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Getaway driver sentenced in double homicide

Gaston Gazette - 3/30/2018

March 29--A ninth gang member was sentenced this week for her role in killing a couple with Gastonia ties.

Briana Shakeyah Johnson, 22, of Concord will spend 13 years in federal prison for her involvement in the murders of Douglas and Deborah London, South Carolina residents who were regulars at Bethlehem Church in Gastonia and well known in the Gaston County community.

Johnson, an associate of the Charlotte-area Valentine Blood set of the United Blood Nation gang who went by "Breezy V," served as the getaway driver in the Oct. 23, 2014, killings. She was the girlfriend of Malcolm Jarrell Hartley, the trigger man in the incident who later received a life sentence.

Court documents show that three other Bloods members -- Jamell Lamon Cureton, Nana Yaw Adoma and David Lee Fudge -- robbed The Mattress Warehouse in Pineville on May 25, 2014.

The Londons owned the store, and Douglas London was the only person who could've identified Cureton. The Bloods determined he needed to be eliminated, court records show.

Johnson was present at gang meetings where the murder plan was hatched. She drove Hartley to the Londons' Lake Wylie home, sat in the car while he shot both of them and then drove Hartley back to Charlotte after stopping at another gang member's house to dispose of the gun.

Hartley was promoted within the gang for carrying out the group's orders.

In addition to Hartley and Johnson, seven other Bloods members have been sentenced as a result of the investigation.

Cureton received a life sentence, and another one for the 2013 murder of Kwamne Clyburn. Rahkeem Lee McDonald, whose house Johnson stopped by on the way back from the killings, also was sentenced to life in prison.

Fudge received 26 years, Ibn Rashaan Korengay got 23 years, Nehemijel Maurice Houston got 20, and Daquan Lamar Everett and Centrilla Shardon Leach received 13 years each in prison.

Randall Hankins II, Adoma and Akheem Tahja McDonald were convicted of racketeering conspiracy charges in October and await sentencing.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI.

You can reach Adam Lawson at 704-869-1842 or on Twitter @GazetteLawson.

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(c)2018 Gaston Gazette, Gastonia, N.C.

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