Jamal Binford, 34, of Dallas and Cincinnati, was sentenced on July 16 in U.S. District Court to life plus a mandatory consecutive 10 years in prison for ordering the murder of his uncle and operating a drug trafficking organization.
Binford was convicted by a jury in February 2025. According to U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II, “The evidence at trial proved that Binford ordered the cold-blooded execution of his own uncle and he did so simply to protect his drug trafficking organization. The defendant may not have pulled the trigger, but he ordered the execution and is equally responsible for the murder. A sentence of life in prison reflects the seriousness of Binford’s offenses and is just punishment.”
Court documents and trial testimony showed that Binford managed two co-defendants as boxers while presenting himself as a promoter aiming to help young men off the streets. Instead, prosecutors said he used them as participants in his drug enterprise, selling kilograms of fentanyl and cocaine along with hundreds of pounds of marijuana between May and November 2021.
To protect this operation, Binford ordered Antwan Coach Jr., 23, and Markel Hardy, 24—both from Cincinnati—to kill Deonte Nuckols after Nuckols texted him about an unpaid drug debt. Prosecutors said Binford paid $2,000 for the killing.
Binford also assisted after another incident: following a July 2021 robbery that resulted in Kamar Williams being shot to death during a theft involving marijuana and a firearm in North College Hill, Binford helped Hardy flee from police.
He was found guilty at trial on charges including participating in narcotics conspiracy; being an accessory after the fact; murder connected with drug trafficking; use of a firearm during violent crime; and use of a firearm to commit murder. He was arrested at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in February 2023.