Ronald Herron, aka Ra Diggs, was shipped off to prison on Thursday to serve 12 life sentences for a life of crime prosecutors said he bragged out in his music.
Herron, identified as a Bloods gang leader, was convicted in 2014 after one day of jury deliberations for his part in a drug trafficking operations in and around the Gowanus and Wyckoff Gardens housing projects in Brooklyn. In 2001, Herron was acquitted of murdering a man after witnesses refused to testify. Prosecutors allege Heron and his crew threatened them. Back on the street, U.S. District Attorney Loretta Lynch said Herron would go on to kill two men between 2008 and 2009. “Herron styled himself a rap artist, but the evidence proved that he was a murderous thug who sought power through violence, fear and intimidation,” Lynch said.
The aspiring rapper claimed his innocence throughout the trial, and his attorneys argued the boasting raps were constitutionally protected as free speech.
“You guys sit here and continue to paint this picture that I’m the devil incarnate — the scourge of righteousness,” Herron said in court, according to The New York Times.”It’s all crap.” A judge sentenced Herron to 12 life terms and an additional 105 years.
“For years, Ronald Herron unleashed brutal, unrelenting violence on his community while glorifying his criminal lifestyle as a crack-dealing gangster,” Lynch said. “Today’s sentence put an end to all of that, for good.”Brooklyn rapper to serve 12 life terms for murder
Brooklyn rapper to serve 12 life terms for murder, racketeering
