Three members of a violent Strawberry Mansion gang will spend decades behind bars for their roles in a series of deadly shootings four years ago, prosecutors said Monday.
Dontae Sutton, 21, Jamir Brunson-Gans, 22, and Elijah Soto, 20, were each sentenced to at least 30 years in prison after pleading guilty last month, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
As teenagers, prosecutors added, the trio were members of Big Naddy Gang, a group responsible for killing three people and wounding six others over the span of about a month in 2021, when the city’s rate of gun violence surged to record levels.
BNG became so notorious in North Philadelphia that they were recruited by another gang to participate in a murder-for-hire plot, authorities said.
Jahlil Williams offered Sutton, Brunson-Gans, Soto and other BNG affiliates $10,000 for a killing. Investigators believe Williams was the leader of Omerta, a subset of the larger Zoo Gang. He is facing federal murder and RICO charges and was indicted in July alongside seven other alleged Omerta members in a case that remains pending.
On Sept. 29, 2021, BNG staked out 7 Stars Lounge, waiting for their target to emerge from the club. Some members served as lookouts; others as shooters, waiting for the signal, according to prosecutors.
Assistant District Attorney Joe Lanuti said a miscommunication prompted the shooters to follow the wrong car to 33rd and Diamond streets. There, the group fired nearly 50 shots into the vehicle of Chaundrah Jones, a 24-year-old mother, killing her and injuring two other women in the car. They had been celebrating a birthday at the lounge.
DA Larry Krasner described Jones as a “a completely 100% utterly innocent bystander.”
Less than two weeks earlier, on Sept. 18, Sutton and Soto were involved in the murder of 33-year-old Jerrick Jenkins on the 2900 block of W. York Street. Lanuti said BNG members believed Jenkins was friends with someone from a rival gang or neighborhood.
Prosecutors said Sutton, Brunson-Gans and Soto fatally shot Jordan Murray, 19, who was standing near a bus stop at 22nd and Huntington streets, on Sept. 6, 2021, following a dispute on Instagram.
“While we cannot save the victims in this case, I’m confident that BNG would have continued their shooting spree until investigators made them stop,” Lanuti said Monday at a news conference.
The trio, along with a fourth alleged gang member, Khalil Henry, were initially charged in May 2023 in connection with the violence. In addition, Williams and three other men were included in a BNG-related local grand jury indictment in June 2024.
Krasner contended that the prosecutions have “crushed” the group. “BNG, Bad Guys Now Gone, that’s your new name,” he quipped. “That’s what you get now.”
Sutton was ordered to spend 40 to 80 years in state prison, while Brunson-Gans and Soto were given sentences of 35 to 70 years and 30 to 60 years, respectively, according to the DA’s Office.
