Staten Island Brothers Anthony and Harvey Christian were recently convicted of running a drug empire for two decades and murdering rival drug dealer Jerome Estella in 1999. Their trial is in the sentencing stage now, and their lawyer Michael Gold just dropped a bit of a bombshell.
He presented evidence that the FBI suspected Wu-Tang members RZA and Raekwon of ordering the death of Estella and also Corey Brooker -- who was murdered soon after, and whose case remains unsolved.
The FBI's theory was that Estella had robbed RZA's brother and that Brooker had robbed Raekwon’s cousin. So RZA put out a $30,000 hit on both men.
"These reports seem to suggest someone else was liable for those murders. I’m not suggesting that Wu-Tang committed these crimes. The FBI did," Gold told the Staten Island Advance. "What I’m trying to ascertain is their stated belief in an official file that Wu-Tang ordered this homicide."In other words, Gold is trying to get his clients off because Wu-Tang may be the real culprit.
The prosecution in the case against the Christians disagree. They state that Gold had access to the FBI's Wu-Tang files during the trial, and should have presented the evidence then. They also argue that Estella and Brooker being thieves as well as drug dealers would have brought more police heat into the Christians' neighborhood, and thus would have just increased the Christians motive for knocking them off.
Charges were obviously never filed against RZA or Raekwon, and so far neither has commented on the new/old allegations against them.