A man locked up at Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center hired hitmen to gun down a rival, but they failed and killed an innocent bystander, federal investigators said Thursday.
Dajahn McBean, 29, was already behind bars for a 2017 gang-related shooting when he cooked up the scheme, the Justice Department said in a press release.
According to the feds, McBean worked with Karl Smith, 26, and Chelsey Harris, 23, to target a personal rival last December, luring the man to nightclubs to set him up for a fatal shooting.
However, the hired guns missed their target — who was not named in court documents — and instead killed his girlfriend, 28-year-old Clarisa Burgos.
“McBean allegedly directed this murder plot using a contraband cellphone from within a federal jail while waiting to be sentenced for a separate gang-related shooting,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
Dajahn McBean, also known as Jeezy Mula
McBean, also known by his rap persona Jeezy Mula, admitted in a September 2023 plea deal that he was a member of Brooklyn’s Real Ryte gang. He pleaded guilty to assault in connection with a January 2017 shooting — another murder-for-hire plot, this time with the shooters mistaking an innocent bystander for their intended target and seriously wounding him.
While behind bars, McBean communicated with Smith and Harris to set up another shooting in December 2023, according to the feds.
Their first attempt occurred on Christmas Eve, when Smith and Harris lured the victim to a club in Queens, the feds said. The hired hitmen shot the intended target’s car multiple times, but he escaped uninjured.
Two nights later, the man and Burgos were sitting in the car outside a different club in Queens when an estimated three men opened fire on the vehicle, according to investigators.
The intended target was shot multiple times but survived his injuries and drove to a nearby police precinct. But Burgos, sitting in the passenger seat, was shot in the head and killed.
“Somebody was looking for him,” Burgos’ aunt, Sonia Gallart, told the Daily News at the time. “Be careful with the person, no matter who it is. Study the person you’re going out with.”
Burgos, a Fort Greene resident, had a 4-year-old son.
Smith and Harris, while not locked up at the time of the attack, were detained separately ahead of Thursday’s announcement, according to the Justice Department. All three suspects were charged with murder-for-hire conspiracy.
Brooklyn MDC, which has recently drawn headlines for housing Sean “Diddy” Combs, has been notorious for several issues, including understaffing and mistreatment of prisoners.
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