Posted on 05/30/2002 8:51:31 PM PDT by BraveMan
Even before a jury handed down a guilty verdict in his felony murder case Wednesday, Laron Ball hinted in a phone conversation with his younger brother that he was ready to take extreme measures if things didn't go his way.
"He'd rather be dead than in jail," Jacoby V. Jackson, 19, said Wednesday afternoon of the call he says he received the night before.
"In so many words, that's what I got out of it."
Ball told Jackson to care for Ball's six young children, all under age 3 by three different women - and a seventh child on the way - when Ball was "gone."
Dying young was not a big leap for Ball, who described in a March jailhouse interview being entrenched in a gangster lifestyle that already had him tilting toward death.
Just 20 and with a deceptively boyish face, he belonged to a group of bandits who made a career of robbing drug dealers. They call themselves the "3-6 M.O.B." after N. 36th St.
In the interview for a story about life in gangs, Ball talked about having been shot at least once, of seeing a friend die. Of the 20 or so 3-6 M.O.B. gangsters, he estimated, "Three are dead and seven are in jail."
Ball openly acknowledged the 3-6 M.O.B. "robbed people to steal their drugs."
Ball boasted that he associated with the Murda Mobb and Ghetto Boys, gangs that became infamous in the past year. He was the son of a mother who was convicted of running a drug house and child neglect when he was 15, records show.
In the interview, he talked with detachment, as if he couldn't see the forest, but only the trees, couldn't fathom another way to live - or die.
"We was at war with the B.O.S.," he said, mentioning the Brothers of Struggle gang that was the subject of a massive federal indictment in the 1980s but has made a resurgence since.
Thought he'd beat the case
Although Ball was long ago prepared for death, he told his brother Tuesday that he would probably beat the case - as he had done so many times before - and that they'd soon be reunited.
"Last night my brother told me: 'Don't worry about me. Just pray for me and in the grace of God, we'll be talking about what they're putting me through and laughing,' " Jackson said.
He had good reason to be optimistic.
Since 1998, Ball had been charged 12 times with felonies, and seven misdemeanors. But the only cases that stuck, before Wednesday, were two misdemeanors.
He was charged with such things as carrying a gun at age 16, recklessly endangering safety, battery and bribing a witness. Two other times in about as many years, he had been questioned as a suspect in murder investigations.
Last year, two separate juries deadlocked and acquitted Ball on felony recklessly endangering safety and felony battery charges, respectively. Other cases were dismissed over the last three years.
He faced another jury trial next month on different charges of eluding an officer and escape (both felonies). Another felony charge, bribing a witness, was scheduled for trial in July.
Like a gambler who goes off the deep end when his winning hands have suddenly vanished, Ball carried out a last-ditch attempt to avoid prison Wednesday, grabbing the gun of a bailiff in a courtroom and shooting him as the jury announced a guilty verdict for felony murder, the most serious charge he had faced yet.
A homicide detective, Alfonso Morales, shot and killed Ball.
Ball had asked family members not to attend his court proceedings in order to spare them the agony of seeing him on trial and possibly convicted, said Ball's cousin, Troy Jackson, 26.
"He didn't want nobody stressing over him," Troy Jackson said.
Family grieves
But Wednesday, grief beset the family and the mothers of Ball's children as word spread that Ball's life came to a dramatic end.
Both Troy and Jacoby Jackson said Ball had no legitimate job - something they attributed in part to his ongoing troubles with the law. But both men - convicted of dealing cocaine - also acknowledged that they and Ball had chosen a criminal lifestyle.
Troy Jackson is a four-time felon. Jacoby Jackson was recently released from jail after a cocaine conviction imposed by Judge Jacqueline Schellinger, the same judge presiding over Ball's case.
Both Troy and Jacoby Jackson admitted affiliation with the 3-6 M.O.B., and said the acronym M.O.B. stood for "Money Over Bitches."
Jacoby Jackson said police have been investigating the group for the past decade.
"Thirty-sixth was our block," Jacoby Jackson said.
They found Ball guilty of felony murder and two counts of armed robbery in the death of Amon Rogers, a 27-year-old Oregon man who was visiting Milwaukee in December and was shot in the back for his Rolex watch.
What a POS. If I get the chance I look forward to p!ssing on his grave.
This guy did society a favor by dying.
Sad
He should have done it 6 bastards ago.
I think Mr Ball had some erroneous ideas regarding the grace of God.
... by three different women. Maybe they did it for the welfare check.
Ball told Jackson to care for Ball's six young children, all under age 3 by three different women - and a seventh child on the way - when Ball was "gone."
Dying young was not a big leap for Ball, who described in a March jailhouse interview being entrenched in a gangster lifestyle that already had him tilting toward death.
In the interview for a story about life in gangs, Ball talked about having been shot at least once, of seeing a friend die. Of the 20 or so 3-6 M.O.B. gangsters, he estimated, "Three are dead and seven are in jail."
In the interview, he talked with detachment, as if he couldn't see the forest, but only the trees, couldn't fathom another way to live - or die.
"Last night my brother told me: 'Don't worry about me. Just pray for me and in the grace of God, we'll be talking about what they're putting me through and laughing,' " Jackson said.
Both Troy and Jacoby Jackson admitted affiliation with the 3-6 M.O.B., and said the acronym M.O.B. stood for "Money Over Bitches."
Really, when you get down to it, these clowns bear a striking resemblance to Al-Qeada.
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