A man federal prosecutors say crowned himself the “Godfather” of one of Cleveland’s most violent street gangs went on trial Monday in U.S. District Court, accused of orchestrating kidnappings, an execution-style killing and a drug operation that stretched from a public housing complex into Ohio’s prisons. Raven Mullins, along with co-defendants Malik Brooks and Jayon Florence, has pleaded not guilty to charges that include racketeering, murder in aid of racketeering and drug-conspiracy offenses.
Federal prosecutors say Mullins led the Fully Blooded Felons gang from the Cedar Estates public-housing complex, presiding over it as its alleged godfather and using violence to instill fear and protect his drug territory and income, according to Cleveland.com. Prosecutors say Mullins structured the gang with himself at the top, a 10-member commission beneath him, and roughly 25 capos who carried out orders, according to a separate Cleveland.com report. The gang also had enforcers, an underboss and a set of rules known as the Fully Commandments or Fully Five, which prosecutors say could trigger an expensive fine or harsh violence if broken.
A Teenage Gang Leader’s Rise
Mullins allegedly helped create one of Cleveland’s largest gangs as a teenager, and prosecutors say he helped build the Heartless Felons inside Ohio juvenile prisons by merging the Young Felons with the Land of the Heartless. Heartless Felons members committed murders, kidnappings, rapes and robberies, prosecutors allege. Mullins later split from that larger gang in 2023 to create the Fully Blooded Felons, which operated mostly out of Cleveland’s Central neighborhood but had reach into Akron and Youngstown, the outlet reported. The gang operated from Cedar Estates and from Ohio jails and prisons, including the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown.
Officials say the group imported fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and Suboxone from Texas and Arizona and sold the drugs both on the street and inside correctional facilities, per the same report. Federal agents and police had already raided two Cedar Estates apartments during the investigation, finding guns and drugs, according to Cleveland 19 News.
The Kidnapping and Killing of Raegan Howze-Thornton
Court filings allege Mullins, Brooks, Florence, David Price and Henry Burchett kidnapped 19-year-old Raegan Howze-Thornton from Cedar Estates and held her in an apartment for more than a day. The group allegedly took her phone, read her messages aloud, tied her up and beat her. Gang members killed Howze-Thornton on July 28, 2022, with Mullins, Brooks and Florence accused of shooting her beneath the Interstate 480 overpass at West 3rd Street and Quigley Avenue, firing from distances of one to five feet, prosecutors allege…