COLUMBIA, SC—United States Attorney Bill Nettles stated today that Calvin “Kebo” Hall, age 42, of Irmo, South Carolina, was convicted late Thursday evening, July 25, 2013, in federal court in Columbia, South Carolina. After a week-long trial, a federal jury convicted Hall of conspiring to commit racketeering (RICO conspiracy), conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 280 grams or more of crack cocaine and related drug charges, and attempted Hobbs Act robbery. United States District Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr. of Columbia presided over the case and will impose sentence after a pretrial services report is prepared by the United States Probation Office.
Evidence at trial included testimony of several members and former leaders of the Gangsta Killa Bloods, a/k/a G-Shine, set of the Bloods street gang. The jury heard firsthand accounts of how these gang members were initiated by being “beaten in” for 31 seconds and then required to learn the history or “knowledge” of the gang. The cooperating gang members testified that the Bloods gang was founded in Rikers Island (a state prison facility in New York) and ultimately its members made their way to Columbia in or around 1999. Several members of the gang testified that after they were “beaten in,” they committed numerous crimes to include drug trafficking, drive-by shootings, armed robberies, firearms possession, Internet prostitution, and obstruction of justice/witness tampering in furtherance of the Bloods enterprise. The government relied on several cooperating Bloods who pled guilty to RICO conspiracy and related charges to prove that the Bloods enterprise had been operating continuously in Columbia from around 1999 through November of 2012. A former leader of the gang testified that even after the FBI arrested and prosecuted 19 members/leaders of the Bloods in 2007, the gang continued to operate and grow in and around Columbia.
Evidence against Calvin Hall established that Hall shared a crack cocaine source of supply with members of the Bloods and that Hall frequently cooked crack cocaine for gang members at two of his homes in Irmo, South Carolina. The jury found that from about 2003 until 2012, Hall conspired with several members of the Bloods gang to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute over 280 grams of crack cocaine.
Cooperating gang members testified that Hall accompanied them on multiple attempted armed robberies where gang members attempted to take drugs and cash from drug dealers. On May 23, 2011, Hall accompanied at least one Blood gang member in an attempt to take marijuana and cash from a residence on Old Barnwell Road in Lexington, South Carolina. During the attempted robbery, Kebo Hall was shot twice going in the front door of the residence. Surveillance footage from Lexington Medical Center showed Halls conspirators dumping him at the emergency room and quickly leaving him there to receive treatment for his gunshot wounds after the failed robbery.
Evidence also established that sometime in 2010-2011, Hall introduced members of the Bloods gang to a madam who assisted the gang members in posting women on backpage.com for the purpose of committing prostitution. Several cooperating gang members testified that Hall received kickbacks from Bloods gang members whose girls were prostituting online. Several witnesses testified that at least two of the girls who were being prostituted were less than 16 years of age at the time Hall was receiving kickbacks. The jury found that Hall agreed that he or others would commit multiple acts of prostitution of minors in furtherance of the racketeering conspiracy with the Bloods.
While the judge will have to consider the presentence investigation report prior to sentencing, Hall is facing a mandatory statutory life sentence without parole as a result of his criminal record.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, the City of Columbia Police Department, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, with assistance from the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and the West Columbia Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys William Witherspoon, Mark C. Moore, and J.D Rowell of the Columbia office prosecuted the case.
