LOS ANGELES – A federal jury today found a long-time senior leader of the South Los Angeles-based East Coast Crips (ECC) street gang guilty of federal criminal charges for conspiring to commit racketeering through various criminal acts including murder, extorting local businesses and the distribution of narcotics.
Paul Gary Wallace, 56, a.k.a. “Little Doc” and “Uncle Bill,” of South Los Angeles, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and one count of using a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime.
United States District Judge André Birotte Jr. scheduled a July 29 sentencing hearing, at which time Wallace will face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison.
According to evidence presented at his 11-day trial, Wallace was a member of the ECC for more than 30 years and rose to become the leader and most influential member of the gang’s “6-Pacc” set, a series of cliques of the gang responsible for control over territory in South Los Angeles.
Wallace maintained his control over the gang through violence and intimidation. Wallace murdered and conspired to commit murder to enhance the gang’s violent reputation, to enhance his status within the gang, to retaliate against rivals, and to enforce discipline within the gang.
As a gang leader, Wallace’s other criminal conduct included selling drugs in ECC territory, extorting local businesses, presiding over robberies, and engaging in other acts of violence, including intimidation, assaults and shootings against the gang’s rivals.
The jury specifically found that on November 13, 2014, Wallace participated in the murder of a rival gang member. The murder weapon, an AK-47-style assault rifle, was later found in Wallace’s van. The jury did not find that Wallace committed the February 2003 murder of a rival.
The FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph D. Axelrad and Jeffrey M. Chemerinsky of the Violent and Organized Crime Section are prosecuting this case.