Judge this morning rejected a plea deal for 28-year-old Futo Charles, an alleged Top 6 gang member
Judge this morning rejected a plea deal for 28-year-old Futo Charles, an alleged Top 6 gang member charged with racketeering, part of a statewide strategy to put gangs out of business.Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Todd Weicholz told Circuit Judge Karen Miller that Charles had given three cooperating statements to the prosecutors, and in exchange was offered a deal of eight years in prison followed by five years probation.Miller immediately declared she would not accept the deal in light of sentences she has handed out in other Top 6 cases. Miller sentenced each of two other accused members — Ernst Exavier and Jessee Thomas — to a quarter-century in prison earlier this year following their convictions on the charge.The lawyers set Futo Charles for another court date in April, following the next trial of an alleged Top 6 member, 23-year-old Wilbertson Noelzinord.Exavier and Thomas' conviction was the first significant victory in Palm Beach County for statewide prosecutors now apply...