{"id":229410,"date":"2026-04-13T07:15:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T07:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229410\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T07:15:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T07:15:44","slug":"notorious-orlando-gang-leader-sentenced-to-5-lifetimes-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229410\/","title":{"rendered":"Notorious Orlando gang leader sentenced to 5 lifetimes in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The leader of the Blood-affiliated \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/local\/2022\/04\/13\/watch-live-at-11-am-polk-county-sheriff-holds-gang-racketeering-news-conference\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/local\/2022\/04\/13\/watch-live-at-11-am-polk-county-sheriff-holds-gang-racketeering-news-conference\/\">Sex Money Murder<\/a>\u201d gang received five life sentences on Friday after his capture earlier this year, according to the Florida Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">In a release, state officials said that the man \u2014 identified as Hernando Thompson, Jr., 36, of Orlando \u2014 had been convicted after a Polk County trial back in January due to his leadership role in the gang.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">[BELOW: Disturbing discoveries at Sanford \u2018House of Horrors,\u2019 AG reveals]<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">After only an hour of deliberation, the jury in that case found Thompson guilty of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and three counts of directing criminal gang activities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cThis criminal led a violent, Bloods-affiliated gang that treated crime like a business \u2014 a business of robberies, drive-by shootings, and violence against children,&#8221; Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said. \u201cThis dangerous criminal deserved every minute of his sentence, and our prosecutors delivered&#8230; This violent criminal orchestrator will spend the rest of his life and any other life he may come across behind bars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Infographic produced by the Polk County Sheriff&#8217;s Office. (Polk County Sheriff&#8217;s Office)<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">According to investigators, Thompson exercised leadership over all gang operations in Florida, though he was careful not to directly or publicly involve himself in criminal activity so as to avoid jail time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">He is also the last outstanding gang member in this case, state officials concluded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">[BELOW: \u2018Notorious\u2019 leader of \u2018Sex Money Murder\u2019 gang arrested, Polk County sheriff says]<\/p>\n<p>Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kiwhtN\">Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The leader of the Blood-affiliated \u201cSex Money Murder\u201d gang received five life sentences on Friday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[265,28,1335,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-229410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-crime","tag-florida","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}