CLEVELAND, Ohio — Three men, including a Cleveland hip-hop artist and a former high school basketball prospect, have pleaded guilty to a gang-related murder attempt near a Cleveland Heights middle school.
Crayshaun Bates, Keith Griffin and Xavier Eberhardt each face years-long prison sentences after the trio pleaded guilty to attempted murder and participating in a criminal gang charges in the February 2016 shootout.
Judge Robert McClelland accepted their pleas and is scheduled to sentence them March 14.
Negotiations for the plea deal began Tuesday evening and continued Wednesday morning just McClelland was expected to seat a jury
Bates and Eberhardt pleaded guilty to attempted murder with a 1-year mandatory gun specification. Griffin’s attempted murder charge did not carry a gun specification.
Bates, 19, performs hip-hop under the name Lil Cray. Griffin, 20, was being recruited to play college basketball before he was wounded in a shooting. He also faced legal trouble and was suspended for fighting while at Cleveland’s East Tech High School.
Bates, Griffin and Eberhardt, 19, belonged to the gang Loyal to Brothers, which prosecutors say operates around East 115th Street and St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland and in Ohio’s adult and juvenile prisons.
The trio drove to Elbon Road in Cleveland Heights in the middle of the day Feb. 4, 2016, where they confronted Reno Fox, Renardo Peterson and Donte Flenoy.
Bates and Eberhardt opened fire on the men, who returned fire as they ran through backyards, police said. The shooting happened about a half-mile from Monticello Middle School where class was in session.
Bates, Griffin and Eberhardt sped off in an SUV, police said. Fox was shot in the leg and was dropped off at MetroHealth, where police say he gave false information to Cleveland police who tried to investigate where and how he was shot.
Investigators eventually found the SUV and tied evidence back to the trio. They also identified them from surveillance video and eyewitness statements, records say.
Police arrested Fox, Peterson and Flenoy within days. Bates and Eberhardt were charged two weeks after the shooting, and Griffin was indicted in May.
Fox, Peterson and Flenoy pleaded guilty to weapons charges last month. They are scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday.
Griffin has used a wheelchair since he was paralyzed in a March shooting in Cleveland’s Arbor Park neighborhood.
Prosecutors brought the gang charges against Bates, Griffin, Eberhardt and four other men in August. The Cleveland Heights shooting was part of a string of gang activity carried out over several months, investigators say.
The four other men asked to be tried separately. Their trial dates have not been scheduled.
Bates, who was freed on bond but being monitored by a GPS ankle bracelet, was arrested in January after he missed his curfew and was found to be drunk. He was then accused of trying to bribe Cuyahoga County Sheriffs Department deputies not to arrest him.
Bates has denied those charges and will be tried on a later date.
Hey guys To comment on this story, please visit Wednesday’s crime and courts comments page.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
