OMB Bloodbath convicted at trial over a 2017 killing in Houston

A federal jury has found hip-hop artist OMB Bloodbath, born Alexandra Nicks, guilty at retrial over her role in a 2017 gang-related killing in Houston's Third Ward. On Monday, August 3, jurors convicted Nicks and codefendant Shaquille Richards of murder in aid of racketeering and using a firearm during a racketeering murder, after a two-week trial that followed a first trial that ended in a mistrial in January.

Prosecutors said Nicks and Richards led Houston's 100% Third Ward gang and organized a retaliatory drive-by shooting against rival gang Young Scott Block in October 2017. The intended target survived, but bystander Samuel Johnson, in his early fifties, was killed in the crossfire. "This case is not about shooters," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Zenon-Matos told jurors. "This case is about power." The retrial included new evidence pulled from Nicks' own cellphone, cracked after a four-year effort, that had not been available at the first trial.

Four other gunmen tied to the shooting have already pleaded guilty and face sentencing September 2. Nicks' attorney, Judith Shields, said the defense would pursue post-trial motions and an appeal, arguing that "in nearly nine years of messages, calls, and videos collected by the government, there is no order, no payment, and no plan" connecting Nicks to Johnson's death.

Nicks and Richards are scheduled to be sentenced November 4, and each faces the possibility of life in prison.

Prosecutors said several 103 gang members drove into rival territory armed with multiple firearms, some fitted with high-capacity drum magazines, before opening fire on a man they believed was tied to Young Scott Block. In the chaos that followed, prosecutors said some of those involved crashed their vehicle while fleeing and carjacked a woman with her infant still inside, while another suspect ran on foot and was later arrested after ditching a gun and other items. At trial, prosecutors also played one of Nicks' own music videos, arguing it tied her directly to gang activity.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said the case reflected years of harm to the community: "The gang war that these defendants engaged in plagued Houston's Third Ward community for years." U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz said the convictions showed authorities would keep pursuing people who use violence to intimidate their neighborhoods. The verdict came the same week a Houston judge kept fellow rapper Cartel Bo in custody on a separate felony kidnapping charge, another Houston hip-hop case moving through the courts.