Bridgeport Man Pleads Guilty To Racketeering Charge: Feds

Bridgeport CT

12 July, 2021

6:02 AM

Description

BRDIGEPORT, CT — One of four alleged gang members involved in a 2018 murder has pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge, according to a statement from Leonard C Boyle, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut. Ta'ron Pharr, aka "250," 21, pleaded guilty to the charge connected to a gang-related murder in Bridgeport's East End in August 2018. According to prosecutors, Pharr was a member of the Original North End ("O.N.E."), a gang based in the Trumbull Gardens area of Bridgeport. The gang committed violent acts against rival gangs, including the East End gang, the East Side gang, and the PT Barnum gang. O.N.E. members also robbed drug dealers, sold drugs, laundered money, and stole cars from that they then used the cars to commit crimes, according to prosecutors. Pharr and other O.N.E. members stole a white Jeep Grand Cherokee Aug. 8, 2018, in Newburgh, NY, and drove it back to Bridgeport. In the early morning hours of Aug. 13, 2018, O.N.E. members drove the stolen Jeep to Union Avenue in Bridgeport where they shot and killed Len Smith, 25, who they mistook for a rival East End group member, and shot and seriously wounded Smith's female companion, both of whom were seated in a parked car, according to prosecutors. Pharr and others then transported the Jeep to Indian Wells State Park in Shelton where they burned the vehicle in an effort to destroy evidence of the murder. Pharr pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity, which carries a maximum prison term of 20 years. He has been detained since July 7, 2020.