In the early morning hours of September 14, 2011, a man was gunned down in New Orleans as he arrived for his job at a scrap yard on Poland Avenue. The victim was identified as Michael Marshall. His death, however, was not a random act of violence but a calculated assassination. Unbeknownst to many, Marshall was a federal witness who had been cooperating with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, a decision that ultimately sealed his fate.
The investigation into Marshall's murder uncovered a conspiracy involving the notorious '39ers' street gang. Authorities learned that other drug dealers had approached members of the gang, offering payment to silence Marshall. Three members of the 39ers gang, Washington “Big Wash” McCaskill, Leroy “Lee” Price, and Ashton “Pound” Price, accepted the contract. On that September morning, they ambushed Marshall, with one of them exiting their vehicle and fatally shooting him as he attempted to get out of his own car.
The wheels of justice turned, and a federal racketeering trial brought the actions of the 39ers gang to light. During the trial, ten members of the gang were convicted for their roles in a multitude of violent crimes, including more than a dozen murders. For their specific involvement in the murder of Michael Marshall, McCaskill, Leroy Price, and Ashton Price were found guilty. Testimony during the trial revealed that a man named Steven J. “Shaq” Burns Jr. had allegedly paid the gang members $7,500 to carry out the murder. In a strange turn of events, a state grand jury indicted Burns for murder and conspiracy in connection with Marshall's death, only to discover that Burns himself had died in his sleep just days before the indictment was issued.
