COLUMBUS, Ohio – The last of 19 defendants to be convicted in a Columbus gang-related racketeering conspiracy was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 40 years in prison.
Shawn Nelms, 29, pleaded guilty in September 2021 to his part in furthering the violence of the local Crips gang known as T&A. The racketeering conspiracy first charged in 2018 includes five murders, at least 26 attempted murders, and other violent and drug-trafficking crimes.
Nelms participated in the 2013 murder of William Moore. Nelms and others spotted Moore, a rival Poindexter Thug Life Bloods gang member, walking on Mount Vernon Ave. and agreed to kill the man for the purpose of maintaining and increasing their positions within T&A.
Nelms also participated in the 2012 gang-related murder of Franky Tention on Ellison Street in Columbus.
According to his plea, in 2011, Nelms shot a separate victim in the chest, and the man survived. During a robbery in 2011, one of several rounds shot by Nelms went into a nearby house and struck a young girl, who also survived.
Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Travis S. Riddle, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); J. William Rivers, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant; and United States Marshal Pete Tobin announced the sentence imposed today by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson. Assistant United States Attorneys Kevin W. Kelley and Noah R. Litton are representing the United States in this case.
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