Tensions flare as pair get life

Tensions flare as pair get life
By Marie Szaniszlo and Richard Weir  |   Friday, December 3, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

‘LEAVE IT ALONE’: Deshawn Steele, brother of murder victim Cedirick Steele, 18, is comforted by family members and friends in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday after the sentencing of Antwan Carter and Daniel Pinckney Jr.
Photo by Mark Garfinkel

Gangbanger associates of two killers lashed out in court yesterday, shouting, “It ain’t over!” after their thug pals were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of an 18-year-old honors college student.

The outburst prompted outrage and anguish from victim Cedirick Steele’s family and community leaders.

Law enforcement needs to take swift action to make it “unmistakably clear that such threats will not be tolerated under any circumstance and could be the basis for an arrest,” said the Rev. Eugene Rivers, co-founder of the Boston Ten Point Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes anti-violence.

Barring an arrest, he added, police should pay a visit to the men’s homes. “There should be a firm come-to-Jesus meeting,” he said.

Judge Linda Giles had left the bench after the sentencing and did not hear the comment, said Supreme Judicial Court spokeswoman Joan Kenney. A court officer discussed the incident with the judge, but they concluded it did not warrant an arrest, which could have been made if the officer perceived direct threats or imminent danger.

Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said the men who shouted “It ain’t over!” were “clearly affiliated with the defendants, who are members of the Mass. Ave. Hornets.” But he said the remark “does not meet the legal definition of a threat.”

“They’re murderers! They’re murderers!” moaned anguished brother Deshawn Steele as 11 court officers led Daniel “Trap” Pinckney Jr. and Antwan “Twizz” Carter out of Suffolk Superior Court.

“Leave it alone,” a sobbing woman begged Deshawn, her hand over his mouth. “You cannot let them win. We don’t have that evil in us.”

A Bunker Hill student, Cedirick Steele had just finished his Meals On Wheels shift March 14, 2007, when he was randomly gunned down.

A jury found the 22-year-old South End defendants guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday. Two previous juries deadlocked.

At the last trial, a star witness recanted after Carter allegedly plotted to kill her.

At the previous trial, the lone juror holdout was reportedly approached outside the courthouse by a man who made a gunlike motion and said, “Bang.” The juror kept deliberating after insisting the threat was unrelated to the trial.

Yesterday, Pinckney, the Hornets’ reputed leader, arrived in court with rosary beads around his neck. He and Carter sat impassively as mother Natasha Steele described in a near-whisper what it was like to have to content herself with speaking to her son’s grave.

“He wanted to leave Boston. . . . He wanted to be somebody,” she said. “All that was stolen from me.”

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