JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A grand jury indicted a Jacksonville gang leader accused of arranging the murder of a witness expected to testify against one of his own, and a second gang member suspected of carrying out the killing, authorities said Thursday.
Hercules Delsolomon Bowers, 36, and Aaron James Gregory, 35, are charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, while Gregory also is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, according to the State Attorney’s Office. Both face life in prison if convicted.
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“A known criminal gang orchestrated the murder of a witness poised to testify against one of their own,” State Attorney Melissa Nelson said in a statement announcing the indictments. “Their actions are an affront to the justice system itself.”
Bowers and Gregory are the latest to be charged with murder in the shooting death of Michael Felton Wright. Their associate, Quintae Davouris Hudson, was sentenced to life in prison in August following his June convictions on first-degree murder and conspiracy counts.
At the direction of Hudson, a high-ranking member of the NeighborHood Bloods Rollin 20s gang, Bowers and Gregory took part in a plot to silence Wright, who was gunned down on Easter Sunday in 2016, according to court documents.
Gregory was denied bail during his first appearance before a judge Saturday.
Wright, 62, was set to testify in a separate case linked to an October 2014 incident that saw Hudson hurl a brick through the window of a friend’s vehicle, injuring a child seated inside, after a reported dispute over money owed to Hudson for car repairs.
That incident played out at the Hollybrook Homes apartments near King and Beaver streets, where Wright lived and once worked as a security guard. Court records show Hudson, 27, repeatedly called one witness from jail, influencing him to recant and lean on a second witness.
But Hudson, who faced a stiff prison sentence because of a previous armed robbery conviction, was convinced Wright could not be bribed or cowed. Through a series of phone calls and go-betweens, Hudson contacted gang associates and demanded that Wright be dealt with.
A number of those calls were made to Bowers, during which Hudson sought to have Wright murdered to keep him from testifying in the 2014 case. A witness who was there for at least one of those calls told investigators he was present when Bowers ordered the hit, court records show.
During a search of the gang members’ phones, police found a text message sent from Bowers’ phone a week before the murder that included Wright’s name, address and phone number – and another from Gregory’s phone, minutes after the killing, indicating Wright was dead, records show.