Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
(Salt Lake City-AP) -- A prisoner accused of running a criminal enterprise from his cell will serve a life sentence for federal racketeering charges.
Twenty-nine-year-old Tyrese Sharod Smith was sentenced today in U-S District Court. Smith will be assigned to a federal prison outside Utah, where he will serve out his life. There is no parole in the federal justice system.
A U-S District Court jury in May returned guilty verdicts on all charges against Smith, including firearms and two counts under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law -- one of conspiracy and the other of murder-in-aid-of-racketeering.
Prosecutors claimed Smith relayed orders for members to kill rivals and rob drug dealers.
It marked the first time federal prosecutors in Utah used the sweeping anti-organized crime statute to bust a street gang, the King Mafia Disciples.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
