Feds: Crips gang member sentenced in 2010 murder

Rudy Montour, 30, of Roosevelt, pleaded guilty to a firearm-related... — Rudy Montour, 30, of Roosevelt, pleaded guilty to a firearm-related murder at his sentencing in federal court in Central Islip on Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Credit: Federal Court Record

By Robert E. KesslerRobert.Kessler@newsday.comJanuary 12, 2018

A member of the Crips street gang that had terrorized Roosevelt for a decade was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday in federal court in Central Islip, officials said.

Rudy Montour, 30, of Roosevelt, was sentenced after pleading guilty to the firearms-related murder of a man outside a house party in Uniondale in June 2010, officials said.

The victim, Jason Crafton, 27, was believed to have disrespected an unnamed fellow member of the Rollin’ 60s set of the Crips, officials said.

Montour is already serving 13 years in state prison for an attempted murder in Freeport in 2011. The sentences are to run consecutively, meaning that Montour will have to serve a total of 28 years in prison.

Before Friday’s sentence was imposed, federal prosecutor Nicole Boeckmann read aloud a statement from the victim’s mother, Lee Crafton.

“You separated me from Jason, and he from me,” the statement said. “You should know that you did the same to yourself and to those who love and care for you. And yet there is a significant difference for . . . those who love and care for you can come to visit with you, talk with you, laugh with you, and yes, even cry with you. I cannot visit with Jason . . . I will not laugh with Jason, talk with Jason, nor cry with Jason.”

Richard Donoghue, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District, said in a statement that: “Rudy Montour chose to kill for the Crips, and now he can serve time for the gang . . . today’s sentence should send a message that this office, together with our law enforcement partners, will pursue and prosecute members of violent street gangs who seek to inflict violence and fear our communities.”

Montour was the twelfth member of the Crips to be sentenced to prison as a result of an investigation into the gang’s activity in Roosevelt from 2003 to 2013, officials said.