Jerry Lewis Bey: Racketeering Trial, Life Sentence, and Appeals

Jerry Lewis Bey is a former St. Louis religious leader who ran a violent heroin and cocaine trafficking enterprise out of a Moorish Science Temple for more than a decade, was convicted of federal racketeering in 1993, and is serving a life sentence. Born Jerry Lee Lewis, he held the title of Grand Sheik of Subordinate Temple No. 1 of the Moorish Science Temple of America in north St. Louis, which the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals later described as a “facade” for his criminal operation.¹

The Man and the Jerry Lewis Organization

Prosecutors and law enforcement called the group the Jerry Lewis Organization, or JLO. Membership in the JLO overlapped heavily with membership in the temple, and the two shared infrastructure.¹

Beginning as early as 1978, the JLO controlled a large share of the market for heroin, cocaine, and “T’s and Blues” (a heroin substitute) in north St. Louis. Members coordinated sales using pagers, pay phones, and two-way radios, and laundered proceeds through the Family Market and the Star and Crescent Market. Stash houses held firearms, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana.¹

The organization eventually absorbed a separate drug operation run by Noble Laverne Bennett. After Bennett’s independent enterprise collapsed, his crew became what prosecutors described as a “distribution arm” of the JLO. The two groups had shared a stash house as far back as 1981, and Bennett’s heroin supplier, Earl Parnell, had been providing weapons and narcotics to Lewis Bey and his associates for years before the formal merger.¹

The Violence That Held the Territory

The JLO kept its dominance through a sustained campaign of murder and intimidation aimed at rivals and anyone suspected of talking to police. The killings established at trial spanned years.

Deputy Sheriff Antar Tiari was murdered in 1985 while trying to evict Lewis Bey and the temple from their rented space. Evidence showed Lewis Bey, Gerald Douglas Hopkins, Earl Parnell, and Noble Bennett met at an auto shop to plan the killing. Lewis Bey referred to Hopkins as his “little hitman.”¹
Rival dealer Harold “Count” Johnson was killed in 1987 in an attack planned by Hopkins.
Ronald Anderson was murdered in 1988 after Carla Simone Seals delivered the weapon and Hopkins helped plan the attack.
Andrea Patton was left a quadriplegic in 1988 when JLO members riddled her car with bullets during a failed attempt to kill her uncle, rival dealer Billy Patton.
Billy Patton himself was murdered in 1989 by Raymond Amerson after surveillance by Hopkins, Amerson, and Lewis Bey.
Rochelle Bartlett was shot by Carlton Darden at Lewis Bey’s direction because she had accused Lewis Bey of being a police informant.
Bruce “Hat” Henry and Brian Hall were both killed by JLO members. After Hall’s murder, Lewis Bey, Amerson, and Seals held a review session to evaluate the procedures used.¹

Those post-killing meetings were a hallmark of the group. Members gathered after shootings to assess what had worked and refine techniques for later attacks. The organization also tampered with witnesses: after the initial indictment came down in January 1991, members threatened the family of a cooperating witness and arranged for a defense witness to commit perjury.¹

The 1993 Racketeering Trial and Life Sentence

A federal grand jury returned the initial indictment in January 1991, with a superseding indictment following in September 1992. Trial began on October 28, 1992, and lasted nearly nine months, making it one of the longest criminal proceedings in the history of the Eastern District of Missouri. Nine defendants went to trial; the jury acquitted two.¹

The remaining seven were all convicted on at least one count of conducting a criminal racketeering enterprise under 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), and six were also convicted of conspiring to conduct the enterprise. Lewis Bey was convicted on six additional counts of committing violent crimes in aid of racketeering, covering murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and attempted murder.² The jury specifically found that Lewis Bey conspired to murder or murdered Rochelle Bartlett, Lidell “Bud” Green, Deputy Sheriff Antar Tiari, Bruce “Hat” Henry, Count Johnson, and David “Kiki” Grady.

On September 24, 1993, U.S. District Judge George F. Gunn Jr. sentenced all seven defendants to life in prison.³

The Six Co-Defendants Sentenced With Him

Six associates received life sentences alongside Lewis Bey:

Carlton Darden, a leader in the T’s and Blues trade who also distributed cocaine from his job at the City of St. Louis Parking Meter Division. He stored $100,000 in drug cash for Lewis Bey and shot Rochelle Bartlett on his orders.¹
Gerald Douglas Hopkins, called Lewis Bey’s “little hitman,” who helped plan and carry out multiple killings and ran a convenience store used as a cocaine delivery point.
Raymond Amerson, convicted of murder and conspiracy connected to the killings of Billy Patton and Bruce “Hat” Henry.
Carla Simone Seals, Hopkins’s girlfriend, who distributed cocaine, traveled to Chicago to pick up drugs for Lewis Bey, delivered weapons for killings, and attended the post-murder review meetings.
Noble Laverne Bennett, who ran the predecessor operation and helped plan the Tiari murder. He was convicted on the racketeering enterprise count but acquitted on the conspiracy charge.¹
Michael Williams, convicted on the racketeering charges and sentenced to life.

Appeals and Decades of Failed Post-Conviction Motions

All seven defendants appealed. On November 22, 1995, the Eighth Circuit affirmed every conviction in United States v. Darden, 70 F.3d 1507, describing the JLO as “a long-term, violent drug-trafficking enterprise” and finding that the government had presented “overwhelming evidence” of guilt. The court rejected sufficiency-of-evidence claims and a statute-of-limitations argument raised by Darden.¹

Lewis Bey spent decades filing motions to overturn his conviction. None succeeded. Starting in 1997, he submitted repeated attempts to vacate his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and other procedural rules, and federal courts consistently treated them as unauthorized successive petitions filed without permission from the Eighth Circuit. His claims included prosecutorial misconduct, Brady violations, fraud on the court, and actual innocence. He pointed to information obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests suggesting that government informant witnesses had been involved in an uncharged murder, but courts found this did not support his claims, and Lewis Bey acknowledged the murder in question was not one for which he had been charged.⁴

In a July 15, 2016 order, U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry denied all of Lewis Bey’s pending motions, calling them “meritless” and reiterating that the trial evidence against him had been “overwhelming.” She found no basis for claims that the government had fabricated the case or withheld discovery.⁴

The Moorish Science Temple’s Position

The Moorish Science Temple of America is a religious organization founded in 1913 by Timothy Drew, known as Noble Drew Ali, and its mainstream leadership has repeatedly distanced itself from criminal activity carried out under its name. National spokesman Azeem Hopkins-Bey has described those who misuse the temple’s identity as “radical and subversive fringe groups” hijacking the faith for personal gain.⁵ Lewis Bey’s use of the temple as a cover for drug trafficking was an early and extreme example of a pattern the mainstream organization rejects.

1
Findlaw. United States v. Darden, 70 F.3d 1507
2
vLex. Lewis-Bey v. United States
3
Orlando Sentinel. Muslim Leader, 6 Others Get Life for Murder, Drugs
4
GovInfo. Lewis-Bey v. United States, Case No. 4:04 CV 1285 CDP
5
Syracuse.com. Bogus Court Filings Spotlight Moorish Science Temple