Macon Mafia gang leader sentenced to 30 years on jail contraband, gang charges
A leader in Macon's Mafia street gang was sentenced to 30 years Tuesday -- 15 of them in prison -- after pleading guilty to having two cell phones and a metal shank while being held at the Bibb County jail.
During a hearing in Bibb Superior Court, Martin "Sawed Off" Kendall, 34, also pleaded guilty to violating the state's Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act.
Kendall had been held at the county jail since his arrest Aug. 1, 2011, in the fatal shooting of a man outside Wings Cafe on Bloomfield Drive a week before.
Although Kendall has not been indicted in the killing, he amassed a number of charges related to conduct inside the jail.
Other charges he's drawn there will be dismissed in exchange for his Tuesday guilty plea. The murder case is pending.
Prosecutor Neil Halvorson said deputies found a metal shank in Kendall's waistband during a June 30 "shakedown" at the jail. It was the third homemade knife seized from Kendall. Deputies also found a cellphone "on his person," Halvorson said.
Authorities obtained a warrant to search the phone and discovered a number of text messages, Facebook posts and videos recorded of Kendall while he was incarcerated. One of the videos showed Kendall holding a second phone.
Several of the videos were played in court Tuesday.
Kendall was shown on video wearing a white tank top and white shorts flexing his arm muscles, smoking and talking on the phone, and rolling tobacco or marijuana into cigarettes.
Halvorson said Kendall used the phones to make threats and to issue directions to other gang members.
Alan Wheeler, Kendall's lawyer, said his client has never denied his membership in the Mafia gang.
Of the text messages recovered, 75 percent or more were between Kendall and his family and other people not involved in a gang, he said.
Wheeler said Kendall has been in administrative segregation in the jail for the past 18 months because "the Mafia has a hit out on him."
The attorney added, "He has tried to separate himself from the Mafia."
He argued for a fair sentence.
Kendall asked the judge for mercy, saying he's learned from past prison stints what he has to do to survive.
He said his family can't afford to pay charges they would incur if he called them from jail.
With a 10-year-old son and another boy turning 10 Wednesday, he said. "I try to stay in their ears as much as possible."
"I don't want them to go through what I've had to."
After his release, Kendall said he wants to work with police to talk with Macon's youth about gangs and violence.
"I feel like I have a story to tell."
Speaking after the hearing, District Attorney David Cooke said, "Mobile phones are as deadly a weapon for criminal street gang activity as shanks and handguns."
He said any gang member who uses weapons in "our jails should expect to graduate to prison."
Anyone who smuggles weapons or cellphones into jail should "expect to join those gang members in prison," Cooke said.
Stacie Castleberry, a Macon paralegal, was arrested earlier this month on allegations that she smuggled a phone and other items into jail for Kendall.
To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398 or find her on Twitter@awomackmacon.
This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 3:05 PM with the headline "Macon Mafia gang leader sentenced to 30 years on jail contraband, gang charges ."