INDIANAPOLIS -- Nearly two years after police announced a sweeping case against 11 alleged members of the “Grundy Crew,” the man they painted as the ringleader – Richard Grundy III – pleaded guilty to one count of dealing marijuana.
Grundy, who was alleged to have ordered at least seven murders and overseen a drug-trafficking ring that moved thousands of pounds of marijuana from Arizona to Indiana, agreed to plead to the lowest charge against him in exchange for a sentence of time served plus two years of non-reporting probation.
The deal is an understated ending for a case that has held Indianapolis’ attention since the October 2015 press conference where police, prosecutors and federal authorities announced they had dismantled a “dangerous gang” called the Grundy Crew. In all, the 11 people charged faced more than 110 charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, gang activity, drug dealing and corrupt business influence.
As of Tuesday morning, almost all of those charges have since been dismissed.
Grundy, still wearing bandages and an arm brace from wounds he sustained in an ambush at his cousin’s funeral procession last month, said because of all the attention the case has received, he never would have received a fair trial in Marion County.
RTV6 took an in-depth look at all the challenges in the 'Grundy Crew' case. Read that here.
“I took this plea not about guilt or innocence, it was based on whether I would get a fair trial or not,” Grundy said. “I was in a situation where I was facing potentially 400 years if convicted. For somebody to dangle in your hand that you get a time-served plea, you know, I’ve already got a felony so it ain’t like I’m protecting nothing. So I pled guilty based on that. It was too hard to resist with me being on the news every week for more than two years, you know. A jury would likely think that I’m a gang member and convict me. But you see today that I wasn’t convicted of no gang charges, I wasn’t convicted of no murders. Nobody who’s been with me has been convicted of gang charges or murders. We’re a family, you know.”
Grundy said he didn’t believe he was the target of the shooting at his cousin Jasmine Moore’s funeral, saying it was “just a drive by shooting … probably some kids or something.”
But, he said, there are people who are still looking to do him and his family harm – thanks to the “accusations” against him, which he described as untrue.
FULL STORY | Source: Richard Grundy III had a $50K bounty on his head, may have been target in funeral ambush | Ten Point pleads for cool heads amid fears of retaliation over funeral ambush | Three shot during funeral procession for murder victim on Indianapolis’ north side
Grundy said he’s decided it’s in his and his family’s best interests for him to leave town.
“Recently two of my sisters got fired from their jobs just for being a Grundy, so I can’t get no job,” he said. “There’s nothing positive that’s going to come here. So I figure, why should I be here? I’m not running out of fear or nothing, I’m running out of … you know what I’m saying? I’ve got to deal with the police and people. I’ve got every person with a badge wanting to put me in jail, and then, you know, I generated enemies just based on these accusations that aren’t even true. I want to start fresh where I can just live a normal life. There’s nothing here for me. There’s nothing here.”
With Grundy himself now reaching a plea deal with prosecutors, only two alleged members of the Grundy Crew still have pending charges in the October 2015 case against them: David Carroll and Victor Tinnin-Wells. Both men have a hearing scheduled Wednesday to discuss the case. Wells is also facing separate drug-dealing and weapons charges in an unrelated case from July.
MORE | Prosecutors drop remaining two murder charges against alleged ‘Grundy Crew’ hitman | Alleged 'Grundy Crew' hitman found not guilty in double murder | Prison inmate charged in 2 Indy double homicides | Prosecutor: Killings were murder-for-hire plot
