Judge challenges gang leader Larry Hoover’s mercy bid: ‘How many murders’ has he caused?

A federal judge considering a possible sentence break for Gangster Disciples co-founder Larry Hoover challenged Hoover’s attorney Thursday to answer an important question: “How many murders do you think he is responsible for?”

U.S. District Judge John Blakey asked the question during a hearing on Hoover’s attempt to be resentenced under the First Step Act, a 2018 law signed by then-President Donald Trump that made certain sentencing reforms retroactive.

Hoover’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said she was not prepared to answer Thursday but would like to consider it. “I would like to answer that question,” Bonjean said.

Blakey, who did not rule during the nearly 90-minute hearing, gave her until October 7 to do so.

The back-and-forth unfolded with Hoover, 73, making his first public appearance in years, albeit via video. He was seen on screen wearing a tan outfit and glasses, sitting in front of what appeared to be a lectern in the courtroom with his hands cuffed.

“I am a very different person than the man who entered prison in 1997,” Hoover told the judge. “I have had the opportunity to reflect on my life and the problems my existence in the community has caused. If I am released, I would take the time to try to – what’s it called – redeem myself from the problems I have caused in the community.’

The late U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber gave Hoover a life sentence in 1998, insisting that Hoover had abused his ability to lead thousands — a “gift” from God.

But Hoover’s lawyers tried to overturn that sentence in 2019 under the First Step Act. Some of Hoover’s co-defendants have already seen mercy under the law.

Hoover and David Barksdale created the Gangster Disciples in the late 1960s by merging two street gangs. They ruled as “King Larry” and “King David” until Barksdale was assassinated in 1974.

Meanwhile, Hoover ordered the execution of William “Pooky” Young, whom Hoover suspected of stealing from Hoover’s drug stashes. Another gang member shot Young six times in the head and dumped his body in an alley on February 26, 1973.

Hoover was convicted of the murder after a trial in December 1973, and a judge sentenced him to 150 to 200 years in prison. However, that didn’t stop Hoover from leading the gang. At its peak in the early 1990s, prosecutors say the Gangster Disciples under Hoover’s leadership raked in about $100 million a year in drug sales.

Hoover was careful not to talk about business during his prison phone calls. So in 1993, authorities obtained permission from a judge to eavesdrop on conversations by placing transmitters in visitor badges issued to gang leaders who wanted to visit Hoover in person.

Hoover was ultimately charged with forty crimes, including participating in an ongoing criminal enterprise, and a jury found him guilty of all charges on May 9, 1997.

Since Leinenweber’s conviction, his lawyers say he has spent decades in one of the country’s most notorious federal prisons, the so-called supermax facility in Florence, Colorado.

Others who served life sentences there include Ted Kaczynski, the so-called “Unabomber”; Terry Nichols, accomplice in the Oklahoma City bombing; and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, the kingpin of the Sinaloda drug cartel.