Man who led gang to serve full 66 years

The former leader of the oncepowerful and violent Top 6 street gang in South Florida is not getting a shorter prison sentence, after all.

Futo Charles’ 66-year prison term will stand, a three-judge panel for the Fourth District Court of Appeal agreed Wednesday, in a 2-1 opinion.

Charles’ arrest in 2008, along with 11 associates, marked the end of a decade of crime for the gang that ruled Lake Worth’s drug trade with AK-47s and shotguns, and extended their reach to Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton.

Wednesday’s decision was a reversal of the appellate court’s May ruling that deemed Charles’ punishment was improper for 2011 convictions of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and possession of marijuana and ecstasy.

The panel’s new 2-1 opinion, affirming the original prison sentence, was the result of a request by attorneys for the state for the court to reconsider its decision in favor of Charles, 35.

He’s not due to be released until April 2072, when he would be 91 years old, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

Authorities linked the gang’s criminal enterprise to more than a dozen murders and scores of robberies and shootings.

Once in custody, Charles began cooperating with prosecutors and agreed to testify against his accomplices in the hopes of a favorable plea agreement.

But two separate plea deals were ultimately rejected by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Karen Miller, and Charles wound up standing trial.

The first deal in early 2009 called for an eight-year prison sentence. Miller said it was far too soft, considering she had imposed 25-year terms on two other gang members convicted on racketeering charges.

The second deal in 2010 was for a 15-year prison sentence. That too, was rejected by the judge. At the time, she said a written agreement was weak because in it Charles refused to say that Top 6 was a gang or that he was a member.

Still, prosecutors and the lead investigator on the case had urged Miller to approve the plea deal because Charles had helped to dismantle the gang and was willing to testify against his co-defendants.

But once Charles’ two-week trial was over — resulting in the convictions along with acquittals on four gun charges — prosecutors had no mercy.

Charles then faced a minimum sentence of about six-and-a-half years

in prison up to almost 66 years.

Prosecutors asked for the maximum possible sentence to “send a clear message to everyone who decides to participate in a violent criminal organization” that “a life in crime does not pay.”

Without any comment, Judge Miller gave Charles the max.

In the May appellate court opinion, Judge W. Matthew Stevenson wrote Charles is entitled to a new sentence because Miller may have opted for the “harshest sentence” as a way of deterring others from committing crimes.

“Trial judges should not consider general deterrence when imposing individual sentences,” wrote Stevenson, joined by Judge Robert M. Gross in ordering a new punishment for Charles.

But Stevenson’s subsequent retirement turned out to be the reason for the change in the court’s opinion Wednesday. Judge Spencer D. Levine took Stevenson’s spot on the panel, and joined Judge Alan O. Forst, in affirming Charles’ sentence. Judge Gross dissented in the new opinion.

Charles