JACKSON SQ.—The reputed leader of the Academy Homes street gang was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Dec. 20 for cocaine distribution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts.
Owens Brown, 34, of Roxbury also armed and operated a gang of mostly young people that fueled violence in Jackson Square on the Jamaica Plain/Roxbury border, federal prosecutors said.
“Brown’s perceived [criminal] success gave him almost unbridled influence over younger gang members seeking his approval and sparked years of gun violence between rival gang members in the Roxbury and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods,” said a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release.
Street violence between rival gangs in Jackson Square’s Bromley-Heath and Academy Homes/New Academy Estates housing developments has continued off-and-on for decades. In 2007, a 13-year-old boy was killed by two Academy Homes gang members who mistook him for a Bromley-Heath gang member.
Brown pleaded guilty in July 2012 to charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and cocaine base in Boston neighborhoods from March 2007 through May 2011.