Inmate at Brooklyn jail charged with orchestrating murder-for-hire using contraband cellphone

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — An inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn was charged with orchestrating a 2023 murder-for-hire while behind bars using a contraband cellphone, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Dajan McBean, 29, was charged with conspiring with two others, Karl Smith, 26, and Chelsey Harris, 23, to murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in personal injury and death, which carries a mandatory minimum term of life in prison or death, stalking resulting in life threatening bodily injury and death, which carries a maximum term of life in prison, and conspiracy to destroy records, which carries a maximum term of five years in prison.

While in federal custody, McBean feuded over social media with another gang member. McBean then used a contraband cellphone from inside MDC Brooklyn to conspire with Smith and Harris to lure victim to various nightclubs in New York City where McBean had arranged for gunmen to kill the victim.

McBean paid Smith and Harris through intermediaries for their roles in this conspiracy.

The plot to kill victim resulted in two shootings - the first, on Dec. 24, 2023, McBean and his co‑conspirators lured the victim to a nightclub in Queens where gunmen shot and struck the victim outside of the location.

Outside of the club, gunmen shot and struck the victim’s car multiple times but missed him.

The second shooting happened on Dec. 26, 2023, McBean and his co-conspirators tried again to kill the victim, this time luring him to a different nightclub in Queens.

At McBean’s direction from within MDC Brooklyn, gunmen again fired on the victim’s car when it was parked outside the second club location. The bullets struck the victim multiple times, but he survived. The bullets also struck Clarisa Burgos, the victim’s 28-year-old girlfriend. Burgos was seated in the victim’s car.

McBean is already serving a federal sentence for directing a separate gang-related shooting that occurred in January 2017.

"As alleged, Dajahn McBean and his co-conspirators planned and carried out an elaborate plot to murder another individual by causing others to shoot at the target several times in New York City. During one of those shootings, an innocent bystander, Clarisa Burgos, was killed," US Attorney Damian Williams said. "McBean allegedly directed this murder plot using a contraband cellphone from within a federal jail while waiting to be sentenced for a separate gang related shooting."