BAY CITY, MI — Despite media claims that law enforcement had effectively dismantled the violent Sunny Side Gang nearly a decade ago, those reports now appear to have been greatly exaggerated.
Thirteen members are at various stages of prosecution for running a heroin and cocaine ring in the region. Another former member was gunned down inside a federal halfway house, and police are investigating whether he was targeted by his cohorts or a rival organization.
About 9:40 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23, two masked men brandishing assault-style rifles entered Bannum Place, a federally contracted residential reentry center at 2209 Norman St. in Saginaw. While one of the intruders held 23 people at bay, his companion shot 31-year-old halfway house resident Demarlon C. Thomas several times, killing him.
„If you look at the way this was executed, it was no accident — they knew exactly who they were looking for and knew exactly where he was at,“ said Michigan State Police Lt. David Kaiser.
Police on Jan. 25 released surveillance camera footage of the men entering the building.
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„We’ve received some tips and we’re following up on those, but we don’t have a person of interest at this point,“ Kaiser said Thursday morning, Jan. 26.
Thomas, who had graduated from Saginaw High School in 2003 and briefly attended Minnesota West Community College on a football scholarship, had been sentenced to 19.6 years in federal prison on Nov. 25, 2008, after pleading guilty to a charge of distribution of 5 grams or more of cocaine base. President Barack Obama on Nov. 22, 2016, commuted Thomas‘ sentence. He arrived at Bannum Place on Dec. 13 and was scheduled for full release on March 22.
Police have not yet determined a motive for the killing but are investigating Thomas‘ past associations with Sunny Side Gang.
In October 2007, Thomas and 16 other men were federally indicted on a combined 29 counts related to the sale of crack cocaine and firearm possession. Police at the time said the defendants were „the worst of the worst. “
The indictments resulted from a three-year undercover investigation dubbed „Operation Sunset. “ It involved agents from the U. S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI, Michigan State Police troopers, Saginaw police, Saginaw County sheriff’s deputies and U. S. Marshals.
The indictments stated Stanley T. Brazil Jr., considered the Sunny Side Gang’s leader, would acquire crack and powder cocaine and distribute it to the other 16 defendants. They would then sell the product in the South Side, or Sunny Side, of Saginaw, the document states.
A jury in September 2008 found Brazil guilty of two counts of distributing 50 grams or more of cocaine base. He was sentenced to 380 months in prison.
The probe resulted in 29 federal convictions and 10 state convictions. Police at the time said the Sunny Side Gang was left in disarray and news outlets reported the investigation had „effectively brought an end“ to the organization.
„The work definitely made a huge dent in the Sunny Side,“ Michigan State Police Detective 1st Lt. Marvin L. Jenkins said in 2009. „You hardly hear about Sunny Side anymore. There were so many players taken out of the South End. That was a major success (for law enforcement). I wish we could do all the gangs that way, but Sunny Side was the most notorious at the time, so that is the one we concentrated on. “
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Lt. Kaiser said that while Sunny Side’s activities were reduced by Operation Sunset, the gang wasn’t entirely routed.
„It wasn’t totally dismantled,“ he said. „It was a good investigation and we got a lot of good arrests out of it, but to say it was totally dismantled is inaccurate. “
Amid the Sunny Side Gang’s reign, the FBI gave Saginaw the dubious distinction of having the most violent crimes per capita every year from 2002 to 2009. It fell to second place in 2010, held the third position in 2011, 2012, and 2013, dropped to fourth place in 2014. It fell off the list in 2015 as its population dropped below 50,000.
The city’s number of homicides soared to 25 in 2004, the highest since 1993. By mid-2006, a collaborative investigation by federal, state, and local agencies had put a big dent in the Sunny Side’s activities. By early 2008, police had arrested so many members of Sunny Side and the rival North Side Gang that they no longer could function.
The next four years went by without much discussion of gang violence, but after the city experienced 30 homicides in 2012, an ongoing rivalry between the East Side Gang and a new North Side Gang came to the forefront. The city had 25 homicides in 2013, with the rate dropping to 13 in 2014 and eight in 2015.
Prior to Operation Sunset, police in July 2006 arrested 19 Sunny Side Gang members, resulting in 31 federal drug and weapons charges against 11 individuals and state charges against 15 more.
Among those indicted was Damarlin M. „Bleed“ Beavers, then an enforcer. Beavers in 2007 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base.
In March 2008, Beavers was sentenced to 125 months in prison, though that was later reduced to 85 months.
Beavers was released in May 2014. He wasn’t free long before he wound up back in court, facing charges related to his role as a leader in the Sunny Side Gang.
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A grand jury in October 2016 indicted Beavers and 12 others associated with the Sunny Side operation were federally indicted on 35 counts related to a heroin and cocaine operation. So far, six have accepted plea offers.
The first to do so, 45-year-old Derek D. Riley, on Dec. 14 pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin. The charge is punishable by imprisonment of five to 40 years and a $5 million fine.
Since then, Javon M. „YaYo“ Pratt, Brandon O. „Blue“ Pratt, Marquise D. „Ooh Stacks“ Ashworth, Darreyon R. „D-Money“ Mayfield, and Jeremy A. „Jig“ Cameron have followed suit. All five pleaded guilty to the same charge as Riley.
Beavers and Terence J. „Big Cheese“ Johnson, Alvin R. „La“ Pratt, Michael A. Pratt Jr., Eugene „Spank“ Smith III, Jauane R. Allen, and Lamar T. „Marley“ Simon still have open charges. All are in custody except for Simon, who remains at large.
Prosecutors have alleged Riley supplied the drugs to the Sunny Side Gang, with Beavers being one of the gang’s leaders.
According to sworn affidavits authored by FBI Special Agent Mitchell L. King, his agency began investigating the Sunny Side Gang in June 2015. On Aug. 30, 2016, personnel with the FBI’s Bay City-based Mid-Michigan Safe Streets Task Force executed eight search and arrest warrants in Saginaw as a result of an investigation into the area’s heroin problem.
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The search of one Saginaw stash house saw investigators seize 584.07 grams of cocaine, 92.89 grams of cocaine base, and 418.79 grams of heroin, three guns, and various paraphernalia associated with packaging and selling drugs. The search of another house resulted in police seizing 12 firearms, ammunition, and approximately 47.59 grams of heroin.
According to their plea agreements, the defendants „knew that the conspiracy, in the aggregate, involved more than 500 grams of cocaine and more than 100 grams of heroin, from June 5, 2015, until August 30, 2016. “ Riley, Cameron, Mayfield, Ashworth, and Brandon Pratt all agreed they were responsible for „at least 711.65 grams of cocaine, 127.97 grams of cocaine base and 632.06 grams of heroin. “
In other words, that is 25 ounces of cocaine, 4.5 ounces of base cocaine, and 22.29 ounces of heroin.
Javon Pratt’s plea agreement differs from his cohorts in that it states he was responsible for 944.06 grams of heroin.
In addition, the „co-conspirators frequently advised each other of law enforcement presence and conducted counter surveillance. Moreover, Cameron Beavers attempted to identify individuals cooperating with law enforcement. On June 19, 2016, Cameron told Beavers that he was going to kill an individual he suspected was cooperating with law enforcement,“ Cameron’s plea agreement states.
U. S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington — who sentenced Demarlon Thomas — is to sentence Riley on March 16. Ludington is to sentence the other five defendants who have pleaded on different days in March and April.
„These are our main suppliers of heroin in Bay, Midland, and Isabella counties,“ Sgt. Greg Potts of the Bay City Department of Public Safety’s VIPER Unit previously told The Bay City Times. Potts added the investigation began in Bay City, then carried into Saginaw.
When heroin-related overdoses surged in 2015, authorities leveled part of the blame on fentanyl. A minute amount of fentanyl mixed with heroin can have fatal results. Throughout 2015, 27 people died of heroin overdoses in Bay County, and Bay County Central Dispatch received a record 199 calls for overdoses.
FBI Senior Resident Agent Steven T. Flattery also previously told The Times his agency became involved as a result of the large number of overdoses.
„What we were asked to address is the heroin problem in the mid-Michigan area,“ Flattery had said. „The overdose deaths have been horrible. That’s how this started, looking at the flow of heroin. (The defendants) were looked at as being some of the major suppliers in the area. “
The investigation was conducted by the FBI Mid-Michigan Safe Streets Task Force, which is composed of the FBI, the Bay City Department of Public Safety, and the Michigan State Police. The Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team, or BAYANET, also assisted.
The rest of the defendants have a plea cutoff date of May 31, with a trial set for June 20.<\/p>\n

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