Tucson gang member gets nearly 28 years in racketeering case tied to 2 murders

A Tucson gang member was sentenced last week to nearly 28 years in prison for his role in a decade-long conspiracy that included murder, drug trafficking and witness intimidation.

David Kapone Williams, 36, pleaded to conspiracy to participate in a pattern of racketeering activity, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.

Williams admitted to being a member of the Western Hills Bloods, a gang that operated in Tucson and engaged in narcotics trafficking and murder, prosecutors said.

Court documents say Williams and other gang members killed a rival gang member, identified in court filings only by the initials F.D., in a hotel parking lot near Tucson International Airport in May 2015.

Gang members were also linked to a second homicide near Fremont Street in October 2014.

Williams is the last of eight defendants to be sentenced in the case, which spanned more than a decade of investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Tucson Police Department. Co-defendants received sentences ranging from roughly four to nearly 22 years.

“With Williams’ sentence, this long-fought battle to bring members of the violent Western Hills Bloods to justice finally comes to an end,” U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine said in a statement, adding that the case should serve as “a warning to other gangs and violent offenders.”

The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a Justice Department initiative targeting violent crime.

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