The Pager and the Rapper

A man is accused of founding a street gang that sold crack cocaine in a big city in the 1980s. After a spell in prison, prosecutors say, he built a bigger operation moving heroin and cocaine across three states. They say he hired gunmen who shot a young rapper eleven times in revenge for an associate's death, then paid for a second killing to head off retaliation, arranging both by two-way pager. The government sought the death penalty. He says the evidence does not prove he ordered the killings or ran the drug business.