Larry Pagett, Execution-Style Murder, New York 2015

Larry Pagett, the East Coast leader of the Eight Trey Crips street gang, has been sentenced to life in prison for the execution-style murder of a member of the rival Folk Nation street gang in a Brooklyn nightclub.

Larry Pagett, 41, was convicted of murder in-aid-of racketeering in October 2018 following an eight-day trial. The murder, which occurred on August 28, 2015, was captured on video surveillance cameras inside the Buda Hookah Lounge located on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

Pagett encountered Chrispine Philip, also known as Droppa, inside the nightclub. Philip was a member of the rival Folk Nation, and Pagett blamed him for the murder of an Eight Trey Crips gang member in Trinidad in the Spring of 2015. Pagett pulled out a gun and shot Philip multiple times, ending his life with a final bullet to the back of his head.

A bystander in the crowded nightclub was also shot in the stomach and arm, but survived. The murder was a brazen act of violence in a gang turf war that had been raging for years between the Crips and the Folk Nation.

“Larry Pagett will deservedly spend the rest of his life behind bars for brazenly committing an execution-style, gang-related murder inside a lounge in Brooklyn,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn M. Kasulis. “This Office will continue working tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to eradicate the murderous violence of street gangs like the Eight Trey Crips and end their wanton disregard for human life.”

The sentence was announced by Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, and Dermot F. Shea, Commissioner, New York City Police Department.

The Eight Trey Crips were based in and around the Flatbush Gardens housing complex. The Crips and the Folk Nation had been engaged in a deadly feud over territory in Brooklyn for years.

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