Suspect linked to Chester councilman’s killing pleads guilty to drug charge

One of the five alleged gang members charged in connection with the November shooting death of Chester City Councilman Odell Williams pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to an unrelated drug charge.

Quinton McClinton, 26, was sentenced to six month in prison by Judge Brian Gibbons after pleading guilty to possession of 8.85 grams of marijuana, stemming from a 2012 arrest. McClinton said nothing in court other than to admit he was carrying drugs in his grandmother’s home.

He was free on a $5,016 bond in that case – and out on bond on a three-year-old attempted murder charge, as well – when Williams was shot and killed. McClinton is charged with accessory to murder before the fact in the Williams killing and has been in jail without bond since his arrest.

McClinton is a “documented gang member,” prosecutor Karen Fryar said, and he was holding a small child when he ran away from police after being caught. Police had been investigating a robbery at a Chester barbershop at the time. McClinton has arrests dating back to age 13 in 2003, and Tuesday’s drug conviction is his fourth for marijuana and cocaine.

McClinton faced as much as a year in prison for the drugs, but his lawyer, Mike Duncan, said he should be “sentenced for what he did, not what he might have done at some other time” concerning the pending accessory to murder charge.

Williams, 69, a councilman since 1997 and a retired Chester police officer, was gunned down Nov. 4. Police and prosecutors say he was shot by one of five Roundtree Circle Gang members he was following as they were en route to rob a rival gang. The shooter is accused of laying in wait for Williams after getting out of the gang’s truck during the chase, then shooting Williams in the head with an assault rifle in a fusillade of 17 shots.

Investigators have said McClinton concocted the plot to rob the rival gang, helped arm fellow gang members, and was present when another gang member shot Williams. Under state law, anyone convicted of being an accessory before the fact of murder can be punished at the same level as whoever actually committed the murder – 30 years to life in prison.

The alleged shooter, Christopher Moore, 18, is charged with murder and weapons offenses. He remains jailed without bond.

A bond revocation hearing for DeAngelo Roseboro, 20, another alleged gang member charged with accessory after the murder, had been scheduled for Tuesday morning, but it was postponed.

Prosecutors have alleged that Roseboro violated the terms of his February release on $50,000 bond by being out after 7:30 p.m. earlier this month.

Two other alleged gang members charged in the Williams killing also are free on bond pending trial. Derrick Dixon, 18, is accused of helping Moore flee after Williams was shot. Terrance Buchanan, 25, who police say confessed to his role, is charged with accessory after the fact and failure to immediately tell police about the crime.

Chester sheriff’s deputies have said that gang members made death threats against investigators and their families during the investigation.

This story was originally published March 17, 2015 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Suspect linked to Chester councilman’s killing pleads guilty to drug charge."