A federal jury convicted Maliek Miller, 33, on seven counts tied to the 2020 killing of Shatavia Walls, and a Brooklyn federal judge sentenced him to life in prison. Prosecutors said Miller, leader of the Ninedee Gang, arranged the killing but did not shoot Walls himself; two younger gang members carried it out.
Miller was sentenced in Brooklyn Federal Court, according to New York Daily News. The jury returned its verdict in June 2024, finding him guilty of all seven counts, including racketeering and murder in aid of racketeering. The murder charge carried a mandatory life sentence; the judge also imposed concurrent life sentences on two other counts, though those did not require life by law, the newspaper reported.
The case grew out of a July 4, 2020, dispute over fireworks at the East New York housing complex. Walls fought Miller and his cousin and beat both of them, according to the Daily News. Miller fired a shot into the air before leaving.
From a Street Fight to a Targeted Killing
Walls had testified in a 2019 federal trial against a member of the Loopy Gang, a group linked to the Ninedee Gang, after he allegedly shot her twice in the thigh. Prosecutors said the fireworks fight and her history as a government witness fueled the plot against her. Miller referred to her as a “snitch,” telling his crew, “F— her. She's a rat.”
Prosecutors said Miller recruited younger Ninedee Gang members to find Walls. On July 7, 2020, Quintin Green and Joe Santana shot her repeatedly in the courtyard at the Pink Houses in East New York. Green was 19 and Santana was 16 at the time. Walls died 10 days later, the Daily News reported. The newspaper also reported that gang members celebrated her killing with champagne.
Sentences for the Shooters
Green pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 35 years in prison, a term confirmed by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Daily News reported that Santana pleaded guilty and received 22 years. DOJ information cited in the reporting establishes that Santana faced a guideline range of 24 to 30 years before his plea, but does not resolve the difference between those accounts.
The prosecution is among other federal cases involving Brooklyn gangs. The Department of Justice identified Moeleek Harrell as leader of the Bully Gang and said he was sentenced to 60 years in prison. The Daily News reported that Shakeem Boykins, a Loopy Gang member who shot Walls in 2018, was sentenced to more than nine years for illegal gun possession.
A Judge's Final Words
Miller’s lawyers asked the judge to state at sentencing that the law required his life sentence. Miller maintained his innocence and said he hoped to appeal the verdict and sentence. U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall said he showed no room for responsibility, while expressing hope that he would find purpose and contribute to society in prison. “Don't make this meaningless,” DeArcy Hall told him, according to the Daily News.
The Pink Houses’ building numbers mark boundaries between rival crews, and gang members posted flyers calling Walls a snitch and a rat after her testimony, the Daily News reported. Those details place the killing within a neighborhood setting where gang affiliations and Walls’s role as a witness were part of the case.
What public records add
A separate U.S. Attorney’s Office release, published by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, described Ninedee members as affiliated with the Pink Houses’ “5” and “6” buildings and involved in gang-related violence inside and outside the complex. DOJ guidance says an essential witness in a racketeering case may be considered for the federal Witness Security Program. That guidance does not establish that Walls was enrolled, or that she received protections through the program.
