Four members and associates of a neighborhood street gang in Hudson County, New Jersey, admitted their respective roles in a gang-related stabbing last week.
Jermaine Jennings, aka “Maine” and “Drill,” 21, Divine Abraham, aka “Dee,” 22, Jamil Bowens, 21, and Jaylen Boone, 22, all of Jersey City, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty in Newark federal court via video conference to separate informations charging each of them with one count of assault resulting in serious bodily injury in aid of racketeering.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Jennings, Abraham, Bowens, Boone, and four others, assaulted a rival gang member in retaliation for a prior gang-related assault on Aug. 3, 2020.
All of the attackers are associated with a street gang operating in and around the Curries Woods Public Housing Complex in Jersey City – identified as “Curries Woods” or the “Tay Tay Shrimp Gang” or the “Sharks.”
As the victim was walking down a street in Jersey City, Jennings, Abraham, Bowens, Boone, and the others approached in two cars, parked in the middle of the street, and violently assaulted the victim, who was punched, kicked, and stabbed and suffered life-threatening injuries.
The count of assault resulting in serious bodily injury in aid of racketeering activity is punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Sentencing is currently scheduled as follows: Jennings, Jan. 4, 2023; Abraham and Bowens, Jan. 6, 2023; and Boone, Jan. 10, 2023.
Jersey City’s largest Housing Authority project was named after James Curie, who was on the town Committee for Greenville when it was its own township in the 19th century.
The Jersey City Housing Authority and Jersey City Police Department worked together to reduce and eliminate drug trafficking and violent crime in the Curries Woods public housing development through the transformation of a crime-infested high-rise project into a more secure, gated townhouse community but the neighborhood remains a dangerous place that is largely beyond the writ of local police.