A DeKalb judge sentenced a man who had pledged allegiance to the Bloods gang to life in prison for a double killing in which one of the victims was the person he had tried to protect, authorities said Wednesday.
Superior Court Judge Gail Flake sentenced Oslushla Smith to life plus 40 years for killing Michael Phillips, 29, and Alexis Malone.
Malone, 17, had gotten into a fight with another woman at a Stone Mountain apartment complex on May 3, 2014 at a party to watch a Floyd Mayweather championship fight. Smith and fellow Bloods assisted Malone.
As the fight worsened, they opened fire and killed an “unarmed and innocent bystander, Michael Phillips,” said Erik Burton, spokesman for DeKalb District Attorney. Phillips had his hands up when shot, authorities said.
Days after the killing, Smith became concerned his erstwhile ally Malone might talk to the cops. He and his cohorts dealt with their fear by luring her to some woods and beating her to death with a rock, Burton said.
Gang violence is a real problem for suburban DeKalb County, said District Attorney Robert James. “This senseless and reckless act of violence ended with the loss of two lives,” he said.
The Malone killing ended up prompting more killing, authorities said. Police blamed it for a retaliatory home invasion and the point-blank shootings that left a 9-month-old baby dead and the three women "critically injured."
James announced last September he was seeking the death penalty in that home-invasion on To Lani Farm Road that left the baby KenDarious Edwards dead. The prosecutor said last September that 18-year-old Devin Thomas should stand trial for his life in that case "because of the egregious nature of this senseless crime."
James said then he would seek for life without parole for 36-year-old fellow gang member Marco Watson, the second man charged with killing the baby.
According to police, the two members of the Bloods street gang opened fire on three unarmed women and the baby after kicking in the front door of a house on To Lani Farm Road near Stone Mountain on May 10.
Watson and Thomas targeted the women and baby because they were Smith’s family members in what became an intragang vendetta over the Malone killing. Thomas was friends with Malone. The baby was Smith’s nephew.
Smith and his friend, 16-year-old, Crutrez Johnson, also possibly lived in the home on To Lani Farm Road, police said. Smith and Johnson were captured at an Atlanta hotel after a standoff with Atlanta Police SWAT. Johnson was previously sentenced to twenty years to serve fifteen in custody for his role in the initial killings.
The remaining co-defendants in the Phillips-Malone killings, Kemontay Cullins and Kayla Dixon, are scheduled for trial on June 22.
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