Young man sentenced to 13 years for shooting up a Painter residence

By Linda Cicoira

     A young street gang member who, in retaliation for two murders, shot numerous times at a Painter area house in 2023, where five people, including three children, were terrorized as bullets struck and entered the dwelling, was sentenced in Accomack Circuit Court Thursday to 13 active years in prison for his crimes.

     Judge Lynwood Lewis said it was a “horrific set of circumstances,” with the defendant having “a clean prior record. I don’t know what happened to you … you jumped into it with both feet,” the judge added.

     Twenty-four-year-old Zyshon Riakeem Bell, also known as “Problem,” a member of the Makk Balla Family street gang, pleaded guilty last year to six violent crimes connected to the revenge drive-by shooting.

     Those charges included shooting at the house on A.S. West Road where Cheryl and Dale Smith lived and their grandchildren were visiting, shooting from a vehicle, two counts of using a firearm in a felony, and actively participating in a street gang.

     In an agreement with Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan, eight other charges were not prosecuted in exchange for Bell’s guilty pleas. The deal also called for Bell to be sentenced to between eight and 18 years in prison. He has already served two years in jail.

     No one was physically injured in the shooting.

     Bell grew up in the Greenbush and Temperanceville areas but was living with his mother in Princess Anne, Md., when the incidents occurred.

     Judge Lewis also ordered Bell to be on five years of supervised probation and 10 years of good behavior upon his release.

     The prosecutor said Bell’s car was identified going through the area, a weapon linked to the crime scene was seized from him, and that his phone showed that he was on a chat group with other gang members saying he was “leaving the streets stained with blood,” and that “his finger was the switch.”

      “He is involved with a very violent group of individuals,” Morgan continued. “He has proven himself to be a danger… The door has been open for him … He hasn’t taken advantage. He has been given multiple opportunities to talk about it.”

     Defense lawyer Kenneth Singleton and several members of his family painted a different picture of Bell.

     “He’s a hard worker; he graduated from high school, he holds down a job,” the lawyer said, adding that only a small percentage of his clients can say that. “He was working right before this at Walmart … He was going back and forth helping his mother and grandmother. That doesn’t make what happened ok.” Singleton said Bell “has the ability to show remorse … The best thing you can see is that he wants to do better and go on to be successful in life … We’ve heard from his family that they will support him, so when he gets out, he is not alone,” Singleton added.

     “I take full responsibility for my actions,” Bell told the judge. He wants to train to be an HVAC technician.

     The street gang was reportedly started in 2001 in New York by nearly 60 former members of the Brins gang, who were part of the early history of the Bloods.

     Morgan previously identified Cheryl Smith as the mother of Julian Travis Scarborough, who is serving more than 108 years in prison for the 2020 murder of 36-year-old Princeton Howard Bragg and 38-year-old Lolita Monique Boggs, also of the Painter area, concealing and defiling their bodies, and other felonies. The prosecutor said that was the motive for the drive-by at Smith’s house.

     Officers found 35 shell casings in the street in front of the home and bullet holes in the kitchen, refrigerator, two bedrooms, and a TV. Morgan said the shell casings came from six firearms believed to have been shot from two cars that were seen on a neighborhood surveillance video.