Leader of Queens Wood City Gang Sentenced to Life for Murdering Rapper Shawny Binladen Over Stolen Gold Chain

Queens gang leader who killed a rival over the theft of popular drill rapper Shawny Binladen’s gold chain learned the steep price of revenge: two life sentences for the 2019 murder.

Christopher Acevedo, 28, founder and leader of the Wood City gang in Queens, was given mandatory life in prison after a jury convicted him of racketeering murder of David Hutchinson in May. On Wednesday, Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Diane Gujarati handed down the sentences, to run concurrently.

The gold chain was robbed from Shawny Binladen a rising hip-hop star, the chain not just a piece of chunky bling with the letters YTB in flashy gold and jewels — it was a symbol of Wood Gang’s power and influence, hanging from the neck of Wood City’s number two man, prosecutors said. Acevedo was hoping to steal back the reputation his gang lost when a member of the rival SNOW gang, Dontaye Goines, chased Shawny out of a Queens studio and robbed him of his chain.

Goines then took to Facebook Live to brag about it, prosecutors said. YTB stands for the “Yellow Tape Boyz,” another name for the gang. The Yellow Tape Boyz is also the name of Shawny Binladen’s rap collective. Acevedo acted quickly, rallying his gang members to kill Goines. Goines ran off and another SNOW Gang member Hutchinson was hit several times.

Prosecutors contended that Acevedo, who goes by the nickname “Essay,” needed to pull the trigger himself to keep his status as Wood City’s leader intact after he was locked up from 2013 to 2018 on a grand larceny conviction. Acevedo showed his indifference for human life when he murdered David Hutchinson in broad daylight over a petty gang dispute, in order to maintain and burnish his status as the leader of a violent street gang whose members felt insulted by the taking of a piece of jewelry, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said.