BALTIMORE — In the midst of what prosecutors say was a bloody summer for a Baltimore gang known as Triple-C, Correy Cawthorn sent a message to a fellow member accompanied by a picture of himself “covered in firearms.”
“Yo,” Cawthorn, who was 20 years old at the time, wrote, “We really beefin with the whole world, yo.”
Now members of CCC are accused of being behind at least 18 murders and 28 attempted murders between 2015 and 2020 in a racketeering indictment unsealed Wednesday and announced Thursday by federal prosecutors, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and city police.
The volume of violence attributed to the group over five years is the most chronicled in a single indictment in recent memory, and spans the city. Cawthorn, who Baltimore Police have said they created a task force to take down, is charged with at least five of those murders and several other murder tries, some that took place at dice games. His own father was fatally shot in the summer of 2018 by rivals, and prosecutors say Cawthorn retaliated by trying to kill those responsible.
The charges outline more than two dozen other unsuccessful killings attributed to the gang, including last year’s attempted murder of eight people on McMechen Street during the early days of the pandemic lockdown.
According to the indictment, the gang’s initials are an abbreviation for “Cruddy Conniving Crutballs,” and that it was founded by a man named Gary Creek in 2014 as an alternative to the Black Guerrilla Family gang, with a base in the Darley Park area of East Baltimore.
The indictment alleges that Creek, 39, took contract murders on behalf of CCC and ordered other members to fulfill the contracts. CCC members “enhanced their status within the gang by carrying out acts of violence against rivals and earning their ‘C,’ ” the indictment says. They also imposed a tax on certain drug traffickers to operate in territory they controlled.
It further alleges that they promoted the gang by giving away clothing such as T-shirts and hats, and supporting rap artists. “Ain’t no Crip, ain’t no Blood, I’m Triple C baby,” a rapper says in a video that prosecutors say features members and associates dancing and waving firearms.
The gang is connected to even more violence than alleged in the new indictment — one of its alleged members, Rashaud Nesmith, 20, was charged early last year with killing three people during a series of carjackings not included in the CCC indictment, apparently a separate enterprise. Among those cases is the 2019 shooting of off-duty Baltimore Police Sgt. Isaac Carrington in a robbery try.
Members seemed undeterred by the efforts of local law enforcement. Alleged member Michael Chester reportedly said, “(Authorities) keep sending us to the state when we ... federal.” Then, when federal authorities issued a warrant for Cawthorn, he jumped on Instagram and taunted law enforcement: “Feds want me so bad but they don’t have a clue. ... Ain’t no bitch on this earth going to make me put this .40 down.”
The indictment does not give detailed evidence linking the men to the crimes, and offers a motive in only some. The oldest murder charged in the new indictment dates to Oct. 27, 2015, when prosecutors say Darrell Carter, described as a “lieutenant” in CCC, murdered Quinton Heard, 20, on Rutland Avenue.
A year later, in November 2016, they say Creek and Carter murdered Jamere Ricks, 19, on East 25th Street.
The violence attributed to the group escalates in the summer of 2017, when at least five people were killed in the span of two months. Cawthorn and other members of CCC allegedly murdered Antonio Griffin, 26, and Tereze Pinkney, 22, and shot at two others during a drive-by on Bonaparte Avenue in June. Cawthorn is accused of murdering 16-year-old Thomas Johnson on Chesterfield Avenue on Aug. 17.
The Baltimore Sun reported at the time that as Johnson lay dying, he refused to say who shot him, but shouted his address so his mother would be notified.
Another CCC member, not identified in the indictment, shot and killed Allen Rice, 22, on Aug. 20 in the 2700 block of The Alameda, and Cawthorn, Chester and Richard Grier, 20, are accused of killing Carlos Jones, 27, on South Highland Avenue.
Prosecutors say Cawthorn was arrested with the murder weapon in Jones’ shooting just a week later.
Chester, Desmond Butler, 23, Darien Coleman, 20, and Tyeshawn Rivers, 21, are accused of murdering Diamante Howard in April 2018 during a dice game on Fortview Way. Howard had been accepted into college and was murdered just before his 20th birthday.
Cawthorne is charged with killing 38-year-old Dwayne Cheeks on June 9, 2018, also at a dice game, on Germania Avenue.
There were three murders allegedly committed by the gang in July 2018: the killing of Joshua Bessick, 24, on July 15 on Eagle Street, the killing of Rashard Queen, 20, on July 22, on 37th Street, and the killing of 22-year-old Darius Mason on July 29 on Harford Road. Cawthorn and Rivers, along with Raekwon McCann, are accused of killing Mason.
Grier is accused of killing Vuai Green, 24, in August 2018 on Harford Road. He has already been tried and convicted in Circuit Court for that killing, court records show.
Unidentified members of the gang allegedly killed Howard Gibson, 40, in November 2018 on Echodale Avenue. And in December 2018, Butler, Chester, Coleman and Dayon Jeter are accused of killing Corey Moseley, 17, on Green Rose Lane.
Prosecutors say CCC members killed one of their own, 20-year-old Avery Rich, during a retaliatory shooting of a rival gang member in August 2019. Rivers and others allegedly murdered Donya Short Aug. 5, 2020, on McCulloh Street.
And in October 2020, CCC members allegedly killed Brimar Livingston, 17, on Moravia Road.
The indictment cites several instances of gang members’ bravado regarding their alleged violence. “We don’t do attempts (attempted murders), your bitch a-- just got lucky,” one reputed member, Devonte “Finely” Monroe, wrote on Instagram in 2017. Monroe was killed in a shootout with rival gang members in August 2017, the indictment says.
Many of the defendants charged with violent crimes had prior arrests for guns and violence. Cawthorn, for example, was arrested with a gun in 2017, and received a probation after conviction and a five-year suspended sentence. The outcomes of other cases are stripped from view in electronic court records, following a law passed by the General Assembly to remove cases in which there was no conviction.
Rivers had an attempted murder case in 2016 sent to juvenile court, where records are sealed and the outcome is unknown. In 2019, he was charged with a handgun offense and received probation after conviction.
Creek, the alleged founder of CCC, has been in federal custody since he was charged in 2019 through criminal complaint, which cited recorded telephone calls in which Creek talked about keeping people in line and taxing drug dealers in the area.
“They ain’t in line, they get put in line,” Creek said. Referring to the tax, he said: “Thirty percent apply to them too though. ... Everybody taxation from representation.”
The group also engaged in dealing of crack cocaine, though prosecutors described that as not their primary mission. Sixteen other members and associates of CCC were charged in January 2019 with conspiracy to distribute narcotics.
