NY man guilty in two Hampton murders

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) - A Brooklyn, NY man pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of murder, two of which occurred at the Lincoln Housing Development in Hampton.

According to Peter Carr with the U.S. Attorney's Office, 25-year-old Phillip M. Bryant pleaded guilty to killing Sean McCracken on or about Nov. 1, 2009 and killing Johnny Avery March 19, 2010. Additionally, Bryant waived venue in New York and pleaded guilty to murdering Jeremy Kane, a corrections officer killed in June 2009 outside of a beauty parlor in Brooklyn.

“Phillip Bryant used threats and murder to take over a Lincoln Park public housing development and turn it into the center of operations for his drug distribution network,” U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said. “Thanks to the strong case developed by the FBI Safe Streets Task Force and Hampton Police Division, Bryant admitted to murdering three men and will be held responsible for his reign of terror in our community.”

Carr said Bryant and two other men established a neighborhood criminal organization known as the "Miller Time Bloods," a sect of the Bloods gang. 

The men, known in Virginia as the "New York Boys" traveled to Hampton Roads to sell cocaine and marijuana at Lincoln Housing Development. 

Carr said Kane's death is believed to be retaliation against him because he pressed charges against a cousin of a Miller Time Bloods gang.

The deaths of McCracken and Avery are blamed on the gang's intimidation and violence tactics, according to Carr.