http://forbezdvd.com/blog/2009/09/03/rapper-max-b-sentenced-to-75-years/
A rising Harlem rapper was sentenced Thursday to 75 years in prison for masterminding a deadly robbery at a Fort Lee hotel four years ago. His stepbrother received a life term plus 35 years for his part in the scheme.
Charly Wingate, better known in hip-hop circles as “Max B,” was convicted of felony murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and several other offenses in a June trial in which witnesses testified that he planned the September 2006 robbery at the Holiday Inn on Route 4.
His co-defendant and stepbrother, Kelvin Leerdam, was convicted of the same counts after jurors found that he shot one of the robbery victims, David Taylor.
Both Wingate and Leerdam looked resigned when Superior Court Judge Harry G. Carroll sentenced them in Hackensack. Wingate said he was not happy with his attorney, Gerald Saluti, and fired him during the hearing just before he received his sentence.
His mother, Sharon Wingate, said he will appeal the conviction.
“We will be back,” she said.
Witnesses during trial testified that Taylor and his friend, Allan Plowden, were seen in Harlem a few days before the robbery, driving expensive cars and showing off a lot of cash.
That’s when Plowden met Wingate’s ex-girlfriend, Gina Conway, who told Wingate about her encounter, they said.
Conway, who took a plea deal and agreed to testify against Wingate and Leerdam, told jurors that Wingate asked her and Leerdam to go to the Holiday Inn, where Plowden and Taylor were staying.
The two barged into Plowden’s room and demanded money, she said, but Plowden told them Taylor had the money. They made him call Taylor to his room, and soon after Taylor arrived, Leerdam shot him, she said.
“This case has always been about greed,” Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Martin Delaney said at the sentencing. “It has always been about the love of money.”
Leerdam’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said her client deserved some leniency because he was only 21 at the time of the incident. The findings at the trial were that Leerdam was engaged in a robbery but had no plans to kill, she said.
“There was no intent to kill anybody,” she said.
Carroll, however, handed out a stiff sentence, saying Leerdam took a firearm with him to the hotel “and did not hesitate to use it.”
Conway, who was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge, faces up to 18 years in prison when she is sentenced today in the same courtroom.
A rising Harlem rapper was sentenced Thursday to 75 years in prison for masterminding a deadly robbery at a Fort Lee hotel four years ago. His stepbrother received a life term plus 35 years for his part in the scheme.
Charly Wingate, better known in hip-hop circles as “Max B,” was convicted of felony murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and several other offenses in a June trial in which witnesses testified that he planned the September 2006 robbery at the Holiday Inn on Route 4.
His co-defendant and stepbrother, Kelvin Leerdam, was convicted of the same counts after jurors found that he shot one of the robbery victims, David Taylor.
Both Wingate and Leerdam looked resigned when Superior Court Judge Harry G. Carroll sentenced them in Hackensack. Wingate said he was not happy with his attorney, Gerald Saluti, and fired him during the hearing just before he received his sentence.
His mother, Sharon Wingate, said he will appeal the conviction.
“We will be back,” she said.
Witnesses during trial testified that Taylor and his friend, Allan Plowden, were seen in Harlem a few days before the robbery, driving expensive cars and showing off a lot of cash.
That’s when Plowden met Wingate’s ex-girlfriend, Gina Conway, who told Wingate about her encounter, they said.
Conway, who took a plea deal and agreed to testify against Wingate and Leerdam, told jurors that Wingate asked her and Leerdam to go to the Holiday Inn, where Plowden and Taylor were staying.
The two barged into Plowden’s room and demanded money, she said, but Plowden told them Taylor had the money. They made him call Taylor to his room, and soon after Taylor arrived, Leerdam shot him, she said.
“This case has always been about greed,” Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Martin Delaney said at the sentencing. “It has always been about the love of money.”
Leerdam’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said her client deserved some leniency because he was only 21 at the time of the incident. The findings at the trial were that Leerdam was engaged in a robbery but had no plans to kill, she said.
“There was no intent to kill anybody,” she said.
Carroll, however, handed out a stiff sentence, saying Leerdam took a firearm with him to the hotel “and did not hesitate to use it.”
Conway, who was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge, faces up to 18 years in prison when she is sentenced today in the same courtroom.
