Brooklyn Gang Leader Gets Life in Witness Murder

A Brooklyn gang leader who ordered the killing of a woman for testifying in federal court will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Maliek Miller, 33, a leader of the Ninedee Gang, was sentenced Wednesday, Oct. 14, to a mandatory life term by U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall. A federal jury convicted him in June 2024 of murder in aid of racketeering in the July 2020 death of Shatavia Walls, along with racketeering, firearms, ammunition and drug conspiracy charges.

Prosecutors say the Ninedee Gang, based in two buildings of the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, used violence to protect its turf and to silence anyone seen as working with law enforcement. In June 2019, Walls testified at the federal trial of a Ninedee member who had shot her at the Pink Houses in 2017. He was convicted. Before that trial, posters went up around the complex calling her a rat.

On July 4, 2020, Walls and others got into a fight with gang members, including Miller's cousin, over fireworks being set off around young children. Prosecutors say Miller showed up, called Walls a "snitch," fought with her and fired a shot into the air. Afterward, he and other gang members agreed to kill her.

Three days later, a Ninedee hit team spotted Walls and chased her down a path at the Pink Houses, where gang members Quintin Green and Joe Santana shot her numerous times. Another member destroyed the shooters' clothes in an incinerator chute, and another rented a hotel room near JFK Airport where they hid overnight. Walls died of her injuries 10 days later. After her death, Miller and a fellow gang member texted each other about celebrating with champagne.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Miller "orchestrated the murder of Shatavia Walls for daring to cross him."

Four co-defendants pleaded guilty for their roles in the killing. Green was sentenced to 35 years in prison, Santana to 22 years, Kevin Wint to just over nine years, and Shakur Bey to five years.