Alleged Gang Member Gets 9 Years

A 25-year-old alleged ​“Exit 8” gang member was sentenced to nearly a decade in prison — but not for the murder prosecutors claim he committed.

During a hearing Monday at the federal courthouse at 141 Church St., U.S. District Court Judge Victor Bolden sentenced Donell Allick Jr. to 115 months, or nine and a half years, in prison.

That sentence stemmed from each of three counts related to possession and distribution of fentanyl and crack cocaine, and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.

A jury found Allick guilty of the narcotics charges in March. He pleaded guilty to the firearm charge after that trial. He will serve the sentences concurrently.

According to an email press release sent out by the federal prosecutor’s office after the sentencing on Monday, law enforcement made ​“controlled purchases” of fentanyl from Allick and ​“an associate” in September and October 2022.

In late October of that year, ​“investigators conducted a court-authorized search of a Hamden apartment that Allick used and seized three loaded handguns with extended magazines, approximately 73 grams of fentanyl, approximately 34 grams of crack cocaine, items used to process and package narcotics for street sale, and $15,000 in cash. A related search of Allick’s car, which had been observed in suspected drug transactions, resulted in the seizure of another loaded handgun with a 30-round extended magazine, quantities of fentanyl and crack cocaine, and $2,144 in cash.”

The four charges carried a collective maximum of 75 years in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rahul Kale and Tara E. Levens had proposed a sentencing range of 20 to 30 years in their pre-sentencing report due to a ​“cross-reference” that identified a firearm Allick illegally owned as the weapon used in the fatal shooting of 46-year-old Kenneth Cloud on Atwater Street in December 2022.

In a sentencing memo, the prosecutors alleged that Allick ​“used at least one of the firearms he possessed to kill another person.” Allick has been indicted but not found guilty for the murder of Cloud.

Monday’s press release added that ballistics analysis of the three handguns in Allick’s residence ​“revealed that they had been used in six shootings, including two homicides, that occurred between September 13, 2021, and September 16, 2022.”

Because that trial for Cloud’s murder case will take place in September, Bolden decided not to take the cross-reference into account for Monday morning’s sentencing. He thereby reduced the federal sentencing guidelines from 75 years to a range of 97 to 121 months, roughly 8 to 10 years. Allick’s alleged involvement in Cloud’s murder, meanwhile, was the subject of a second proposed-plea-deal hearing later on Monday (see more below).

Defense attorney (and former city Alder) Jonathan J. Einhorn cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, arguing that ​“agency notes are not binding on courts”: Since the so-called Chevron deference has been overturned, the federal court had no constitutional obligation to defer to a federal agency’s (in this case, the DOJ’s) interpretation of the law.

Elizabeth White, a detective with the New Haven Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence unit, testified at Monday’s sentencing hearing. She outlined rehabilitation offers extended to Allick through Connecticut’s Project Longevity program, an effort that pairs law enforcement agencies with community organizations and social service providers to reduce and prevent gun violence.

Since 2019, White told the court, Allick had had six documented meetings with Project Longevity representatives, including a community group ​“call-in” and several one-on-one ​“custom notification” hearings, including one with now-Police Chief Karl Jacobson. In the meetings, Allick was offered help finding housing, education, job training, and job placement, according to White.

All this, Kale said, means that ​“when someone says [Allick] never had a chance, that’s not fair.” The prosecution asked for a harsher sentence than the 97 to 121 months suggested by the guidelines, citing a ​“risk of recidivism” that ​“is just too high.”

Einhorn told the court that ​“Mr. Allick is a work in progress. He’s here because he deserves some of the law’s justice.” He asked Bolden to consider a lighter sentence in the ​“60-month ballpark.” That, Einhorn said, would allow Allick a second chance at life, given his ​“very strong family support system.”

Allick then stood and gave a statement.

“I was exposed to a lot of things a kid shouldn’t be exposed to,” he said, after apologizing to his family and those he had hurt. He told the courtroom he wants to ​“go to school for a trade” and have ​“a family of his own” so he could give his child what he didn’t get himself.

Allick’s mother spoke before the court, noting her son’s intelligence, saying that she couldn’t have completed her bachelor of social work degree program without his help.

She paused and began to cry.

“He’s not what these people are portraying him to be,” she said, gesturing to the prosecution. ​“He’s not perfect. I’ve never met anyone perfect.”

Allick’s mother was followed by De’Ari Allick, Donell’s uncle and the owner of Dixwell’s Dope N Delicious restaurant. ​“He’s a good kid. I love him to death,” De’Ari said. ​“It takes time for certain things to bloom, and Donell is a special seed. Putting him in a prison cell for the rest of his life, that’s no rehabilitation,” he added.

Einhorn, Allick, and Allick’s mother and uncle all spoke about the death of Allick’s father, also named Donell Allick, in a shooting in 2011. ​“The unfortunate and tragic death of his father probably set him down the path that brought him here today,” Einhorn said.

Kale warned that Allick ​“brought violence, brought fear to New Haven,” and that incarceration is necessary to prevent further gun violence that might then cause the same kind of trauma that led Allick down a criminal path.

Ultimately, Bolden decided to issue a sentence within the guidelines, but not before telling Allick that this 115-month sentence was ​“preceded by another one you’ve given yourself in your mind and perhaps even your soul.” Bolden made similar remarks to Jaedyn Rivera, an Exit 8 gang member defendant, at a separate sentencing hearing last month.

Bolden ended his pre-sentencing speech to Allick with a quote from comedian Trevor Noah’s book, Born a Crime: “‘We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.’” Bolden had read the same quote to Rivera as well.

Plea Deal Proposed In Murder Case

Separately, on Monday afternoon, the parties attended what’s known as a Frye Hearing, so named after the 2012 Supreme Court case Missouri v. Frye. Magistrate Judge Maria Garcia presided over that hearing, which was convened so the prosecution could officially offer a plea deal to Allick and to ensure that the contents of the deal were adequately described to the defendant.

The Frye Hearing concerned a racketeering charge for which Allick, along with eight other alleged members and associates of the Exit 8 gang, was indicted in August. Under the racketeering charge, were his case to go to trial, the prosecution would additionally attempt to prove Allick’s connection to the 2022 murder of Cloud — the very charge that Bolden decided not to count in Monday’s sentencing.

That would, according to Levens, create a ​“special sentencing factor alleging homicide,” leading to sentencing guidelines of 75 years to life in prison were Allick to be found guilty. Under the plea bargain on offer for Allick, the prosecution would reduce that 75-years minimum to 30, and would agree not to seek a harsher sentence for Allick than for any other co-defendant in the racketeering case.

While a sentence served for a trial conviction could be added onto Allick’s 115-month sentence, any sentence resulting from the plea deal would be served concurrently. Allick now has until July 29 to accept the deal or not. Ahead of his trial, Allick may plead guilty with no bargain, plead guilty and accept the bargain, or plead not guilty and proceed to trial.