gill-bros.jpg

Brothers Brian (Brawl) Gill, left, David (Plot) Gill, center, and Samuel (Waco) McIntosh, right, were convicted by a federal jury in the drug-related murder of Michael Dawson, 23, on June 22, 1994.

(Photo courtesy of U.S. Attorney's office)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - As hard as it was two decades ago to find out that his only brother, Michael, had been gunned down outside the Park Hill Apartments, Herman Dawson said he endured even harder task - telling his mother what had happened.

"I had to watch the light drain from my mother's soul, never to return. On at least two occasions I physically dragged my mother away from the place my brother was executed, as she bent down on her hands and knees with a bucket of soap and water to clean the blood off the pavement," Dawson said Wednesday at the federal sentencing for the three convicted drug-dealing brothers who committed the murder.

"The day of reckoning is today," he said.

In the end, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Carol Bagley Amon handed down a life sentence to Brian (Brawl) Gill, 46, though he couldn't have gotten any less by law, based on his record.

Gill's brother, David (Plot) Gill, 43 and half-brother, Samuel (Waco) McIntosh, 40, both received 40-year sentences.

"It was a shooting and murder that took place in broad daylight. Innocent people who were standing around could have been hurt," Judge Amon said. She added that though the crime happened in 1994, the defendants continued their lives of crime.

Nevertheless, she said, "As serious as the offenses are ... I don't believe that the absolute hopelessness of a life sentence without any hope of parole is mandated in this case."

Michael Dawson, 23, was shot to death on June 22, 1994, outside of 160 Park Hill Ave. in Clifton.

The murder took place on June 22, 1994, outside of 160 Park Hill Ave., at the height of the crack cocaine-fueled crime epidemic gripping the Clifton apartment complex.

The three brothers, who were in their 20s at the time, shot and killed Michael (Nims) Dawson, 23 -- allegedly after a day of escalating tensions that ended with McIntosh and Dawson competing for the same crack sale. McIntosh got the sale, and started shooting at Dawson, and his brothers joined in soon after.

They would not go to trial for the killing until last fall, after a number of federal drug prosecutions resulted in several of their former allies turning informant.

In November, a jury convicted them of murdering Dawson to further a drug conspiracy. The jurors also found Brian and David Gill guilty of distributing cocaine base between 2011 and 2013, though they acquitted McIntosh of that charge.

Herman Dawson -- a former deputy commissioner for the city's department of juvenile justice who has also served as a state administrative law judge - said the defendants destroyed "any opportunity (Michael) may have had to grow and change."

Their mother, Juanita Dawson, died before ever seeing the murder solved, he said.

"She never had the satisfaction of closure," he said.

Outside of court, Dawson said he felt the sentences appropriate, even though he had called for life behind bars for all three.

The defendants' brother, Corey Gill, criticized Wednesday's proceedings, including how the judge was still allowed to factor into sentencing the details of the charge McIntosh was acquitted on, based on the preponderance of evidence.

"The first thing that comes to my head is kangaroo courts are not exclusive to Third World countries," he said, adding that Michael Dawson was armed with a gun when he died.

"I think it's way too much time. The person that was killed was in possession of a firearm in broad daylight, out on bail for shooting somebody in the head on Christmas Day."

David Gill had contended in a letter last month that Michael Dawson had actually fired at the three brothers with a machine gun -- a claim that Judge Amon concluded wasn't supported by any evidence presented at trial.

Also, at one point in the hearing, McIntosh portrayed himself as a mentor to children in his community, and name-dropped Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore).

McIntosh was taking issue with prosecutors' characterization of a phone conversation with his brother, Brian Gill, about how he had advised his own son that drug dealing meant being ready to face off against rivals and potential jail time.

He described the conversation as a "scared straight" talk about his own life that he's given to several community children, and said,"This is why Councilwoman Debi Rose asks me if I could come speak to kids."

A spokesman for Ms. Rose said she couldn't recall ever interacting with McIntosh.