GANGS in San Fransico... caught after TWO DECADES OF VIOLENCE

40 years to life for SF gang member
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
(01-20) 17:52 PST San Francisco -- A member of the Down Below Gang in San Francisco was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison Tuesday after admitting that he took part in three murders.
Edgar Diaz, 23, originally faced a possible death sentence but reached agreement with federal prosecutors on a prison term in November, when he pleaded guilty to taking part in a racketeering conspiracy. The charge included distribution of crack cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana, a number of attempted murders, and the murders of Beverly Robinson in April 2004 and Kenya Taylor and Antoine Morgan in June 2004.
Another defendant, Raymon Milburn, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to murder a man identified by prosecutors as a witness against the gang.
Police say the Down Below Gang has terrorized the Sunnydale public housing complex in Visitacion Valley since the late 1990s. Twelve alleged members were indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2005, and U.S. District Judge William Alsup has now sentenced 11 of them to prison.
In a court filing urging the judge to accept the plea agreement, attorney Tony Tamburello described Diaz's upbringing in the squalor and violence of Sunnydale while his mother drank, used drugs and was periodically hospitalized or imprisoned.
The final defendant, Emile Fort, an alleged leader of the gang, is scheduled to go to trial in February on racketeering charges that include multiple murders and could be sentenced to death if convicted.