Three D.C. area men and one woman have been sentenced to as much as 17 years in prison for kidnapping, torturing and burning a disgruntled member of their drug operation. Jammal Hale was sentenced to 17 years behind bars, Patrick Waldrop was sentenced to 11 years, Ramona Watson was sentenced to eight years, and Devin Burgess was sentenced to seven years. Hale, 24, Waldrop, 21, and Watson, 30, are from the District. Burgess, 24, is from District Heights.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Columbia, the crew started a PCP operation in 2010, but the victim became disillusioned with the group when he was left to take the blame after his arrest by Prince George’s County police.
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The victim, then 20, responded by breaking into an apartment shared by Watson, and stealing PCP and a firearm.
The group, led by Hale, then kidnapped the victim and tortured him. He was bound and gagged with duct tape, beaten, burned and interrogated.
Hale directed Waldrop to turn on a stove and heat spoons, which Waldrop used to burn Williams, court documents said.
“You going to go get the rest of my [stuff] or I’m going to [mess] you up and ain’t nobody going to be able to stop what I’m going to do to you,” Hale told the victim, authorities said.
The victim confessed to the theft and revealed the identity of two people who helped him. He then helped the crew recover the gun that he had stolen.
The group then kidnapped and assaulted the others involved in the theft, according to court documents.
The group was then taken to the Benning Park Recreation Center, where the defendants solicited others to beat the victim, strip him of his pants, and throw him into a commercial trash bin.
While the victim and Hale were at the D.C. Jail, Hale displayed a “shank” to the victim to intimidate him, prosecutors said. Hale admitted to possessing the shank but denied showing it to the victim.
According to court documents, prosecutors said the victim was shot in the abdomen outside his former house in Prince George’s County several months later.
The person charged with attempted first-degree murder in that shooting has close ties to Hale and Watson, prosecutors said in court documents.
