Bruce Duette, known as "Black Jack," admitted he planned a shooting assault on Crips gang members in July 2005.
TRENTON -- A Trenton man serving a 20-year prison term for conspiring to kill gangsters in 2005 will have his sentenced reduced 56 days, a state appeals panel decided Monday.
Bruce Duette pleaded guilty in March 2013 to the conspiracy charge and was sentenced to 20 years behind bars two months later while already in state prison for another crime - a 2005 gang slaying in Trenton.
Bruce Duette During the sentencing, prosecutors offered Duette a plea bargain that included 56 days of jail credits - for time he served from the plea date to sentencing.
The appeals court found the sentencing offer illegal, since he was already eligible for "gap-time" credit, and ordered Duette resentenced, minus the 56 days.
It was the only matter the court reversed in a wide-ranging combined decision involving two alleged gangsters, Duette and Leroy Tutt.
Duette and Tutt were members of the Gangster Killer Bloods in 2005 and charged in 2010 as part of Operation Capital City, a state-led investigation of gang crimes in the Trenton area that started in 2005 with a wiretap on gang leaders' phone conversations.
They each pleaded guilty in 2013 and were sentenced to prison.
They both argued in appeals that the trial court erred in denying their motions, based on insufficient evidence before the grand jury. And Duette argued his jail credits.
Other than Duette's sentence, the appeals court affirmed their convictions and sentences.
3 gang members sentenced for 2005 crimes
Tutt was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2013 for charges relating to two gang shootings in 2005.
He admitted to shooting at Paul "P-Funk" Jiles - a high ranking member of the Crips gang. The shot missed and struck female bystander, who survived a chest wound.
And Tutt admitted to firing a .30-30 rifle at the home of a member of the rival Nine Trey Gangsters. That gun jammed after one shot, he said in 2013.
At his sentencing, Tutt apologized for his actions and said he had quit the gang.
Now 29, he was released from state prison last month.
Duette, known as "Black Jack" in 2005, admitted he planned a shooting assault on a group of Crips gang members gathered on South Logan Avenue in July 2005.
Authorities have alleged Duette was trying to get a Thompson submachine gun so that he could "shoot as many Crips" as possible, but other gang members opened fire before he could get the "Tommy," as he called it.
When he was sentenced in 2013, Duette's 20-year prison term was added concurrently to a 15-year term he was serving for shooting Edwin "Dino" Adino at the corner of Walnut and Hampton avenues in Trenton, also in 2005.
Duette expressed regret for his crimes, saying in 2013 that it was "a bunch of nonsense that I was involved with."
Now 36, Duette's currently at a state prison in Newark and with a release date in 2030.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.