The Associated Press
DETROIT--A drug gang leader accused of ordering the killings of two rivals pleaded guilty to federal drug charges and promised to help investigators, a deal likely to spare him the possibility of a death sentence, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors will recommend a 30-year sentence for Milton Jones, U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy’s office said Thursday. Sentencing guidelines would have called for life imprisonment, prosecutors said.
Jones was among 14 people indicted in Detroit in 2001 on charges of selling heroin, cocaine and marijuana during the 1990s. Authorities say the Detroit gang engaged in robberies, kidnappings and murders of rival drug traffickers.
Jones, 50, a co-founder of the Young Boys Inc. gang, was accused of ordering the killings of rivals Mark Grice and Antoine Carruthers.
Federal prosecutors in 2003 had requested the death penalty for Jones and two others if they were convicted of murder.
Sentencing is April 6. If the guilty plea is accepted, the death penalty request will be withdrawn, Murphy said.
In 2001, Jones wrote to federal prosecutors that Youssef Hmimssa, a key witness in a Detroit terrorism conspiracy prosecution, lied to the FBI. Jones was with Hmimssa in the Wayne County Jail and the federal prison at Milan.
The terror case was later dismissed.