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Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that WAYNE HICKS, a/k/a “Weez,” was sentenced to 17 years in prison for drug trafficking and violent crimes, including a brutal beating and robbery of a victim in New City, New York, on February 28, 2021.

HICKS pled guilty on August 25, 2023, in White Plains federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act Robbery, one count of Hobbs Act Robbery, one count of Travel Act Assault, one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime before U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel, who imposed today’s sentence.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Wayne Hicks was a drug dealer who directed multiple violent attacks as retribution for drug robberies.  After one such attack, he bragged and circulated gruesome videos of it to bolster his brutal reputation.  The substantial sentence imposed by the court makes clear that the law has no tolerance for this kind of brazen violence.  Thanks to the tenacious work of our law enforcement partners and the career prosecutors of this Office, all the participants in this attack have now been convicted and brought to justice.”

According to the allegations in the Superseding Indictment and other court filings and based on statements made in public court proceedings:

HICKS, a marijuana dealer, directed two separate acts of violence to support his drug business.  First, in November 2020, after a marijuana dealer who worked for HICKS was robbed, HICKS arranged for a co-conspirator to shoot one of the robbers.  Second, in February 2021, after JORDAN WOODBINE, another marijuana dealer who worked for HICKS, was robbed, HICKS contacted his brother, co-defendant DWAYNE HICKS, to arrange retribution.  Thereafter, DWAYNE HICKS lured a victim, who the conspirators believed had participated in the robbery of WOODBINE, to a residence in New City, New York, where DWAYNE HICKS and multiple other assailants, including TNAIYA WILLIAMS, BRIAN THOMAS, and WOODBINE, physically attacked the victim.  At times, WAYNE HICKS monitored the attack over video chat.  The assailants forced the victim to strip naked, stole his belongings, including a quantity of marijuana the assailants believed the victim had stolen, then beat the victim with a baseball bat, belts, and their hands and feet, and repeatedly slashed and stabbed the victim with a large knife.  The victim ultimately fled after being left, naked and covered in blood, in a pile of snow.

The other individuals who carried out the February 28, 2021, attack at HICKS’s direction were convicted along with HICKS.  At a previous sentencing hearing for one of HICKS’s codefendants, Judge Seibel remarked that the February 28, 2021, attack was “sickening,” “vicious,” “stomach turning, and the sort of thing that you really can’t imagine how any human being could partake in.”

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In addition to the prison term, HICKS, 32, of Hawthorne, New York, was sentenced to five years of supervised release.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), the Clarkstown Police Department, the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, and the Westchester County Safe Streets Task Force, which is comprised of special agents and task force officers from the FBI, U.S. Probation, New York State Police, New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, and the New York City, Westchester County, Yonkers, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, Greenburgh, White Plains, Peekskill, Ramapo, and Clarkstown Police Departments.

The case is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Timothy Ly, Josiah Pertz, and Derek Wikstrom are in charge of the prosecution.