A federal judge in North Carolina handed life sentences to four gang members involved in a murder-for-hire plot that resulted in the death of 59-year-old Lillian Bond, a caretaker and longtime hospital worker. The sentencing concludes a nearly decade-long case following Bond’s tragic death in 2016.
The convicted individuals, Jaquate Simpson, 39, Landis Jackson, 39, Kalub Shipman, 36, and Nelson Evans, 33, were all found guilty of participating in a criminal enterprise that led to Bond being fatally shot outside her home while she was taking out the trash.
Court records indicate that the murder plot originated in April 2016. Simpson, feeling shortchanged by approximately $81,000 in a two-kilogram cocaine deal, conspired with Jackson for retribution against Brandon Williams, the man they accused of shorting them. To carry out their plan, Simpson and Jackson enlisted Shipman, a member of the Nine Trey Gangsters Blood gang in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Evans. Their task was to kill anyone seen emerging from Williams’ home, with a promised payment of $10,000 for each person killed.
Unknown to the perpetrators, Lillian Bond was Williams’ aunt. Her death, a case of mistaken identity, occurred in broad daylight and was part of the gang’s indiscriminate strategy to send a message. The life sentences for these four individuals mark the closure of a case that highlights the devastating consequences of gang-related violence and mistaken identity.