Michael Watson, T&A Crips Racketeering, Ohio 2020

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Columbus man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for participating in a local gang’s racketeering conspiracy, according to authorities.

Michael Watson, 27, is one of 19 defendants who were charged in October 2018 as members and associates of the Trevitt and Atcheson Crips gang (T&A) in a violent conspiracy involving murders, attempted murders, drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, witness tampering, robbery, assault and other crimes.

The gang derived its name from Trevitt and Atcheson streets in the King-Lincoln District of Columbus, where its members predominantly reside. T&A controlled the neighborhood through intimidation, fear and violence. Gang members were expected to retaliate with acts of violence when their members and associates were disrespected, threatened, intimidated or subjected to acts of violence.

Specifically, the co-conspirators in this case are charged with five murders: the murder of Franky Tention on July 1, 2012; the murder of William Moore on March 15, 2013; the murder of Marvin Ector on December 23, 2013; the murder of Quincy Story on January 24, 2015; and the murder of Deaonte Fisher on March 4, 2016.

Watson pleaded guilty in March 2020 to shooting Marvin Ector, a member of the rival Milo Bloods gang. Ector’s murder was a retribution killing; he was targeted for assassination for previously disrespecting a T&A member who had been killed. Watson shot Ector in December 2013 while Ector was in his car at a Sunoco gas station on the near-east side of Columbus.

"These revenge murders – killing one another over ‘disrespect’ – have got to stop," U.S. Attorney David M. DeVillers said. "The only results are being killed yourself or spending much of, if not all of, the rest of your life in federal prison."

Watson’s 30-year prison sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney David M. DeVillers, Roland Herndon, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); Chris Hoffman, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; Columbus Police Chief Tom Quinlan; United States Marshal Pete Tobin and Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien in U.S. District Court today.

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