Ex-Brooklyn Gang Leader Gets 2 Life Sentences

Pictured: The Ebbets Field Houses. Image via Google Maps

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, NY — Yasser Ashburn, a former gang leader active in Crown Heights and East Flatbush, was sentenced in federal court Thursday to two consecutive life sentences, according to prosecutors with the Department of Justice’s Downtown Brooklyn branch.

Ashburn, 32, known by fellow gang members as "Indio" and "Supa Swerve 6," was accused of serving as head honcho for a local, 20- to 25-member subset of America's violent Folk Nation gang.

Ashburn's subset was based out of the Ebbets Field Houses on Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights, according to the DOJ.

The sentencing follows a March 2015 verdict which found Ashburn guilty of the 2008 murder of Courtney Robinson in the housing project. According to the DOJ:

The government’s evidence at trial established that, during the early morning hours of April 20, 2008, a fight erupted at a birthday party held in an apartment at the Ebbets Field Houses. After Courtney Robinson entered the fight to protect his nephew who was being beaten by Folk Nation gang members, Ashburn left the melee and retrieved a handgun from the building stairwell where the gang typically stored weapons. Ashburn then returned to the apartment and shot Robinson at point blank range in the back, killing him.

At that time, the DOJ's Brooklyn branch was headed by current U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. She described the ruling against Ashburn as “a victory for the residents of the Ebbets Field Houses and the Brooklyn community” and a deserving punishment for individuals who had “terrorized this community.”

According to prosecutors, Ashburn led a local subset of the Folk Nation gang from 2007 until about 2012, a period during which the group was believed to be highly active in Brookyln and the greater tri-state area — committing a series of murders, shootings and robberies.

Last year, one of Ashburn’s co-defendants in the case, Jamal Laurent, was sentenced to five life sentences. A second co-defendant, Trevelle Merritt, received 40 years behind bars.