CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Testimony started Monday afternoon in the federal murder trial of three accused United Blood Nation members.
The gang has already struck a couple of times from behind bars, including a double murder and intimidating witnesses, so U.S. marshals are not taking any chances.
Security was very tight as U.S.marshals escorted Sanchez Clyburn, the brother of one of the murder victims, away from the courthouse.
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Defendants Ahkeem McDonald, Randall Hankins and Nana Adoma are alleged members of the gang and are connected to the murders of Doug and Debbie London, the owners of a south Charlotte mattress store.
Prosecutors spent most of the day talking about Kwmane Clyburn, who was killed in 2013.
He had just moved to town and was pretending to be a gang member.
"They murdered him for it,” prosecutor Beth Greene told jurors Monday. “They took him into the park and they shot him multiple times to prove a point."
Prosecutors accused Hankins of being the trigger man in the murders of the Londons.
They were shot and killed at their Lake Wylie home.
Debbie London was allegedly shot the instant she opened the front door and her husband was shot as he ran to her aid.
"He heard Doug London crying and Hankins finished him off," Greene said.
Defense attorneys claim that the U.S. attorney's evidence is unreliable because their key witnesses are snitches, former gang members who rolled to get a better deal for themselves.
The key witness who took the stand Monday was Dr. Michael Sullivan, the medical examiner.
He said that Clyburn was shot seven times, six of them in the back and once in the face.