Cleveland rapper, former basketball standout sentenced in Cleveland Heights gang shooting

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland-based hip hop artist and a former high school basketball standout were among three members of a street gang sentenced Monday for a gang-related gunfight last year in Cleveland Heights.

Common Pleas Judge Robert McClelland sentenced Crayshaun "Lil Cray" Bates and Xavier Eberhardt to the minimum of four years in prison, and Keith Griffin to two years of probation on attempted murder and participating in a criminal gang charges.

McClelland said he was saddened by the case, which he said represented a waste of lives and talent.
"Your lives matter, but you're treating each other like they don't," he said in handing down the sentences.

The trio pleaded guilty to the charges last month. Griffin's charges did not include gun pecifications, so there was no mandatory prison time. McClelland ordered Griffin to speak eight times each year of his probation at local high schools about the dangers of gang life.
Four other men who are also accused of belonging to the gang are being tried separately.

Bates also pleaded guilty to bribing Cuyahoga County Sheriffs Department deputies not to arrest him after he missed his curfew and was found to be drunk and gambling in January.

Bates, 19, performed under the stage name Lil Cray. Griffin, 20, was being recruited to play college basketball before he was wounded in a shooting while still in high school. He also faced legal trouble and was suspended for fighting while at Cleveland's East Tech High School.
Bates, Griffin and Eberhardt, 19, belonged to the street gang Loyal to Brothers, which prosecutors say operates around East 115th Street and St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland and in Ohio's adult and juvenile prisons. The gang has been tied to two homicides and 30 shootings, and investigators recovered 20 handguns and crack cocaine and heroin during a year-long investigation, police said.

The trio ran into Reno Fox, Renardo Peterson and Donte Flenoy, who prosecutors say are members of the rival gang, at Noble Food Deal in Cleveland Heights in February 2016, assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor Owen Patton said.

Fox, Peterson and Flenoy walked away, and Bates, Griffin and Eberhardt followed them in a stolen Dodge Dart. Bates and Eberhardt opened fire on the men, who returned fire as they ran through backyards, police said. The shooting happened about a half-mile from Monticello Middle School where class was in session.

Bates, Griffin and Eberhardt sped off in the car. Fox was shot in the leg and was dropped off at MetroHealth, where police say he gave false information to Cleveland police who tried to investigate where and how he was shot.

Investigators eventually found the Dart and tied evidence back to the trio. They also identified them from surveillance video at the store and eyewitnesses, records say. Police arrested Fox, Peterson and Flenoy within days. Bates and Eberhardt were charged two weeks after the shooting, and Griffin was indicted in May.

Fox, Peterson and Flenoy pleaded guilty to weapons charges last month. Patton said prosecutors sought charges against both groups of men in the shooting to send a message that brazen gang violence and retaliatory shootings will not be tolerated.

Bates enjoyed some success last summer with his song "Kyrie Irving" and the accompanying video, which has nearly 900,000 views on Youtube. He opened in July for T.I. at Quicken Loans Arena as part of Z107.9 Summer Jam.

He apologized to McClelland for violating his bond   but denied being the bold gang-banger that Patton and Cleveland police gang detectives made him out to be.
"I made a couple mistakes," he said. "I'm growing into a man, so I'm owning up to my mistakes."Prosecutors brought the gang charges against Bates, Griffin, Eberhardt and four other men in August.

The Cleveland Heights shooting was part of a string of gang activity carried out over several months, investigators say. Griffin has used a wheelchair since he was paralyzed in a March shooting in Cleveland's Arbor Park neighborhood.


Much of the gang's violence was carried in Griffin's name, Cleveland police gang detectives said. Their motto was "do it for Keith," police said. Griffin is now "imprisoned in his body for the rest of his life," McClelland said, and he questioned whether anyone would remember Bates's music when he is released in four years. "What a waste of that talent and time."


USA - CLE.

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