SAN ANTONIO – Court documents and officials are shedding light on an ongoing, violent gang rivalry that may be tied to the death of 4-year-old De-Earlvion Whitley.
On Friday, ten men were indicted as part of a joint FBI and San Antonio Police operation to combat violence on the East Side.
Joseph Hammond; Earl Whitley Jr.; Jamel Shercone Whitley; Dai’Vonte Ross; Jovon Stewart; Paul Low; James Bilal Ali; Spurgeon Williams; Joseph Lake and Alvin Clark are all charged with distribution and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 28 grams of cocaine base.
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Eight of the men appeared in federal court Friday morning following a series of raids. The ninth, Hammond, was in the Bexar County Jail on a drug possession charge. Records show he was convicted in October. The tenth, Jamel Shercone Whitley, was arrested around 2 p.m. Friday after the eight men appeared in federal court.
One of the men named in the indictment is Earl Whitley Jr., De-Earlvion’s father.
Prosecutors said the men were all part of the same gang whose rivalry with another gang has caused much of the violence on the East Side.
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The rival gang, prosecutors said, is led by Charles Bethany, who was arrested in July on drug and firearm charges.
In July, authorities confiscated home surveillance footage while raiding a drug stash house in the 600 block of J Street -- believed to be Bethany's stash house.
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According to a criminal complaint, surveillance footage from inside Bethany's stash house -- along with footage from a pole-camera pointed at the alleged stash house -- connects, though not directly, others to the drive-by shooting that claimed De-Earlvion's life on July 19.
Bethany, Tramone Anderson, Dakota Peppers and John Chatman were arrested earlier this year on charges related to the killing of De-Earlvion. The men, however, are not directly charged with De-Earlvion's murder.
Surveillance footage from inside Bethany's stash house shows the men were in the house before and after the drive by shooting.