Theryn Jones And Arius Hopkins Convicted Of 2014 Murder Of Shaquille Malcom

Geoffrey S. Berman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that THERYN JONES, a/k/a “Ty,” a/k/a “Old Man Ty,” a/k/a “Tyballa,” and ARIUS HOPKINS, a/k/a “Scrappy,” a/k/a “Scrap,” were convicted of the January 2, 2014, murder of Shaquille Malcolm, 20, in the Bronx, New York.  JONES and HOPKINS were convicted yesterday following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan. 

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “Nearly six years ago, 20-year-old Shaquille Malcolm was shot 13 times and killed in a Bronx apartment lobby.  A unanimous jury has now held Jones and Hopkins responsible for this terrible crime.”

As reflected in the Indictment, and according to the evidence introduced at trial:

THERYN JONES was a high-ranking leader of the Mac Balla gang and the leader of a large-scale drug trafficking organization that distributed crack cocaine out of a residential building in the Allerton section of the Bronx, New York.  Because Shaquille Malcolm and others were encroaching on JONES’s drug territory, JONES directed HOPKINS and another person to murder Malcolm. 

On January 2, 2014, HOPKINS and another individual shot Shaquille Malcolm multiple times in the lobby of an apartment building located at 2818 Bronx Park East in the Bronx, New York.  Malcolm died at the scene. 

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JONES, 42, of the Bronx, New York, and HOPKINS, 25, of the Bronx, New York, were each convicted of using a firearm to commit murder in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime (Count One), which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison, and murder while engaged in a conspiracy to distribute 280 grams and more of crack cocaine (Count Two), which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years’ in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.  JONES and HOPKINS are scheduled to be sentenced on May 7, 2020.

Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the New York City Police Department.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Violent and Organized Crime Unit.  Assistant United States Attorneys Michael K. Krouse, Danielle R. Sassoon, Margaret Graham, and Jessica Fender are in charge of the prosecution.