Gang leader who terrorized Trenton, NJ sentenced to life without parole

⚖️ A Trenton gang leader has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

➡️ Prosecutors said Charles Willis led a drug ring tied to shootings, murder and witness intimidation.

🚔 Investigators seized hundreds of bricks of heroin and fentanyl during the long-running case.

TRENTON — A man who destroyed countless lives through violence and drugs has been sentenced to spend the rest of his days in a cell.

Charles M. Willis, 33, led the "Get Money Boys" gang in Trenton for years, according to the Attorney General's Office. State prosecutors said the GMB ran an open-air drug market at the Roger Gardens housing projects that led to multiple shootings, including the murder of a witness.

Willis has been sentenced to life in state prison without parole, essentially removing him from society forever. It follows an April trial that spanned 14 weeks, in which he was found guilty of more than a dozen charges.

“The sentence imposed reflects the callousness of the defendant’s conduct. The defendant brought violence and terror to Trenton, and now he has been held accountable," Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said.

The Roger Gardens apartments in Trenton as seen in this Google Street View image taken June 2023. (Google Maps)

Months-long investigation uncovered major heroin and fentanyl operation

The investigation into Willis's drug ring at the Roger Gardens apartments began in December 2019, according to the OAG. For the next nine months, detectives built a case by surveilling GMB gang members who were selling heroin for cash on the streets and sidewalks right next to families' homes.

A crucial moment in the investigation came when a wiretap picked up a phone call between Willis and one of his associates; Willis ordered him to move product to a Hamilton storage facility.

Get our free mobile app

Acting quickly, police got there just as the associate was leaving the facility. They found 130 bricks of heroin and fentanyl in his vehicle, and found 254 bricks in the storage unit. Authorities said they recovered more than 19,000 doses that day.

Trenton police conducted other stops that netted smaller, but still substantial hauls of illicit drugs. In one case, a GMB member was arrested after he threw 150 bags of heroin out of his car window. Two other gang members were arrested when police found 118 baggies in their vehicle.

A 2017 photo of Charles Willis (NJOAG/Canva)

Prosecutors tied Willis to murder-for-hire plot and mass shooting

Running a drug ring carries plenty of time behind bars on its own, but Willis's life sentence is due to his conviction for paying someone else to commit murder while leading a narcotics operation.

According to the OAG, Willis tried to track down and kill a man who had cooperated with the police. The man, Michael "Murder Mike" Barnes, was a former member of another gang in Trenton. He had voluntarily left the witness protection program and returned to Trenton. However, Willis couldn't find him.

Willis paid a hitman $10,000 to find and kill Barnes. On Dec. 27, 2019, Barnes was found in an alley. He had been shot six times and left to die.

READ ALSO: Long Branch stabbed in head while stopping domestic attack

The gang leader later paid the same killer another $15,000 to kill a witness who was scheduled to testify against a GMB member. On June 3, 2020, the hitman saw his target on the front stoop of a home and shot wildly. One bullet grazed the witness, who survived. Three other people were shot, including a man and a 12-year-old girl who was riding her bike, who were both critically injured but lived.

Willis also took part in the bloodshed, authorities said. A month before the botched hit job, Willis and four of his gangsters shot dozens of rounds into a crowd near a grocery store. Investigators found the shooting was intended for rival gang members; two people and four houses were riddled with bullets.

Report a correction 👈 | 👉 Contact our newsroom