Gorilla Stone Mafia Leader John Pena Guilty of Murders He Bragged and Rapped About

A Staten Island gang leader named “Tragedy” couldn’t stop bragging about the two murders he committed for the Bloods. It took a federal jury less than a day to find him guilty of the slayings.

John Pena Jr., aka “Tragedy,” leader of the Gorilla Stone Mafia, faces a mandatory life sentence after a jury in federal court in Brooklyn found him guilty Tuesday on all six charges against him, including racketeering and murder in aid of racketeering.

Pena, 32, repeatedly boasted about the two murders he personally committed in 2021, even after he was booked into a federal prison, evidence showed during his trial in federal court in Brooklyn.

One of those repeated boasts? That he was “drama-free,” referring to the murder of rival Mark “Drama” Bajandas.

He rapped about both murders in a song called “Revenge is Glorious,” wrote about them in handwritten lyrics found in a jail cell, and bragged about them to a fellow inmate at the MDC Brooklyn prison.

John “Tragedy” Pena Jr.

Prosecutors say Pena committed the two murders to regain influence after the rival Bugatti gang devastated his ranks with a series of killings.

On March 10, 2021, he shot 26-year-old Bajandas, a Gorilla Stone Mafia defector, outside the Stapleton Houses on Hill St. during a candlelight memorial for a fallen gang member. He fired more than 10 bullets into the victim despite assurances that he could safely attend the vigil.

On June 22, 2021, Pena emerged to kill his romantic rival Francisco Gonzalez, 23, while the doomed Original Stacks gang member slept next to Pena’s ex-girlfriend in her bed, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, three of Pena’s Gorilla Stone Mafia associates, including one of Pena’s relatives, were murdered between December 2019 and April 2020. The gang believed “Bugatti” was behind the bloodshed.

Mark “Drama” Bajandas (Forensic Evidence)

After Bajandas and another member of the Gorilla Stone mafia switched sides, Pena had to shed blood to prevent a mutiny and remain in power, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Roddin said in his closing arguments.

“So he had to perform. As a godfather, he had to show that he deserved his power. He had to kill,” Roddin said.

The other defector, Jordan Taylor, testified at Pena’s trial.

Another witness, jailhouse informant Tysheen Cooper, told the jury last Wednesday how Pena confided in him and gave him details about the killings.

“I waited until he got off camera… and then I smoked him and walked away like I was John Gotti,” Pena boasted, according to Cooper — who is cooperating with authorities after pleading guilty to his role in a 2016 murder.

That was apparently a reference to the Bajandas killing, prosecutors said, with Cooper further explaining: “He didn’t say much before — like slogans and things like that… One of them was, like, ever since the day of whatever day the crime happened, his life has been drama-free.”

As for the second killing, Pena bragged to Cooper about breaking into Gonzalez’s house, he testified. “He was saying things like, ‘Yo, he must have been off the lean (cough syrup) because he never woke up. I gave him time to wake up. I stood over him and I watched him sleep and then I shot him and he never woke up — by the time he woke up, he was dead asleep,'” Cooper said.

Francisco “Chucky” Gonzalez (Forensic Evidence)

Pena’s rap song “Revenge is Glorious” — which was released on YouTube in 2023, two years after his arrest — also referenced committing both killings, prosecutors said. His lyrics about Gonzalez included the line: “Left his brains on them sheets, man, what was he thinking?”

The jury began deliberations Monday afternoon in the trial that lasted about two weeks, with a verdict delivered Tuesday morning at approximately 10:45 a.m.

Bajandas’ mother, Nydia Lasanta, wept as she heard the word “guilty” repeated in each of the six charges. Surrounded by family members outside the courtroom, she expressed relief at the verdict.

“My son was a loving child, and we miss him so much. He was stolen from us,” she said.

Pena’s sentencing is scheduled for February 20.

“As the evidence shows, Pena was obsessed with revenge against rivals and maintaining his leadership position in the Gorilla Stone Mafia gang by any means necessary,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Tuesday. “Killing one man as he slept in his bed and shooting another with a dozen bullets are shocking examples of Pena’s ruthlessness.”

Pena’s attorney, Sam Gregory, declined to comment Tuesday.