A Jersey City man was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for stabbing a rival gang member during a group assault over three years ago, authorities said.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Sheldon Mays, also known as “Thottie,” 23, of Jersey City, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty back in May to an information charging him with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon – a knife – in aid of racketeering, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said in a statement.
McNulty imposed the sentence on September 18th in Newark federal court.
On August 3rd 2020, Mays and seven others, all of whom are associated with a street gang operating in and around the Curries Woods Public Housing Complex in Jersey City – identified as “Curries Woods” or the “Tay Tay Shrimp Gang” or the “Sharks” – assaulted a rival gang member in retaliation for a prior gang-related assault.
As the victim was walking down a street in Jersey City, Mays and the others approached in two cars, parked in the middle of the street, and violently assaulted the victim, who was punched, kicked, and stabbed by Mays, and suffered life-threatening injuries.
In addition to the prison term, McNulty sentenced Mays to three years of supervised release.
Mays is also among three charged with shooting five people between May and August of 2020, one of which died from his injuries.
Sellinger credited special agents and task force officers of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Newark Field Division, the Jersey City Police Department, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Hudson County Department of Corrections with the investigation leading to the sentencing.
This investigation was conducted as part of the Jersey City Violent Crime Initiative (VCI).
The VCI was formed in 2018 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Jersey City Police Department, for the sole purpose of combatting violent crime in and around Jersey City.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracey Agnew of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Trenton.
