COLUMBUS – The Short North Posse’s two-decade reign of terror came to an end Monday when last of 20 defendants in the gang-related racketeering and murder case received his sentence in a federal courtroom in Columbus.
Lance Green was sentenced to 17 years in prison on one count of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of murder in aid of racketeering, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman. Green, 37, pleaded guilty to the charges in June before his slated trial in July in U.S. District Court.
“Let this serve as a clear message that if you terrorize our streets with violence you will spend significant time in federal prison, and for the six men in this case who were convicted at trial, they’ll be spending the rest of their lives there,” Glassman said.
Green and the 19 others were associated with the Short North Posse’s “Cut Throat Committee” and were indicted in October 2014 in a racketeering case, with charges that include 14 previously unsolved murders.
The street gang terrorized the Weinland Park area for more than two decades, leaving behind at least 20 murder victims, and was responsible for numerous attempted murders, not to mention drug trafficking, weapons offenses, extortion and robbery.
Of the 20 suspects named in the indictment, which capped a 3 ½-year investigation, six were convicted at trial, 13 pleaded guilty and one has died.
Their sentences range from seven years in prison to multiple life terms with no chance of parole. One of the group’s “bosses,” Robert Ledbetter, was sentenced to several consecutive life sentences last week.