Prosecutors: Gang leader gets 30 years in prison in murder, other crimes

The leader of the Red Lane Gorillas “set” of the Bloods street gang, was sentenced in federal court on Friday to 30 years in prison for racketeering and other criminal acts, a news release from U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York said.

Richard Michel, also known as “G-Light” and “Gangsta Light,” 41, of Brooklyn, was sentenced in a Central Islip court for his role in the October 2011 kidnapping and assault of a rival gang member and another man in Hempstead, the July 15, 2012, murder of Anthony Richard in Baldwin Harbor, and the September 2016 attempted murder of a disloyal Bloods gang member in Uniondale. 

Michel pleaded guilty to the charges in December 2021 along with co-defendant Dylan Cruz.

“For the murder, kidnapping, and assaults of Michel’s victims, the pain to their loved ones, and the violence Michel brought to our communities, today’s sentence is justice served,” U.S. Attorney Peace Breon said in the release. “As a result of the hard work of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners, Michel’s gang has been dismantled."

Michel, along with other members of the Red Lane Gorillas, engaged in a “violent” war against rival gangs, including the Crips and the 5-9 Brims set of the Bloods, in Nassau County and Brooklyn, the release said. 

According to court filings and statements made by Michel at his guilty plea, he, among other crimes, admitted his role in the murder of Richard, an individual that he wrongly suspected of assisting the Crips in the 2010 murder of a member of their gang. Cruz and Michel, together with fellow gang members and associates located Richard, and followed his vehicle to Baldwin Harbor. Cruz, who was Michel’s top lieutenant, walked up to Richard's car and fired approximately 15 shots into the vehicle at close range, killing Richard and wounding his passenger.

Michel also admitted the Oct. 3, 2011, gunpoint kidnapping and assault of someone he perceived as a disloyal gang member and another man in Hempstead.

Michel also admitted pulling the trigger in the Sept. 9, 2016, attempted murder of a fellow Bloods gang member whom he suspected of disloyalty. The victim was lured from Brooklyn to Uniondale under the guise of a marijuana deal, the release said. Once at an isolated location in Uniondale, Michel shot the man in the back of the neck. The man survived his wounds.

In June 2022, Cruz was sentenced to 25 years in prison.