NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A convicted gang leader is set to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Federal prosecutors say 41-year-old Antonio Simmons led the “Nine Trey Gangsters Bloods Gang.”
The crimes trace back to 2015.
On Thursday, he learned he will serve more than three life terms, plus 40 years, and prosecutors say justice has been served.
U.S. attorneys thanked police for their help with the case that spanned nearly all of the seven cities.
Simmons was the last in the group of six men to be sentenced for their roles in the murders of five people along with several other crimes.
Federal prosecutors said Simmons – also known as Murdock- and five other gang members from Portsmouth and Norfolk murdered two men and three women, most of whom had no affiliation with the gang.
One of the victims was a mother killed randomly while walking home from her shift at work.
The gang’s crime spree also included attempted murders and multiple drug and gun offenses.
According to court documents, two people were killed during robberies that Simmons ordered his members to commit.
Court documents also said Simmons ordered the killings of rival high-ranking gang members who were also part of the Nine Trey Gangsters. A woman who opened the door at a rival member’s house was shot six times when she said the man they were looking for wasn’t home. While the men fled the shooting, they shot at witnesses looking out of their windows.
Thankfully, that woman survived.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said this case sends a clear message to gang members – you will be caught and you will be prosecuted.
On Wednesday, 26-year-old Anthony Foye, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in four murders and several other shootings. None of Foye’s victims had any affiliation with the gang and three of them were parents or grandparents to young children.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Foye and another member of the gang, Nathaniel Mitchell, were competing to see who could gain a reputation within the gang for shooting the most people. Mitchell received five life sentences for his crimes.
“Their actions shattered five families and took parents away from their children. That they did these acts because the gang needed money and to enhance their reputation speaks volumes about what gangs really are – as opposed to what they claim to be when they recruit young men and women in our neighborhoods,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.