“Southside” Gang Leader Pleads Guilty To Murdering Newburgh Man During A Card Game In Connection With Racketeering Conspiracy

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that SKYLAR DAVIS, a/k/a “S-Dot,” pled guilty today to involvement in a racketeering conspiracy in connection with his membership in “Southside,” a violent street gang that operated in the City of Newburgh, New York.  DAVIS pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel to murdering Newburgh community member Samuel Stubbs during a robbery as Stubbs was playing cards on the sidewalk in front of a laundromat on Lander Street in Newburgh.  The two other men Stubbs was playing with were shot and wounded in the gunfire.

As part of his guilty plea, DAVIS also admitted to committing or helping to commit an additional six nonfatal shootings of Southside’s gang rivals in Newburgh over an approximately nine-month period in 2015 and 2016.

U.S. Attorney Berman said:  “Skylar Davis’s string of shootings terrorized the residents of Newburgh for far too long, and his cold-blooded actions tragically caused the death of Sammy Stubbs, a longtime Newburgh resident who was just playing a neighborhood card game.  Davis now rightfully faces decades in jail for his crimes.”

According to the Indictment and other documents filed in the case, as well as statements made during the plea proceedings:

From at least 2014 through June 2017, the Southside gang was a criminal enterprise centered in and around the intersection of South Street and Chambers Street in an area of Newburgh known as the “Southside.”  In order to gain funds for the gang, protect the gang’s territory, and promote the gang’s standing, members of Southside engaged in, among other things, narcotics trafficking, robbery, and acts involving murder.  To that end, Southside members sold heroin, crack cocaine, and marijuana in the gang’s territory, promoted their gang affiliation on social media sites such as Facebook, possessed firearms, and engaged in shootings as part of their gang membership.

DAVIS was a longtime member of Southside and one of the gang’s leaders.  On August 13, 2015, DAVIS, along with others, decided to rob a high-stakes card game that Stubbs was playing, outdoors, near the intersection of Lander and Courtney Streets in Newburgh.  DAVIS and a co-conspirator approached the three card players with guns drawn and then started firing.  All three men were hit by the ensuing gunfire, and Stubbs, 67, died of his injuries.

The Stubbs murder was just one of many acts of violence DAVIS participated in as part of his leadership of the Southside gang.  Beginning in the summer of 2015, Southside engaged in a series of retaliatory shootings with its primary rival gang in Newburgh, the Yellow Tape Money Gang, or “YTMG,” and with other Newburgh gangs allied with YTMG.  As part of the plea entered today, DAVIS admitted to committing, assisting, and/or causing the following additional Newburgh shootings:

    The attempted murder of rival gang member Gabriel Warren, a/k/a “Stacks,” in the late summer or early fall of 2015;

    The attempted murder of rival gang member Armad Evans, a/k/a “Yellow,” on or about October 5, 2015;

    The attempted murder of rival gang member Tyrin Gayle, a/k/a “Spazzo,” and other YTMG members on or about December 11, 2015;

    The attempted murder of rival YTMG gang members on or about March 17, 2016;

    Aiding and abetting the attempted murder of rival gang member Romeo Herring on or about April 3, 2016; and

    The attempted murder of rival gang members in the vicinity of the 845 Lounge located at 778 Broadway on or about May 21, 2016.

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DAVIS, 22, of Newburgh, New York, was arrested in June 2017 as a result of a multi-year investigation by the FBI’s Hudson Valley Safe Streets Task Force and the City of Newburgh Police Department into gang violence in Newburgh.  DAVIS was previously serving a 16-year sentence for New York State weapon and controlled substance offenses.  On June 14, 2017, Indictment 17 Cr. 364 (CS) was unsealed, charging 20 members and associates of Southside with racketeering conspiracy, narcotics conspiracy, and firearms charges.  Superseding Indictment S1 17 Cr. 364 (CS), unsealed in January of 2018, charged DAVIS and three other Southside members with committing two separate murders as part of their involvement in Southside, including the murder of Stubbs.

DAVIS faces a maximum term of life in prison and a mandatory minimum prison term of 25 years.  He will be sentenced before Judge Seibel later this year.

Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco, and Explosives, and the City of Newburgh Police Department.  Mr. Berman thanked the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for its invaluable ongoing assistance in the case.  Mr. Berman also thanked the Town of Newburgh Police Department, the New York State Police, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the Town of New Windsor Police Department, and the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision for their assistance in the case.

This case is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division.  Assistant United States Attorneys Jacqueline Kelly, Allison Nichols, Maurene Comey, and Samuel Raymond are in charge of the prosecution.