Print
Dec 2, 2008 9:42 pm US/Pacific
Oakland 'Nut Case' Gang Leader Gets Life In Prison
OAKLAND (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
-
-
Some members of the group sported tattoos of the Planters "Mr. Peanut" logo.
CBS
The former leader of Oakland's so-called "Nut Case" gang will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murders of three people during the gang's 2002 and 2003 killing spree.
Thirty-year-old Leon Wiley laughed and shouted his allegiance to the gang during his sentencing Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court.
Judge Joseph Hurley said he wished he had the power to sentence Wiley to the death penalty instead of life in prison.
Wiley could have faced a death sentence, but prosecutors chose to seek life in prison instead. They made that decision after they were unable to get a death penalty verdict for another Nut Cases member, DeMarcus Ralls.
"We all have to meet our maker some day and we would be better off if he (Wiley) did so at a much earlier date," Hurley said, calling Wiley "cold, calculated and unrepentant."
Wiley responded by talking back to the judge, with statements including "This is the Nut Cases," "I ain't scared of nothin'" and "I don't give a f---."
The gang got its name because its members allegedly killed for thrills. Some members of the group also sported tattoos of the Planters "Mr. Peanut" logo.
Wiley was one of eight gang members who were arrested following the six-week crime spree that included five killings of strangers and numerous robberies.
He was convicted in September of murdering 21-year-old Tracy Easterling and directing other gang members to kill 14-year-old Keith Maki-Harris and 24-year-old Jerry Duckworth. A jury also found him guilty of two counts of attempted murder and other felonies including shooting into an inhabited dwelling and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm.
Prosecutor Michael Nieto said Wiley shot to death Easterling at the corner of 94th Avenue and Peach Street in East Oakland on Oct. 29, 2002.
Nieto said Wiley also directed three associates to kill Maki-Harris and Duckworth inside an apartment at 871 Campbell St. in Oakland on Dec. 27, 2002.
Oakland police said the killings resulted from an argument between Wiley and others over his girlfriend.
Nieto said Wiley "was the boss, the shot-caller" in the shooting deaths of Maki-Harris and Duckworth.
Nieto said Wiley led the gang while leader Gregory Colbert was in state prison. But he said Colbert was out of prison and back in control of the gang when the crimes in Wiley's case were committed.
Before Wiley was sentenced, Easterling's aunt, Kathleen Miller, said, Easterling planned to be a beautician and that she had warned her niece a week before she was killed about hanging out with the wrong kind of people, such as Wiley.
Miller said she doesn't like "to see people who have no remorse - that's a crime in itself."
Asked by Judge Hurley if he wanted to say anything before he was sentenced, Wiley said, "No, I'm cool."
Guarded by five bailiffs, Wiley did make reference though to his nicknames, which are "Tweezy" and "Gotti." The latter nickname refering to former New York Mafia leader John Gotti.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
