BRIAN CHILSON
DEPUTY PROSECUTOR BARBARA MARIANI: Gang territories are less defined.
and you knew they were from Oak Street. It’s not like that anymore; I think it’s changed. Part of that is due to all the prosecutions. After a while, people start to catch on. I think social media has a
10/10/1998
Anarian Chad Jackson convicted on drug charge Leader of the West Side Pirus, Jackson was convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to deliver and sentenced to 56 months. He was released on $21,000 bond while his case was being appealed.
big impact on it, too. I do know when I was [in the gang division], the West Side Piru Anarian Chad Jackson was definitely the leader and the head of that. I prosecuted him
8/27/1999 Quincent Jerome James’ murder
Quincent Jerome James was defending his 10-year-old nephew, Patrick James, from a roughhousing gang member called “O-Dog” when, according to police, the man backed away, pulled a gun and shot James in the belly. James died a short time later at a Little Rock hospital. It was his 30th birthday.
on two homicides. He’s locked up for life. Another one was Antoine Baker. He was a Gangster Disciple. I think they were the last two that were definitely organized. They were the heads of their respective organizations. They had a structure, with people under them. After that it became looser. People were still in the gangs, but I wouldn’t say, “That’s the leader of that gang.” So it’s different. I don’t know how organized they are, but the belonging is still there. When I was in the gang unit, I would actually meet gang members and defendants through negotiations. We’re talking to them in court with their attorneys, and I’m like, “You know, I kind of like this guy, honestly.” I’d meet some of them and think, “That guy is really scary, and is pretty void and would think nothing of killing anyone.” The young kid that’s 16 or 17 — he comes from nothing, doesn’t have any family, no support system — they get involved because the gangs are a support system. Someone cares about what they’re doing. That’s just sad, really. I see a kid that could’ve gone either way, and unfortunately they went the wrong way. That’s still is an attractive thing. There’s money, let’s face it. I mean, what are you going to do? Get a job at McDonald’s, and make what? You can take dope somewhere and make so much more. It’s quite enticing. There was some organization, with the police department identifying gang members. Obviously we had a gang unit here; there was a targeted prosecution and law enforcement to try and get those gang leaders, and we did. After Chad Jackson went away to prison for the rest of his life, the West Side Pirus kind of fell apart. There are still people claiming it. Gangster Disciples, I think the same thing; they’re still around but they are not a cohesive unit. I think they have cells within them. You can say, “I’m a Blood, but I’ve got this group of
guys here, this group of guys over here, this group of girls here,” because every once in a while you’ll see that, too. You didn’t use to see that, but that goes on too. I think that there are kind of little groups, what I’d call cells, there isn’t a hierarchy like I first saw when I started. I was working with some scary people, but I was never really afraid. Looking at the case files, some of them were crimes of opportunity, some were just really sad situations, people who went really wrong and others were just scary individuals. I never thought of retaliation. A lot of the threats I saw were against witnesses. “You know what happens to snitches” [they’d say], which made it really hard to get people to cooperate. That was the only retaliation I saw. I never saw a retaliation against any prosecutor. When I came, no one in our office had been retaliated against, at least that I was aware of. And I had never seen one attacked in court, I can tell you that [laughs]. It didn’t really enter my mind. I guess you might think of it, but you think like everything else: “Well, if it hadn’t happened before, why would it happen all of a sudden? It didn’t happen in the ’90s, why would it all of sudden happen now?” I guess that was my attitude about it. I’ll tell you, “no snitches” is a real thing. It still persists. That’s what I consider a code of silence. There are people who have information about unsolved homicides here in Little Rock that could solve them but won’t come forward because they are scared. I understand that. Among gang members themselves, it depends. There were some: “I don’t care what you give me, I’m not testifying against my brother, I’m not doing it.” And there were others who’d say, “I’m looking at too much time, I’ll testify against him.” I think it just depends on who you talk to. In the high days of the Mafia, no one talked, that’s why it worked. But by the time I got here I don’t
9/5/2001
Anarian Chad Jackson convicted on murder charge Anarian Chad Jackson was convicted on federal murder charge in the Jan. 5 shooting death of Charles Raynor, 23, and sentenced to life in prison. He was also charged in Pulaski County Circuit Court for two counts of unlawful discharge of a weapon from a vehicle in a March 19, 1999, drive-by shooting near Asher Avenue and Fair Park Boulevard; one count of unlawful discharge of a weapon from a vehicle in a Sept. 8, 1999, drive-by shooting at 20th and Maple streets; first-degree murder in Raynor’s death; and aggravated robbery and theft of property.
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JULY 16, 2015
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