{"id":303208,"date":"2026-07-22T20:44:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/303208\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T20:44:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:44:51","slug":"violent-enforcer-for-murderous-brooklyn-bully-gang-gets-52-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/303208\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Violent enforcer’ for murderous Brooklyn Bully Gang gets 52 years in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ex-con described by prosecutors as the \u201cmost violent member\u201d of Brooklyn\u2019s bloodthirsty Bully Gang was sentenced to 52 years behind bars Wednesday, after he and three other gang leaders were convicted in a sweeping racketeering trial.<\/a><\/p>\n

Franklin Gillespie, 35, was convicted of racketeering alongside gang leader Moeleek Harrell, who beat two state murder raps in 2017 and 2023, and his loyal lieutenants Derrick Ayers and Anthony Kennedy, after a two-month trial<\/a> that covered three killings, several shootings and a cruel interstate drug-trafficking organization.<\/p>\n

The June 2024 verdict, along with four dozen guilty pleas<\/a> from lower-level members, effectively turned Bedford-Stuyvesant into a Bully-free zone.<\/p>\n

Harrell got 60 years in April, while Ayers was sentenced to 59 years last month. Kennedy, meanwhile, was hit with a 41-year sentence in May.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors alleged at trial that Gillespie committed two of those three killings in just a four-day span in April 2020 \u2014 the point-blank execution of rival Stukes Crew member Paul Hoilett, then the getaway driver in Hoilett\u2019s killing, Mike Hawley, who Gillespie heard was being sought by the feds, and feared might talk if he was arrested.<\/p>\n

\"FranklinFranklin Gillespie at a Bully Gang stash house. (DOJ)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m dealing with a very violent man who shoots early, and tells others to shoot early,\u201d Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Brian Cogan said, pointing out Gillespie\u2019s history of gun arrests and violent acts despite his past prison sentences and his supervised release status. \u201cWhat am I going to do to stop Mr. Gillespie from carrying guns? I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything I can do. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s gonna stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jury deadlocked on Hoilett\u2019s murder, but they found Gillespie guilty of murder conspiracy as a racketeering act in Hawley\u2019s slaying.<\/p>\n

Cogan said that a preponderance of evidence showed he committed both murders, and that he\u2019d factor them into his sentence.<\/p>\n

Gillespie also involved himself in the Bully Gang\u2019s drug operation in Maine, and committed armed robberies for the gang, the feds said.<\/p>\n

Gillespie threatened the U.S. marshals keeping watch on him during the trial, telling them, \u201cYou don\u2019t know me and what I can do,\u201d and \u201cI would F you guys up and you don\u2019t know what I am capable of doing,\u201d according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

He also committed robberies and other non-fatal shootings, and stabbed three inmates at the MDC Brooklyn jail in two separate fights in December 2024 and February 2025, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn image from surveillance footage shows Franklin Gillespie during a fight at MDC Brooklyn. (DOJ)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe acts impulsively, and if he doesn\u2019t like something, well, if you don\u2019t get shot then maybe you\u2019ll get sentenced,\u201d Cogan said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors were asking for life in prison \u2014 a higher sentence than Harrell, the Bully leader, got \u2014 with Assistant U.S. Attorney Joy Lurinsky calling Gillespie the gang\u2019s \u201cviolent enforcer\u201d who used his gun as a first resort.<\/p>\n

She pointed out that a rumor the feds were looking for Hawley turned out to be false, but rather than ask around and find out for himself, Gillespie\u2019s first reaction was to preemptively silence Hawley with a bullet.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was dead the next day,\u201d Lurinsky said, adding, \u201cAn unnecessary murder, even from the defendant\u2019s perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gillespie\u2019s lawyer, Kannan Sundaram of the Federal Defenders, described him as devoted to his daughters, and said he should get consideration for the six years he\u2019s already served in the notoriously harsh MDC Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cFranklin Gillespie was one of the most violent members of an extraordinarily violent street gang and our Brooklyn community is rid of him thanks to today\u2019s sentence,\u201d U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Gillespie submitted an unexpected character reference \u2014 Karl Jordan Jr., the accused killer of Run-DMC icon Jam Master Jay, whose jury conviction was overturned<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n

Jordan was stabbed<\/a> in a massive Feb. 22, 2025, melee inside MDC Brooklyn, in which prosecutors say Gillespie stabbed two people, and Jordan credits the \u201cheroic\u201d Gillespie with saving his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe risked his own life to help me while I was fighting multiple people with knives,\u201d Jordan wrote to the judge. \u201cFranklin stepped in without hesitation, instinctively trying to help me. His actions were not motivated by violence or malice, instead he acted out of deep desire to stop further harm. If not for his intervention things would\u2019ve been worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ex-con described by prosecutors as the \u201cmost violent member\u201d of Brooklyn\u2019s bloodthirsty Bully Gang was sentenced to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,114922,24536,114921,47112,4414,259,9,24,63,46246,1096,23699,3301,114920],"class_list":["post-303208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-bully-gang","tag-federal-prosecutors","tag-franklin-gillespie","tag-gang","tag-joseph-nocella","tag-murder","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-racketeering","tag-shooting","tag-us-attorney","tag-violence","tag-violent-enforcer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}