Prosecutors: Stalking conspiracy led to 6-year-old's shooting, woman's slaying

A conspiracy to kill a Wilmington man led to the fatal shooting of a woman in Elkton, Maryland, and the shooting of a 6-year-old boy in the head in Wilmington last year, according to a new federal indictment. 

Ryan Bacon, Dontae Skyes, Michael Pritchett, Dion Oliver, Maurice Cooper and Teres Tinnin were indicted this week in Delaware District Court on charges including conspiracy, stalking and kidnapping that resulted in the death of 28-year-old Keyonna Perkins and life-changing injuries to young JaShown Banner. 

Perkins' "intimate partner" was the target of the conspiracy, the federal indictment states. That document refers to that target as "person 1." A state indictment refers to that person as Markevis Stanford. 

Court records state Stanford had a yearslong personal feud with Bacon that led to violence between Bacon's associates and those associated with Stanford.

David Weiss, U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware, declined to elaborate on the nature of the group's association and the exact cause of the feud in a press conference Friday. 

"It is fair to say we have two groups that were openly feuding," Weiss said. 

The indictment states that Bacon, also referred to as "Buck50," rapped about Stanford being a "rat" and that Stanford and another unidentified associate were responsible for robbing Tinnin and Pritchett of money and jewelry on May 6, 2017. 

Afterward, the defendants gathered to discuss a pre-existing bounty for the death or location of Stanford and a new bounty to be placed on his accomplice in the robbery, court records state. 

That began a campaign by the men that prosecutors said amounted to stalking and conspiracy, Weiss said. 

The indictment states the men used online apps to share photographs of their targets. They also used online apps to offer others money for the location or death of Stanford.

On May 19, 2017, Cooper located the two men and exchanged gunfire with them in Wilmington, which led to Stanford being arrested, the indictment states. 

Bacon and Oliver used apps and cellphones to get information about their Stanford's incarceration and shared their information with their conspirators, the indictment states. 

On June 5, 2017, Sykes, Bacon, Oliver and Pritchett went to the Four Seasons apartment complex on Winterhaven Drive in Glasgow believing their Stanford was there, Weiss said. 

The next day, the defendants, other than Tinnin, exchanged vehicles with unnamed associates in the area to avoid detection. Earlier this year, a woman was federally indicted on charges she lied to investigators about letting the men use her mother's car. 

Back at the apartment complex, the men spotted Perkins, who the indictment identifies as Stanford's "intimate partner."

After following her to and from a McDonald's, they held her at gunpoint, took the keys to her apartment and her cellphone. They searched her apartment for their target, impersonated her by texting Stanford from Perkins' phone and learned his location.

The men left the apartment complex with Perkins in the trunk of one of the two vehicles. They drove to their target, where he was shot at and missed several times while walking on the shoulder of Del. 896 near 231 Executive Drive in Glasgow. 

Pritchett, Oliver and Cooper then returned to Wilmington.

Sykes and Bacon took Perkins to a wooded area in Elkton where she was shot five times and died. 

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Back in Wilmington, Pritchett, Oliver and Cooper learned Stanford was at a Probation and Parole office on Cherry Lane near New Castle. Pritchett and Oliver were in a white truck, and Cooper was in a black Cadillac. 

They stalked him back to the area of Sixth and Spruce streets in Wilmington, and Oliver opened fire, missing his target but striking 6-year-old JaShown in the head. The boy now lives in a hospital bed in the family's living room. He communicates by blinking. 

"He was 6 years old. He was an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Attorney General Matt Denn at Friday's press conference. "Because he is such a tough kid, and he has such a devoted family, he is doing better now ... but his life will never be the same."

The next day, the men gathered to discuss hiding the white truck Oliver shot from. They also cleaned and hid two guns. Pritchett was later arrested while driving to Seaford to hide the truck.

Each of the defendants faces federal charges of conspiracy to stalk and stalking, which carry a total maximum of 15 years in prison.

Bacon, Sykes, Pirtchett, Oliver and Cooper are charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping. Because those charges resulted in Perkins' death, they carry a mandatory life sentence upon conviction. 

Each of the defendants is part of a sprawling 39-person drug dealing and racketeering indictment that previously saw each of the men charged with attempted murder for the shooting that injured JaShown. They also face many other, lesser crimes as part of those charges. 

Prosecution of that larger case continues in state court though charges associated with the shooting will now be taken up by federal prosecutors, Denn said.

Dwayne White and Rasheed White, two other men not named in the federal indictment but charged with attempted murder by state prosecutors, will continue to face those charges in state court. 

State prosecutors have declined to discuss details about the larger racket. The defendants in that case were arrested using warrants that are not publicly available. 

A motion to suppress evidence tied to one of the defendants details that the allegations involve a drug-dealing ring in which members and principals of the organization would launder their proceeds at casinos.

Court filings indicate records from the Casino at Delaware Park in Stanton and at least one "large bet" placed in Las Vegas on a sporting event are part of the prosecutors' case. 

Court records also state the investigation involved wiretapping and the court-sanctioned intercepting of phone calls. 

Dwayne White and Eric Lloyd are both charged with felony criminal racketeering. 

Their indictment states that between January 2015 and February 2018, the two dealt heroin, cocaine, dodged taxes, advanced illegal gambling, laundered their proceeds, threatened physical harm to others, damaged other people's property and attempted to kill a man in Wilmington.

If or how the shooting of Banner and murder of Perkins relates to the larger alleged racket is unclear. 

Denn said that as of Friday, more than 30 defendants have pleaded to charges that include drug dealing, money laundering, conspiracy and weapons charges. 

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.