laundering money and conspiring in the drug operation. She could face the remainder of her years in prison if convicted on the RICO conspiracy charge.
"They handcuffed her, then uncuffed her to let her take her jewelry out of her ears," said the neighbor, Janet Gallagher. "We knew she was living way beyond her means."
According to the indictment, the Hankton organization ran its drug operation in and around the city starting possibly as early as 1994, when Telly Hankton was 18. Between 2003 and 2005, the indictment says, Telly Hankton would buy 5 to 6 kilograms of cocaine -- about 11 to 13 pounds -- every other week from a local source.
"Sometime between August 2005 and June 2009," he bought more than 100 kilograms -- or 220 pounds -- of cocaine powder from a source in Houston, the indictment states.
HANKTON TIMELINE
The federal indictment unsealed Friday alleges 101 "overt acts" that Telly Hankton and his 12 accused co-conspirators committed to further their violent drug racket.
Here are some of the crucial allegations:
1994-1997: Cousins Telly and Thomas Hankton begin buying cocaine by the kilogram.
1998-2003: Telly Hankton begins buying 5-6 kilos of cocaine every two weeks from a source in the New Orleans area.
March 3, 1999: Derrick Smothers and Terrell Smothers shoot "T.B." "within the territory of the enterprise."
May 22, 2000: Telly Hankton shoots at "F.H." over missing money and/or drugs that she had been storing for him. F.H. blames her daughter.
June 12, 2000: Venice Brazley, the daughter of "F.H.," and Calvin Fox, is shot and killed.
Jan. 15, 2004: Telly Hankton shoots Brian Broussard and "a known individual."
Nov. 17, 2004: Telly Hankton shoots "a known individual."
April 7, 2005: George Jackson asks an associate to kill Darnell Stewart; Telly Hankton gives a gun to associates while at his mother's house; within minutes, the associates shoot Broussard, Stewart and "a known individual."
April 12, 2007: Troy and Telly Hankton shoot at Stewart, Jesse Reed, and they shoot "a known individual."
Jan. 14, 2008: Telly Hankton shoots at Stewart and shoots Reed.
May 13, 2008: Telly Hankton and Andre Hankton engage in a gun battle with Stewart on Claiborne Avenue; Stewart crashes his car and flees on foot; Andre Hankton hits Stewart with his car; Telly Hankton shoots and kills Stewart.
May 21-June 2, 2008: F.H., Shirley Hankton and others use properties to secure $1 million bond for Telly Hankton.
March 27, 2009: Shirley Hankton gave "M.D." $7,000 for a cashier's check to pay Telly Hankton's attorney.
June 20, 2009: Telly Hankton, Walter Porter and Kevin Jackson shoot and kill Jesse Reed; Jackson pays Porter "$10,000 or more" for his help.
July 4, 2009: Porter shoots and kills Hasan Williams, an associate of Reed's who witnessed Reed's murder; Thomas Hankton pays Porter "$10,000 or more."
Late 2009: A Hankton associate, being held in the Orleans Parish jail along with Telly Hankton, calls Derrick Smothers using a contraband cell phone and tells Smothers to kill John Matthews, a key witness to the Stewart murder.
Oct. 24, 2010: Porter shoots Matthews at his home in eastern New Orleans; Thomas Hankton pays him "$10,000 or more."
2011: Netthany Schexnayder calls Danielle Hampton to ensure she met with Telly Hankton's attorney; Schexnayder also pays Sana Johnson to testify falsely at Hankton's murder trial.
July 28, 2011: Hampton and Johnson perjure themselves at Hankton's trial.
Oct. 15, 2011: Porter shoots and kills Curtis Matthews, brother of John Matthews.
Nov. 3, 2011: Shirley Hankton lies to the grand jury.
Later, his cousin would tell a drug source that he needed to keep buying cocaine to help finance Hankton's legal defense.
Between attorneys for Hankton and Thomas Hankton, who is accused of firing 17 bullets into a key witness to keep him from testifying at Telly Hankton's murder trial last year, the bill ran well into six figures. Shirley Hankton facilitated the payments, much of it in cash, the indictment states.
According to the government, at least $43 million from the alleged criminal network is subject to forfeiture.
"During the course of this organization's existence, its members and associates murdered rival drug dealers, intimidated witnesses, attempted to obstruct the state criminal justice system by having associates provide false alibi testimony in state court, and murdered a witness' family member in an effort to obstruct justice," a news release from Letten's office says.
Some of the acts referenced in the indictment are well-known to New Orleanians. Porter has previously been indicted in state court with the shocking murder of Curtis Matthews, whose brother, John, was the shot witness who survived to testify against Hankton at two trials in the 2008 murder of Darnell Stewart.
Curtis Matthews was shot a year ago Thursday, just days after Hankton was sentenced to life in prison. Matthews was gunned down outside the daiquiri shop his brother owned on South Claiborne Avenue, steps from where Stewart was slain three years earlier.
The indictment accuses Porter of carrying out Curtis Matthews' killing. It doesn't state how much, if anything, he was paid for that slaying. Porter also is accused in the indictment of committing two other murders, for money. In all, he is named in 14 of the 22 counts in the indictment. Telly and Thomas Hankton each are named in nine counts.
Hankton's first trial in the Stewart case ended in a mistrial after what authorities described as a perjury plot designed to give Hankton a bogus alibi.
That, too, is part of the sweeping indictment.
Thomas Hankton was accused in state court with organizing the scheme. After he was jailed for attempted murder in John Matthews' shooting, his girlfriend, Netthany Schexnayder, allegedly took over the reins of the perjury plot.
Schexnayder allegedly offered to pay Johnson to testify falsely for Hankton. Schexnayder and Johnson both face charges of conspiracy to commit misprision of a felony and accessory after the fact to murder.
Both left federal court Friday on $25,000 surety bonds put up by family members, said John Hall Thomas, Johnson's attorney. "I think Ms. Johnson has really been pulled into something she has very little involvement with," he said.
The figure at the center of the alleged perjury plot, Danielle Hampton, was not charged in the indictment. Hampton testified that she was on a date with Hankton when Stewart was killed.
Johnson backed up her story, saying she recalled Hampton recounting the date shortly after and expressing shock at seeing Hankton named on TV as a suspect in Stewart's murder.
Hampton, who was a manager at the Audubon Zoo, said she had just met Hankton for the first time that day in the park. She has since confessed in a written statement that she lied on the stand, saying Thomas Hankton pressured her and she feared retribution if she failed to come through.
Her attorney, Robert Jenkins, said he didn't know why she wasn't indicted Friday but that he didn't think the feds were done. He declined to say whether Hampton was cooperating. "It could be they add her at a later date in a superseding indictment," Jenkins said. "It might be just the beginning. I think there's likely to be others."
Along with Matthews and Stewart, the other murders the federal indictment attributes directly to the Hankton organization are those of Jessie "TuTu" Reed and Hasan "Hockie" Williams.
Reed and Stewart had for years been at war with the Hanktons, according to criminal justice sources. There were shooting attempts by Hankton or associates at Reed and Stewart in 2005 and 2007. In turn, Reed and Stewart were suspected -- but never booked -- by New Orleans police in the December, 2007 murder of George "Cup" Hankton, Telly Hankton's cousin and Andre Hankton's brother.
Stewart was killed on May 13, 2008. Reed was killed in a hail of bullets on June, 20, 2009, while Telly Hankton was out on $1 million bond.
The indictment accuses Telly Hankton in both killings. It also accuses Andre Hankton in the murder of Stewart, mirroring an earlier state charge, and it accuses Porter and Kevin Jackson, a distant Hankton cousin, of joining in the murder of Reed.
The indictment claims Kevin Jackson paid Porter at least $10,000 to help kill Reed. The allegations against Porter and Jackson in Reed's killing are new. Another man, Edward Allen, had been charged in state court, along with Telly Hankton, in Reed's killing.
Hasan Williams, who allegedly fingered Telly Hankton in Reed's murder, was killed two weeks after Reed. on the Fourth July, while Hankton was back in jail. The indictment names Porter and Thomas Hankton in that murder. Thomas Hankton allegedly paid Porter at least $10,000 for the job.
The same gun, a Glock 9 mm pistol, was used in both the murder of Jesse Reed and the attempted murder of John Matthews. According to the indictment, Porter sold the Glock sometime in summer, 2011.
The indictment also includes a suspicion that someone in the clan killed two people, including a Hankton cousin, in a June 12, 2000 ambush near a Gert Town nightclub.
Telly Hankton suspected his cousin, Venice Brazley, and Calvin Fox of stealing "large quantities" of drugs or money from Brazley's mother's house, the indictment says.
A month earlier, Telly Hankton shot at Brazley's mother in an argument about the stolen goods. The mother then told Hankton that Brazley and Fox had the keys to the house and stole the drugs, according to the indictment, which only uses their initials.
A month later, Brazley and Fox were dead. Like Darnell Stewart, Brazley was shot in the face. Another man, Kevin "Frog" Cockerham, pleaded guilty to those killings, after a trial ended deadlocked.
Cockerham received a nearly five-year sentence and was freed on credit for time served. It is not clear whether he was a Hankton associate. Cockerham, 42, is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Yazoo City, Mississippi after pleading guilty in 2009 to a pair of federal drug counts.
The rest of the indicted players appear to be less involved in the violence.
Nakia Hankton is accused of being a drug runner for the family business. It appears that Derrick and Terrell Smothers were drug dealers and enforcers for the alleged family drug ring. They are tied in the indictment to a shooting within the Central City "nucleus" of the Hankton drug ring, and with various drug and gun offenses. George Jackson is an alleged rug dealer who also "asked an associate to kill Darnell Stewart" around April, 2005.
Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/10/federal_indictment_against_han.html
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