A reputed Chicago gang member was sentenced to six years in federal prison for retaliating against two witnesses who were cooperating in a criminal investigation into the gang’s activities.
U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey handed down the sentence for Javion Bush, 23, on Aug. 30, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois. Bush pleaded guilty this year to an obstruction of justice charge.
In his plea agreement, Bush admitted that in 2021 he posted an image to Facebook that named the two cooperators and included a note stating “All rats must di [sic],” prosecutors said.
Bush tagged the Facebook accounts of the two cooperators in his post and sent a threatening direct message to one of them stating, “All rats must die,” according to prosecutors.
The two people had previously testified before a grand jury that was investigating the Chicago gang faction known as the Goonie Boss/Goonie Gang, of which Bush was a member, prosecutors said.
Bush learned the names of the two witnesses after viewing a law enforcement report that had been given to another member of his gang who was being prosecuted by the state for murder, prosecutors said.
“Without witnesses, the truth about an incident will never be found,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Berry III argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Witnesses should be protected at all costs, and threatening them should be sanctioned swiftly and severely.”
The investigation into the Goonie Gang spanned several years, and resulted in racketeering charges for three of its purported leaders: Romeo Blackman, Terrence Smith and Jolicious Turman.
Between 2014 and 2016, prosecutors said, the three Goonie bosses were complicit or pulled the trigger in multiple fatal shootings: Johnathon Johnson, killed Jan. 22, 2014; Alonzo Williams, killed March 21, 2014; Stanley Bobo, killed Oct. 23, 2014; Krystal Jackson, killed Nov. 19, 2014; Andre Donner, killed Dec. 13, 2015; Davon Horace, killed Jan. 15, 2016; Gerald Sias, killed May 26, 2016; Ramal Hicks, killed June 20, 2016; Gerald Bumper, killed June 30, 2016; and Kenneth Whittaker, killed July 1, 2016.
Federal authorities recently have brought similar charges against other small gang cliques, including the Wicked Town branch of the Traveling Vice Lords in Austin, and O Block, a Black Disciples faction in Woodlawn.
Contributing: Andy Grimm
