44-Year-Old East Orange Man Sentenced To Federal Prison For His Role In The 2018 Murders Of Three People
Monday, August 5, 2024, 5:00 P.M. ET. 3 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,
NEWARK, NJ.- Last Thursday, a 44-year-old East Orange, New Jersey man appeared in U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, and was sentenced to 440 months in Federal Prison for his role in the gang-related murders of three people that occurred in Essex County in 2018.
According to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger, Leevander Wade, 44, of East Orange, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz on February 22, 2024, to charges of Racketeering Conspiracy, in part with the furtherance of a Drug Trafficking Organization.
On Thursday, August 1, 2024, Judge Farbiarz imposed the 440-month sentence in Newark federal court. In addition to the term of incarceration, Judge Farbiarz also ordered Wade to serve an additional five years of supervised release upon his release from prison and pay $6,223 in restitution.
According to documents filed with the court in February 2018, the drug enterprises leader, Michael Healy, found out that one of his coconspirators in the drug trafficking network was providing information about the enterprise to law enforcement. Healy ordered members of the Bloods Gang in East Orange to kill the informant, identified as “A.S.” in the indictment.
At the time, Wade had been acting as the manager in the enterprise and ran a series of stash houses in Essex County that were used to package heroin and fentanyl for street-level distribution.
Wade, who shared a close relationship with one of the leaders of East Orange Bloods, assisted Healy in contracting the East Orange Bloods to carry out the murder of the informant.
On February 3, 2018, members of the East Orange Bloods, acting on Healy and Wade’s behalf, shot and killed a bystander, believing the bystander was the informant. At the time of his death, the bystander was parked outside of the informant’s Bloomfield, New Jersey residence in a vehicle similar to what the informant drove.
Realizing they killed the wrong person, Healy ordered the Bloods to finish the job. On March 12, 2018, in Bloomfield, the conspirators killed the informant while he was walking his dog near his Bloomfield residence.
On April 6, 2018, believing that another member of the enterprise, identified as “J.C.” in the indictment, might be jeopardizing the enterprise, Healy shot and killed “J.C.” in Newark, New Jersey. Wade drove Healy to and from the murder scene and then helped to destroy evidence by hiring someone to burn the vehicle.
Thomas Zimmerman, Tyquan Daniels, and Ali Hill, all members of the Brick City Brims subset of the Bloods street gang in East Orange, previously all entered guilty pleas to Racketeering Conspiracy for their roles in the murders of the bystander and “A.S.” Zimmerman was sentenced on July 6, 2023, to 37 years in Federal Prison; Daniels was sentenced on July 6, 2023, to 35 years in Federal Prison; and Hill was sentenced on July 6, 2023, to 25 years in Federal Prison.
On April 3, 2024, Healy was convicted after a jury trial of multiple counts of Murder in aid of Racketeering, Racketeering Conspiracy, and multiple Weapons and Narcotics offenses. Healy is scheduled to be sentenced on October 1, 2024, at which time he will face a mandatory life sentence.
