A New Haven gang member has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Donell Allick, Jr., also known as "D-Nice," 26, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden to 240 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release for his role in a violent street gang and a murder in September 2022.
The announcement was made by several officials, including Marc H. Silverman, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and John P. Doyle, Jr., State’s Attorney for the New Haven Judicial District. Other contributors included James Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge, ATF Boston Field Division; Anish Shukla, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the FBI; Stephen Belleau, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England; and New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson.
The case centered around a gang conflict involving the Exit 8 street gang. Authorities, including the ATF, FBI, DEA, and the New Haven Police Department, investigated the gang's activities, revealing involvement in drug trafficking, firearms use, multiple murders, and attempted murders since 2018. The Exit 8 gang, named after a locale accessible via Interstate 91, was found to have engaged in numerous illegal acts, including the use of stolen vehicles for violent activities.
Allick's guilty plea on August 1, 2024, for conspiracy to engage in racketeering activity acknowledged his participation in violent acts, drug trafficking, and gun sales. He admitted to the shooting of Kenneth Cloud on September 16, 2022, which led to the victim's paralysis and eventual death. Evidence from the crime scene included 43 shell casings, with ballistics linking some to firearms found in Allick’s possession.
Allick has been detained since his arrest in November 2022. He had previously been sentenced to 115 months for a separate federal case, with the new sentence set to run concurrently.
The investigation was a collective effort by several law enforcement agencies, including the ATF, FBI, DEA, and local departments. It was part of the Justice Department’s Project Safe Neighborhoods, Project Longevity, and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) programs, which aim to reduce violent crime and dismantle criminal organizations.
For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, visit www.justice.gov/psn, and for details about the OCDETF Program, see https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
