‘Cowardly’ leader of Brooklyn’s Ninedee Gang gets life for killing of woman who beat him up

A federal judge blasted a gang leader as a “coward” and sentenced him to life for ordering the death of a former federal witness because she humiliated him and beat him up in a fight over Fourth of July fireworks.

Maliek Miller’s fate was sealed before he was led into Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday, since he was staring down a mandatory term of life for the murder-in-aid-of-racketeering of Shatavia Walls on July 7, 2020. A jury found him guilty of her killing and other gang-related federal offenses in June 2024.

Miller, 33, was the leader of the Ninedee Gang, which operates out of the Pink Houses in East New York, and Walls took the stand in a 2019 federal court trial after she was shot by a member of the Loopy Gang, which is linked to the Ninedees.

“She was also targeted because of the bruised ego of cowards,” Brooklyn Federal Court Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall boomed Wednesday. “By men who got bested, not once, not twice by a woman, and could not let it go!”

Miller didn’t pull the trigger himself, but he recruited the younger members of his gang to hunt down Walls after finding out she was trying to make peace following their fight.

“Things have changed since I grew up, but that was baffling to me,” the judge said. “Everything about this case, every action, was so cowardly.”

Walls — who never saw herself as a snitch, but rather as a shooting victim who stood up for herself — got into a fight with Miller and his cousin over fireworks in the housing complex on July 4, 2020. She got the better of both and beat them up, and Miller fired a shot in the air before leaving.

Miller couldn’t handle losing to a woman, though, and plotted revenge, prosecutors said at his trial. Miller and his gang started plotting their vengeance against Walls, and when he heard she was looking to make peace, to “dead the beef,” he told his crew, “F— her. She’s a rat,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Dean recounted.

On July 7, 2020, Ninedee members Quintin Green and Joe Santana, who were 19 and 16 at the time, spotted Walls, chased her down a path in the housing development and repeatedly shot her. She died 10 days later, and the gang celebrated with champagne, prosecutors said.

Green and Santana, who both pleaded guilty, got 35 and 22 years in prison, respectively.

Miller’s lawyers wanted the judge to make a statement at sentencing that Miller was getting life only because the law required it, not because it was the judge’s choice.

Hall wouldn’t have it, though, and gave him concurrent life sentences in two of the charges where life wasn’t mandatory.

Miller, dressed in a bright yellow jail jumpsuit, swiveled his chair, rolled his eyes, tilted his head and looked up at the ceiling during the proceeding. Twice, he pulled out a comb and started grooming his beard. After he did it the second time, U.S. marshals took the comb away from him.

When asked if he wanted to make a statement, Miller only said that he maintained his innocence, adding, “I hope to appeal the verdict and the sentence.”

The judge blasted him at his sentencing, telling him, “In what you said to me, you have no room, no room for any, any responsibility.”

“The gun, the weed, the meetings…. Something. You could take responsibility for something!” she excoriated him.

After handing down sentence, Hall said she hopes Miller finds some purpose in his life behind bars, that he’s able to find some way to contribute to society, or help those younger than him.

“Mr. Miller, I do wish you well,” she told him. “I hope you listen to what I said. Don’t make this meaningless.”