Essex County Man Sentenced to 440 Months in Prison for His Role in Three Murders in Furtherance of Drug Trafficking Organization
NEWARK, N.J. – An Essex County man was sentenced to 440 months in prison for his role in three murders in furtherance of a large-scale narcotics enterprise, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today.
Leevander Wade, 44, of East Orange, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz on Feb. 22, 2024, to racketeering conspiracy. Judge Farbiarz imposed the sentence on Aug. 1, 2024, in Newark federal court.
According to court documents and evidence presented in court:
In February 2018, the drug enterprise’s leader, Michael Healy, found out that one of his conspirators in the drug trafficking enterprise was providing information about the DTE to law enforcement. Healy ordered members of the Bloods in East Orange to kill the informant, referenced in the indictment as “A.S.” At the time, Wade was a manager in the enterprise and ran a series of “stash” houses in Essex County used to package heroin and fentanyl for street-level distribution.
Wade – who shared a close relationship with one of the leaders of the East Orange Bloods – assisted Healy in contracting the East Orange Bloods to carry out the murder of the informant. On Feb. 3, 2018, members of the East Orange Bloods, acting on Healy and Wade’s behalf, shot and killed a bystander, believing the bystander was the informant. At the time of his death, the bystander was parked outside of the informant’s residence in Bloomfield, New Jersey, in a vehicle that appeared similar to the one that the informant drove. Realizing they killed the wrong person, Healy ordered the Bloods to finish the job. On March 12, 2018, in Bloomfield, the conspirators killed the informant while he was walking his dog in the area of his residence. On April 6, 2018, believing that another member of the enterprise – identified in the indictment as “J.C.” – might also pose a risk to the enterprise, Healy shot and killed “J.C.” in Newark. Wade drove Healy to and from the murder scene, and then helped to destroy evidence by hiring someone to burn the vehicle.
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