37 Mississippi Prison Gang Members, Accomplices Convicted in Massive Conspiracy
On October 19, 2023, the last of a group of 37 Mississippi prison gang members and their accomplices pleaded guilty in federal court to selling drugs and committing violent crimes in state lockups. From its founding in Chicago in 1952, the Simon City Royals expanded to prisons in several states and has been the fastest-growing gang in Mississippi Department of Corrections (DOC) lockups, prosecutors said.
“Through an alliance with the violent Gangster Disciples gang and with a sophisticated structure, the Simon City Royals engaged in a host of criminal activities,” according to the federal Department of Justice (DOJ), “including murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, robbery, extortion, witness tampering, money laundering, interstate travel in aid of racketeering, large-scale drug trafficking, and fraud.”
Following a “kill on sight” order from leaders Allen Posey, 48, Jeremy Holcombe, 43, and Justin Shaw, 36, two gang members fatally stabbed fellow prisoner Brad Fitch, 28, in January 2018 at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, which is privately operated under contract for DOC by Utah-based Management and Training Corp. Investigators found deposits totaling hundreds of dollars were then made into the commissary accounts of the two killers, Dillon Heffker, 32, and Robert Williams, 29. Williams was found dead in his cell on August 31, 2021, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Aug. 2022, p.16.] Heffker was convicted in the conspiracy case, along with Posey, Holcombe and Shaw.
The four were among a total of 37 state prisoners and unincarcerated accomplices convicted of racketeering or drug conspiracy, including: Chancy Bilbo, 31; John Brooks, 37; Bobby Brumfield, 44; Jonathan Burnett, 39; Hank Chapman, 38; Jason Collins, 40; Samuel Conwill, 45; Jordan Deakles, 31; Jonathan Davis, 39; Alana Dickey, 21; Michael Dossett, 42; Preston Edwards, 36; Bruce Floyd, 42; Bryce Francis, 43; Jacquelyn Harmon, 33; Jason Hayden, 42; Douglas Jones, 34; Angel Labauve, 43; Justin Leake, 43; Valerie Madden, 54; Joshua Miller, 41; Michael Muscolino, 43; Anthony Murphy, 30; Cody Myrick, 33; Trevor Overby, 45; Catherine Perry, 41; Gavin Pierson, 33; Anthony Rouse, 33; Austin Ruby, 35; Craig Thomas, 36; Arvis Tolbert, 43; Chris Vincent, 20; and Cody Woodall, 31. See: United States v. Posey, USDC (N.D. Miss.), Case No. 3:22-cr-00008.
Joshua Jackson, Special Agent in Charge of DOJ’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in New Orleans, said the convictions “mean that the Simon City Royals’ time is over.”
Ironically, federal prosecutors say that the gang’s recent expansion was partly financed by a $25 million wrongful conviction settlement won by former gang leader Thaddeus “T.J.” Jimenez, 44, after a Chicago judge in 2009 overturned his conviction for a murder committed when he was only 16. Jimenez has been back in prison since 2017, serving a 110-month sentence for using an illegal gun to shoot an unarmed Irving Park neighbor in both legs—gratuitous violence captured on cellphone video and replayed at trial to the horror of U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, who called it “Exhibit A for gun violence.”
Source: Chicago Sun Times
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