A federal judge considering a possible sentencing break for Gangster Disciples co-founder Larry Hoover challenged Hoover’s defense attorney Thursday to answer a key question: “How many murders do you think he’s responsible for?”
U.S. District Judge John Blakey asked the question during a hearing over Hoover’s push to be re-sentenced under the First Step Act, a 2018 law signed by then-President Donald Trump that made certain sentencing reforms retroactive.
Hoover’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said she wasn’t prepared to answer Thursday, but would like to reflect on it. “I would like to answer that question,” Bonjean said.
Blakey, who handed down no ruling during the nearly 90-minute hearing, gave her until Oct. 7 to do so.
The back-and-forth played out with Hoover, 73, making his first public appearance in years, albeit by video. He could be seen on screen wearing a tan outfit and glasses, sitting before what appeared to be a courtroom lectern with his hands shackled.
“I am a completely different person from the man that entered prison in 1997,” Hoover told the judge. “I have had a chance to reflect on my life and the troubles that my existence has caused in the community. If released, I would take the time to try to — what’s the term — redeem myself for some of the trouble I’ve caused in the community.”
The late U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber gave Hoover a life sentence in 1998, insisting that Hoover had misused his ability to lead thousands — a “gift” from God.
But Hoover’s lawyers set out in 2019 to undo that sentence under the First Step Act. Some of Hoover’s co-defendants have already seen mercy under the law.
Hoover and David Barksdale created the Gangster Disciples by merging two street gangs in the late 1960s. They ruled as “King Larry” and “King David” until Barksdale was killed in 1974.
Meanwhile, Hoover ordered the execution of William “Pooky” Young, whom Hoover suspected of stealing from Hoover’s drug stash houses. Another gang member shot Young in the head six times and dumped his body in an alley on Feb. 26, 1973.
Hoover was convicted of the murder after a trial in December 1973, and a judge sentenced him to 150 to 200 years in state prison. That didn’t stop Hoover from running the gang, though. At its height in the early 1990s, prosecutors say the Gangster Disciples brought in about $100 million a year in drug sales under Hoover’s leadership.
Hoover was careful not to talk business during his jailhouse phone calls. So in 1993, authorities got a judge’s permission to monitor conversations by placing transmitters in visitor badges given to gang leaders who would go see Hoover in person.
Hoover was eventually charged with 40 crimes, including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, and a jury found him guilty of all charges on May 9, 1997.
Since his sentencing by Leinenweber, his attorneys say he’s spent decades inside one of the country’s most notorious federal prisons, the so-called supermax facility in Florence, Colorado.
Others who have served life sentences there include Ted Kaczynski, the so-called “Unabomber”; Terry Nichols, the Oklahoma City bombing accomplice; and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, the Sinaloda drug cartel kingpin.