A vicious Long Island gang leader was the driving force behind years of bloodshed in Suffolk County — enlisting the help of teen offenders who would face lighter punishments, prosecutors said Thursday.
Marques Scott, a top Lowndes Block Gang member, and eight more brutes were charged for allegedly carrying out two murders, a series of shootings and sex trafficking dating back to 2016, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said.
Tierney, while announcing the 53-count indictment against Scott and his cohorts, blamed lax state laws for allowing gangs to use younger members like pawns.
“Marques Scott repeatedly exploited and used younger juvenile gang members to do his bidding and commit violence,” Tierney said, pointing to sentencing limits in the legislation.
Scott, 31, allegedly ordered 14-year-old Ramon Lyons, an alleged LBG associate, to shoot Luis Cameron Rimmer-Hernandez in August 2021 because the victim refused to take the blame after he and Scott were arrested on drug possession in Nassau County, prosecutors said.
Scott worked with other gang members to determine when Rimmer-Hernandez, 21, was near Lowndes Avenue in Huntington Station, prosecutors alleged.
Lyons then walked over to the victim, 21, and shot him dead.
While the teen was welcomed into the gang after that, prosecutors said, he was arrested and then convicted of the murder.
He received a punishment of 12 years to life in prison with the state’s controversial Raise the Age law limiting prison sentences to 15 years to life, the DA’s office said.
“The gangs are more sophisticated than our lawmakers — and they know that the laws of New York State are lenient when it comes to juveniles, and they are taking advantage of those laws,” Tierney, a Republican, argued.
Scott was accused of pulling the trigger himself when he allegedly shot an ex-girlfriend in the face in June 2021 because he believed she was mingling with a rival gangster, the district attorney’s alleged.
The woman survived, but needed multiple facial surgeries, prosecutors said.
Scott is accused of directing lower-ranking members to open fire on rivals and fire gunshots into different homes between December 2020 and April 2022.
In the December 2020 shooting, alleged gunman Tyshawn Lopez was seen on camera shooting an adversary in the head, prosecutors said.
All of the shooting victims during that span survived.
Scott’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other gang members also carried out a reign of terror over the past decade, including the 2016 murder of 18-year-old Huntington Station resident Antoine Butts-Miller, who was an innocent bystander caught in the crosshairs, prosecutors said.
Accused gang member Kevin Donaghy, known as “white boy,” allegedly fired into a house party Butts-Miller attended in August 2016 after Donaghy got into an argument with a rival gang member, prosecutors said.
“No matter how long it takes, we will investigate all of these cases in Suffolk County — and we will continuously strive to find answers for and families,” Tierney said.
Prosecutors outlined several additional shootings, illegal possession of guns and sex trafficking that led to the slew of charges against the suspected connected to the gang, which is an offshoot of the Bloods.
Scott, Donaghy, 33, and Shakur May, 22, were all hit with murder charges while Kamoree Richardson, 25, Johua Brown, 25, Justice King, 21, Rashad Casey, 25, Brianna Kuchar, 31, and Lopez, 25, were all hit with other criminal counts.
“We’re targeting the right people — and we’re going to hold them accountable,” said Suffolk Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina.
