REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
RZA.
A federal court found Staten Island's Anthony and Harvey Christian guilty of running a violent drug trade for 20 years and the 1999 murder of Jerome "Boo Boo" Estrella October 27, 2014, according to the site.
Now, as the brothers' sentencing approaches, their lawyer, Michael Gold told SILive.com that the FBI investigation into Estrella's killing says that the deed was carried out "at the instruction of members of the Wu-Tang Clan, a rap group, as revenge for robberies."
According to Gold, a 95-page FBI file on former Wu-Tang member Ol' Dirty Bastard from 2012 claims that not his clients but "someone else was liable for those murders."
"I'm not suggesting that the Wu-Tang committed these crimes. The FBI did," continued Gold.
But the Christian brothers' prosecutors say that this information had been provided to Gold and his team during the trial's initial discovery process, and that the evidence doesn't affect the verdict of that case, said the site.
The particular statements in question came from a 1999 interview with Brian Humphreys, the trigger man in Estrella's death and a former Bloods gang member who became an informant and testified against the Christian brothers, reported the site.
Apparently, Humphreys told authorities that Estrella had robbed the brother of Robert Diggs, the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA, as well as provoked the Christian brothers, according to SILive.com.
The Wu-Tang Clan's lyrics often depicted scenes of drug dealing and violence in their native Staten Island.
Another informant claimed that Corey "Shank Bank" Brooker was also murdered after robbing RZA's brother and another Wu-Tang Clan member's cousin, and that RZA issued a $30,000 contract for his killing, according to the site.
This runs contrary to the narrative the prosecution put forth at the Christian brothers' trial, which stated that Brooker was killed by Humphreys by order of the Christian brothers, as he was a rival drug dealer, reported the site.
But the prosecution maintains that they had released all the evidence linking the Wu-Tang Clan to the murders before the trial, said the site.
With the Christian brothers facing life in prison, Gold has asked for "all police files" regarding the murders of Estrella and Brooker, presumably to prove that the prosecution ignored evidence against the Wu-Tang Clan in order to prosecute them, the site said.
Read the full court filing, as well as the 2012 FBI file on Ol' Dirty Bastard, courtesy of SILive.com: