Essex County Man Sentenced to 440 Months in Prison for His Role in Three Murders in Furtherance of Drug Trafficking Organization

NEWARK, N.J. – An Essex County man was sentenced to 440 months in prison for his role in three murders in furtherance of a large-scale narcotics enterprise, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today.

Leevander Wade, 44, of East Orange, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz on Feb. 22, 2024, to racketeering conspiracy. Judge Farbiarz imposed the sentence on Aug. 1, 2024, in Newark federal court.

According to court documents and evidence presented in court:

In February 2018, the drug enterprise’s leader, Michael Healy, found out that one of his conspirators in the drug trafficking enterprise was providing information about the DTE to law enforcement. Healy ordered members of the Bloods in East Orange to kill the informant, referenced in the indictment as “A.S.” At the time, Wade was a manager in the enterprise and ran a series of “stash” houses in Essex County used to package heroin and fentanyl for street-level distribution.

Wade – who shared a close relationship with one of the leaders of the East Orange Bloods – assisted Healy in contracting the East Orange Bloods to carry out the murder of the informant. On Feb. 3, 2018, members of the East Orange Bloods, acting on Healy and Wade’s behalf, shot and killed a bystander, believing the bystander was the informant. At the time of his death, the bystander was parked outside of the informant’s residence in Bloomfield, New Jersey,  in a vehicle that appeared similar to the one that the informant drove. Realizing they killed the wrong person, Healy ordered the Bloods to finish the job. On March 12, 2018, in Bloomfield, the conspirators killed the informant while he was walking his dog in the area of his residence. On April 6, 2018, believing that another member of the enterprise – identified in the indictment as “J.C.” – might also pose a risk to the enterprise, Healy shot and killed “J.C.” in Newark. Wade drove Healy to and from the murder scene, and then helped to destroy evidence by hiring someone to burn the vehicle.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Farbiarz sentenced Wade to five years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $6,223.

Thomas Zimmerman, Tyquan Daniels, and Ali Hill – all members of the Brick City Brims subset of the Bloods street gang in East Orange – previously pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy for their respective roles in the murders of the bystander and A.S. Zimmerman was sentenced on July 6, 2023, to 37 years in prison; Daniels was sentenced on July 6, 2023, to 35 years in prison; and Hill was sentenced on July 6, 2023, to 25 years in prison.

On April 3, 2024, Healy was convicted after a jury trial of multiple counts of murder in aid of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, and various gun and drug offenses. Healy is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 1, 2024. He faces multiple mandatory life sentences.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of special agent in charge James E. Dennehy in Newark; the Newark Police Department, under the direction of Public Safety Director Fritz G. Fragé; the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office; the Union County Prosecutor’s Office, the East Orange Police Department; and the Montclair Police Department.

The government is represented by Senior Trial Counsel Robert L. Frazer and Samantha C. Fasanello, Chief of the OCDETF Unit.