Man sentenced in gang deaths

 

Richmond man who participated in gang-related killings 12 days apart in Henrico and Powhatan counties last year is to serve 47 years in prison. In a hearing that lasted minutes, Henrico Circuit Judge Catherine C. Hammond ordered Joe Lewis Harris III to serve 25 years in prison for his role in the Henrico killing and ordered that 10 of those years could be served concurrently with Harris' 32-year sentence in Powhatan. The remaining 15 years will be tacked on to the 32, the judge ruled. Harris is looking at a release from custody when he is 67, minus whatever time for good behavior he accumulates. Before sentencing, the tall, slim Richmonder who went by the nickname Savage in a subset of the Bloods street gang said he had no comment; he pleaded guilty to murder, robbery and gang charges. Ten-year sentences for the latter two convictions were suspended, and three other charges were dropped. Harris was sentenced earlier this month in Powhatan for his triggerman role in the execution-style slaying of Dant'e J. Holloway, 23, whose body was found a few miles north of U.S. 60 near a Confederate cemetery. Another man was severely wounded. Testimony in Henrico and Powhatan has generally attributed the shootings to an effort by the G-Shyne Bloods operating in the Richmond area to weed out pretenders or those who had turned against the gang. No charges have been brought to date against any figure higher up in the Bloods organization than those men arrested locally. Investigators have declined to say if ongoing investigations are targeting other Bloods gang members in or out of Virginia. Merwin Raheem Herbert "Poncho" White, 21, is scheduled to be formally sentenced in Henrico next month for his supervisory role in the murder of Quondell Pringle, 22, who was killed during a robbery April 21. In January, a Henrico jury recommended he serve life plus 23 years. Harris was the shooter in the Powhatan incident, and he was the getaway driver in the Henrico case, which was spawned by Pringle's holding himself out as a Bloods member, according to testimony in White's trial. The gunman who killed Pringle, James B. Pryor, was ordered to prison by Hammond for 31 years. Another man, William D. Hargrove, 19, who testified against White and who served a minor role in Pringle's death, was released from jail in January after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors. Two other men remain to be tried in the Powhatan case; both accompanied Harris to the remote site.

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