Another Four Corner Hustler pleads guilty in racketeering case

Another member of the Four Corner Hustlers has pleaded guilty as a sweeping street gang trial nears at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, records show.

Deandre Spann pleaded guilty Friday to a racketeering conspiracy, joining Rontrell Turnipseed, who pleaded guilty to the same crime two days earlier.

Several members of the street gang are set to go on trial Sept. 17 in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin. The gang has been tied in a racketeering indictment to six killings between 2000 and 2003. But a detailed, 110-page document filed by prosecutors last month linked the gang to three more in 2012.

Spann was indicted along with 10 other Four Corner Hustlers in 2017. Authorities recorded him talking with Labar “Bro Man” Spann — his cousin and the Four Corner Hustlers’ alleged “chief” — about drug sales, as well as the arrest of fellow gang member Sammie Booker and efforts to raise money for his legal defense.

Deandre Spann — who prosecutors did not link to any violence — also admitted in his plea agreement that he distributed a total of five grams of heroin in April 2006 and February 2013. He has previously been convicted of drug possession and robbery.

Spann is set to be sentenced in November. So is Turnipseed, who told Durkin earlier this week, “I had sold drugs for Mr. [Labar] Spann.” Turnipseed also admitted he’d been “involved” in another shooting with a rival gang member.

In addition to next month’s trial, Labar Spann and two other Four Corner Hustlers — Tremayne Thompson and Juhwun Foster — are set to go on trial in September 2020. They could face the death penalty if convicted.

Contributing: Sam Charles