South Los Angeles gang leader Paul “Lil Doc” Wallace has been sentenced to 35 years in federal prison for his involvement in a murder in 2014, Courthouse News reports.
Referred to by the government as the “boss of bosses,” Wallace has been a member of the East Coast Crips for over 30 years, according to the Department of Justice. The Crips control a significant portion of east Los Angeles, and Wallace is said to be an influential member of the 6-Pacc — a subset of the Crips that runs areas around 62nd, 66th, 68th and 69th streets, Courthouse News reports.
Wallace was found guilty of the murder of Reginald Brown earlier this year, Courthouse News reports. Brown was a member of the rival gang the Hoovers. Prosecutors allege that Wallace had driven the shooter to a Hoovers’ residence in his white Cadillac Escalade. The weapon used in the shooting, an AK-47, was found in 2015 in a minivan Wallace rented. He told authorities that another gang member left it in there.
He was charged with racketeering conspiracy, including murder, narcotics trafficking, witness tampering and extortion in support of the gang’s criminal enterprise. Wallace was also cleared of a different 2003 murder at the time of his conviction.
Though Wallace was an active gang member in the past, in recent years he has been committed to ending gang violence. According to Courthouse News, the 56-year-old is now known for his efforts to keep the peace. He also played an integral role in establishing a truce between the Crips and Florencia 13, a neighboring Latino street gang, after a 20-year street war.
Wallace’s defense team used his community efforts to appeal his sentence to Judge André Birotte and the jury, referencing his “important gang peacekeeping efforts,” Courthouse News reports.
Prosecutors requested for Wallace to receive a life sentence, pointing out that his peaceful efforts have been used in court before, specifically in 2018 before he was sentenced for a gun charge. At the time, Wallace alleged that he was “trying to lead the youth down a right path and teaching the youngsters to take care of their kids, mothers turn from drugs, you know, just leave the gang life alone,” according to Courthouse News.
Prosecutors described the defense’s arguments as “lip service,” according to Courthouse News, and noted that the former gang member “spent a great deal of his time in custody before sentencing in 2018 managing the affairs of the East Coast Crips, orchestrating extortion, and facilitating witness intimidation against perceived cooperating witnesses.”
They added that while Wallace has done some good for the community, he’s still capable of “horrible acts in the future.”
Birotte acknowledged both the defense’s and prosecutors’ arguments, saying that “these kinds of cases are challenging,” Courthouse News reports.
“It seems as if Mr. Wallace was trying to do something different,” the judge said.
However, Birotte added that a “long trail of destruction” cannot be ignored and has “caught up to him in the end.”
“I’m not of the view that a life sentence is appropriate, but a significant sentence is,” Birotte concluded.
Wallace was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for the murder conviction, plus a mandatory minimum of 10 years for racketeering. After his release, he will be required to serve five years of probation.