Inmate’s plot to kill rival left his 28-year-old girlfriend dead instead, feds say
In prison, an inmate with a contraband cell phone devised a plan to have a man, who he had been arguing with on social media, shot to death outside of a New York City nightclub, according to federal prosecutors.
Dajahn McBean was in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, waiting to be sentenced in connection with ordering a previous gang-related shooting in January 2017. McBean had the man lured to a nightclub in Queens, where gunmen opened fire on his car the day after Christmas, on Dec. 26, prosecutors said.
The gunmen, acting on McBean’s orders, repeatedly shot the man, who survived the attack while in his car with his girlfriend, 28-year-old Clarisa Burgos, according to prosecutors.
Burgos, an “innocent bystander,” was killed instead of her boyfriend after she was hit by gunfire, prosecutors said.
McBean’s deadly plot involved the help of co-conspirators, including Karl Smith and Chelsey Harris, who prosecutors said helped him lure the man to the Queens nightclub, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
An unsealed superseding indictment charges McBean, 29, of Queens, Smith, 26, also of Queens, and Harris, 23, of the Bronx, with a murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in personal injury and death, stalking resulting in life threatening bodily injury and death and a conspiracy to destroy records, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in an Oct. 17 news release.
Information regarding McBean’s legal representation wasn’t immediately available. Harris’ defense attorney, Stacey Richman, declined McClatchy News’ request for comment Oct. 18, and Smith’s defense attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“As alleged, Dajahn McBean and his co-conspirators planned and carried out an elaborate plot to murder another individual by causing others to shoot at the target several times in New York City,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
The shooting that killed Burgos was the second shooting that targeted her boyfriend, according to prosecutors.
Two days before, on Christmas Eve, gunmen shot at her boyfriend’s car outside of a different Queens nightclub as part of McBean’s plan, according to prosecutors. After the attack, the man was unscathed from bullets that hit his car, prosecutors said.
McBean and his co-conspirators had also lured the man to this nightclub, before they lured him to the second nightclub, according to prosecutors, who said McBean used his contraband phone to communicate with Smith and Harris.
“McBean paid Smith and Harris through intermediaries for their roles in this conspiracy,” prosecutors said.
After Burgos was killed, Harris encouraged McBean and Smith to delete messages the group had exchanged to try to get rid of potentially incriminating evidence, according to the indictment.
McBean also tried to destroy his cell phone while in prison, the indictment says.
The U.S. Secret Service’s New York field office, the New York City Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations helped investigate McBean, Smith and Harris, prosecutors said.
This story was originally published October 18, 2024 at 10:27 AM with the headline "Inmate’s plot to kill rival left his 28-year-old girlfriend dead instead, feds say."
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