Yesterday, Semaj Ayers, a Detroit resident, received a federal prison sentence of 110 months for his role in a kidnapping case that gripped the city. The United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr., released the information in conjunction with the ATF special agent, James M. Deir, according to a report by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
The case involved seven individuals, with six now convicted, accused of a vengeful act of mistaken identity. Ayers entered his guilty plea on March 18, 2025. The defendants believed their victim was involved in a prior carjacking, leading to a brutal retaliation attempt. Armond Williams, 22, Shatonnia Kimbrough, 21, and Ayers all pleaded guilty to kidnapping, while Maijah Greene, 24, admitted to conspiracy to kidnap. Found guilty at trial were Cortez Blake, 23, and Nasir Lewis, 24..
Detroit's own internal war zones, shaped by this kidnapping, saw the victim taken at gunpoint from Sinai-Grace Hospital to a place where intimidation and beatings became the norm of the day. The victim endured hours of this dehumanizing treatment at a residence overseen by Blake before being left on a roadside, miles away. Key to the conviction was cellphone evidence, revealing the use of these devices in orchestrating the kidnapping.
Despite the inherent chaos, additional sentences were handed down to those convicted in the preceding carjacking incident. Jamar Lee-Stinson will serve 141 months after a plea deal in May 2024, with Amiaya Bryant following with a 120-month sentence in June of the same year; both charged with carjacking and discharging a firearm during the violence.
In response to this wave of gang-related turmoil, U.S. Attorney Gorgon asserted, "Gang violence destroys the ability of innocent people in our community to simply go about their business." He pledged a relentless approach to ending such violence, hinting at further prosecutorial efforts on the horizon. ATF’s Deir, while revealing Ayers and his group's conviction, referred to the culprits as "predators who failed," proclaiming a commitment from ATF to hold violent offenders to account, per the Justice Department’s report.
