The U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Pennsylvania released the below:
PHILADELPHIA,
PA – On September 14, 2020, United States Attorney William M. McSwain
convened a press conference to announce charges against Khalif Tuggle and John
Allen Kane, both of Philadelphia. The United States Attorney’s Office
stepped in to bring federal charges in both cases after the Philadelphia
District Attorney’s Office failed to handle the local criminal cases
appropriately. U.S. Attorney McSwain also spoke about the ongoing
escalation of violent crime in Philadelphia and its causes. He
highlighted several local cases in which the defendants received shockingly
lenient plea deals from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, returned
to the streets and then allegedly committed murder. These cases highlight
an undeniable pattern of cause and effect in which the application of the
District Attorney’s Office’s misguided policies produce violence and tragedy.
Good
morning. I am here today to announce that my Office has unsealed two
criminal indictments charging two individuals, Khalif Tuggle and John Allen
Kane, with committing serious federal crimes on the streets of
Philadelphia. Both cases are part of my Office’s continuing efforts to
fight the tidal wave of violent crime in the City that is the unfortunate
result of local criminal justice policies that coddle violent criminals.
These policies create a culture of lawlessness; they leave criminals
emboldened; and they have inevitable consequences – one of which is a murder
rate in Philadelphia that is the highest it has been in nearly 15 years.
The
two indictments announced today are the latest efforts by my Office to serve as
a counterweight to this chaos. First, Khalif Tuggle, age 28, has been
charged in a three-count indictment with carjacking, use of a firearm in
furtherance of a crime of violence, and murder in the course of using a
firearm, all stemming from his alleged robbery, carjacking, and brutal murder
of Thomas Petersen on January 24, 2017. Tuggle allegedly fired a shot
into Mr. Petersen’s chest, dragged him out of the car, threw him on the road,
robbed him, and left him for dead while Mr. Petersen was screaming in
pain. Tuggle fled the scene in Mr. Petersen’s car, and Mr. Petersen died
at Temple University Hospital after two Philadelphia Police Officers rushed him
there from the crime scene. If convicted on each count, Tuggle faces a
statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Second,
John Allen Kane, age 53, has been charged in a one-count Indictment with
possession of a firearm by a convicted felon on January 17, 2018. Kane
allegedly possessed this firearm while on probation for committing his second
homicide in Philadelphia. If convicted, Kane faces a statutory maximum
term of imprisonment of 10 years.
I
would like to thank our law enforcement partners whose investigative work made
these indictments possible. From the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives, which investigated both cases, I want to thank John Schmidt,
Special Agent in Charge of ATF’s Philadelphia Field Division, and the law enforcement
agents who investigated the cases. I also want to thank the Philadelphia Police
Department for its assistance in both cases. And thank you to Sal
Astolfi, the Chief of the Violent Crime unit in my Office, and Assistant United
States Attorneys Joseph Labar, Michael Miller, and Tom Zaleski, who are
prosecuting these important cases.
Both
the Tuggle and the Kane cases are prime examples of how local criminal justice
policies benefit violent criminals and harm crime victims. After Mr.
Petersen was murdered in cold blood on January 24, 2017, the Philadelphia
Police charged Tuggle with first degree murder, firearms offenses, theft, and
receipt of stolen property, and he was held without bail until trial. As
Tuggle sat in jail awaiting trial for first degree murder, he caught a big
break – in January 2018, there was a change in leadership in the District
Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia: the Krasner administration took over.
This new administration subsequently agreed not to prosecute Tuggle for either
first or second degree murder, thus eliminating the possibility that he would
serve a life sentence for killing Mr. Petersen. Instead, the District
Attorney’s Office permitted Tuggle to plead guilty to third degree murder,
ostensibly because he agreed to cooperate with investigators to identify and
prosecute his accomplice.
But
the plea negotiations were a farce. For one thing, the District
Attorney’s Office agreed to drop the most serious charges without bothering to
negotiate a “floor” for the sentence -- a minimum term of years that Tuggle
would be required to serve for murdering Mr. Petersen. And incredibly,
the District Attorney’s Office agreed to the deal without knowing whether the
information Tuggle supposedly would provide would prove helpful, and without
ensuring that Tuggle would actually identify his accomplice as promised.
In
the end, he didn’t – and his accomplice remains on the loose. In other
words, Tuggle got a huge break for nothing. The judge sentenced Tuggle to
13.5-27 years for third degree murder, and he will be eligible for parole in
the state system in approximately ten years. That sentence is a
miscarriage of justice. It is a cruel slap in the face to Mr. Petersen’s
family – including his mother, Linda, and his sister, Heather, who are with us
today for this announcement. It is something that I am determined to fix.
If
convicted on the federal charges, Tuggle faces the very real possibility of
life in prison with no possibility of parole.
As
for John Kane, as noted in publicly filed documents, the Philadelphia Police
recovered a firearm in his possession after a traffic stop and placed him under
arrest. As a convicted felon, Kane was prohibited from possessing any
firearms. But he was not just any convicted felon – at the time of the
traffic stop, he was on probation for committing his second homicide in
Philadelphia. But the District Attorney’s Office saw fit to voluntarily
dismiss the charges against Kane on a technicality, and he walked free.
That is, until now: Kane has been arrested on the federal charge and is in
federal custody.
Armed
murderers cannot be permitted to walk the streets of Philadelphia in the name
of criminal justice reform. The staggering homicide and shooting rates in
Philadelphia are proof that the District Attorney’s radical experiment has
failed. Homicides, shootings, and serious violent crime have all
skyrocketed in 2020 – from already intolerable levels that existed in 2019 and
2018. There have been 316 homicides since the beginning of the year – a
32% increase as compared to this time last year. The violence has been
pervasive and it is destroying the soul of the City. In the last month
alone, 48 people have been killed and hundreds have been shot. And the
average age of the shooting victims is getting younger. Tragically, the
vast majority of the victims are racial minorities. I can’t say it any
clearer: the District Attorney’s policies come at the expense of minority
communities.
We
can draw a straight line from these policies to the carnage on the
streets. My Office has examined the circumstances underlying many of the
recent murder cases in the City and the inescapable conclusion is that a great
number of these murders were made possible by the District Attorney’s Office’s willingness
– indeed, its eagerness – to offer sweetheart plea deals to violent
defendants. Deals that allowed those defendants to quickly get back out
on the street and kill.
On
this adjacent chart are 10 examples of this sad state of affairs:
·
In October 2018, Michael Banks was arrested
and charged with multiple counts, including a felony gun charge for possessing
an unlicensed firearm. Banks also had prior convictions, and yet in
February 2019, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office gave him a plea deal
in which the felony gun charge was dismissed, and he received only 3-9 months
of incarceration for a misdemeanor gun charge and immediately went back out on
the street. Banks now stands accused of murdering a seven year-old boy in
West Philadelphia last month, who was playing with a toy on his family’s porch
when two groups of men began firing upon one another and shot the boy in the
head.
· In November 2017, Francisco Reyes was arrested
and charged with multiple drug offenses. Despite his prior convictions –
which include aggravated assault, robbery, and multiple other prior drug
offenses – Reyes was given a plea deal in July 2018 in which the felony drug
charge was dismissed and he received probation. Only two days after
he pleaded guilty and received probation, on July 5, 2018, Reyes allegedly
murdered a 25 year-old man in Kensington.
· In September 2018, Jerome Martin was arrested
and charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, which is a felony.
He had previously been convicted of felony drug dealing and possessing drug
paraphernalia. Somehow, Martin was given a plea deal in June 2019 in
which he was sentenced to house arrest. While on house arrest, in August
2019, he allegedly broke into a house and murdered a 23 year-old man, who is
survived by many, including his newborn baby.
·
In February 2018, Keith Garner was arrested
and charged with simple assault. Despite having multiple prior felony
convictions, Garner was given a plea deal in March 2018 to probation. In
November 2018, Garner executed four people in a West Philadelphia basement, and
has been convicted of all four murders.
·
In March 2017, Timothy Sherfield was arrested
and charged with numerous violent crimes, including two counts of aggravated
assault, two counts of robbery, burglary, possession of an unlicensed firearm,
and many additional misdemeanors. In February 2018, he was given a plea
deal in which the vast majority of these charges were dropped. Sherfield
received a minimum sentence of less than one year. This enabled him to be
out on the streets and murder a 23 year-old man in April 2019. The victim
was inside a mini market at the time that he was gunned down in cold blood.
·
In May 2017, Tariq Gant was arrested and
charged with a variety of violent crimes, including aggravated assault and
firearm offenses. But in February 2018, he was given a plea deal in which
the vast majority of the charges were dropped. Gant pleaded guilty to
simple assault and resisting arrest, and received probation. In September
2018, he allegedly murdered a 19 year-old young man in Germantown. The
victim is survived by his mother, who in addition to losing this son, also
tragically lost another son who was gunned down earlier this year.
·
In October 2017, Jose Lugo was arrested and
charged with felony drug offenses. Despite having previously been
convicted of numerous felony drug crimes and carrying a firearm without a
license, he was given a plea deal in September 2018 in which he was immediately
released. Just months later, in February 2019, Lugo allegedly murdered a
24 year-old man.
·
In March 2018, Byron Taylor was arrested and
charged with multiple offenses, including felony possession of an unlicensed
firearm. Despite his prior convictions, he was given a plea deal in May
2019 in which the felony gun charge was dismissed and he received
probation. Almost immediately, in July 2019, Taylor allegedly shot and
killed a 35 year-old man in Germantown.
·
In January 2018, Rasheed Malcolm was arrested
and charged with multiple offenses, including aggravated assault, simple
assault, and recklessly endangering another person. Despite his prior
felony drug distribution convictions, he was given a plea deal in which all of
these charges were dropped, and he was permitted to plead guilty to the summary
offense of disorderly conduct. By the end of the year, in December 2018,
Malcolm allegedly murdered a 27 year-old man in the 6200 block of Market
Street.
·
In June 2018, Maalik Jackson-Wallace was
arrested and charged with multiple offenses, including felony possession of a
firearm without a license. The District Attorney’s Office then selected
him to participate in its Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program (ARD)
– a diversion program in which defendants can avoid a conviction if they comply
with certain conditions. This diversion allowed Jackson-Wallace to walk
away free. He was then arrested with a second illegal
firearm while in the program, but the District Attorney’s Office did not move
for him to be taken out of ARD at that time. In June 2019,
Jackson-Wallace allegedly murdered a 26 year-old man in the Frankford section
of Philadelphia.
Each
of these cases is its own separate tragedy, with terrible ramifications that
extend in many directions. And these ten cases only scratch the surface
of the devastation that is being wrought by the District Attorney’s
policies. The cases are merely examples – there are many others like
these, in which violent defendants who should not be on the street are
committing murder or other violent crimes. Furthermore, these are cases
that have led to murder arrests. Most homicides in the
City do not even result in an arrest, so it is chilling to think of the number
of unsolved murders that have likely been committed by violent criminals who do
not belong on the street – and are only there because the District Attorney put
them there.
As
I have said before, everybody in Philadelphia deserves to live in a safe
neighborhood – regardless of race or income level. We won’t get there by
treating violent criminals like they are victims, or by undermining law
enforcement. We must have the courage and the will to enforce the law –
and to hold criminals accountable. The future of our City depends upon
it. We must put the law-abiding residents of this City first. Thank
you.
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