We recently had several gang shootings in our community involving two specific rival gangs shooting back and forth at each other in retaliation. Currently, several of our shooters are under indictment for Aggravated Assault. I am reindicting and adding the OCA language under 71.02 (a)(2) to enhance these cases to the 1st degree range. Has anyone prosecuted similar cases and what are the best ways to prove the criminal street gang enhancement element?

Thanks in advance.

I did three of these trials in the last few months. I had witnesses testify that they knew the defendant and that he was in a gang. I also had expert witnesses from TDCJ that gave an opinion based upon the defendant's tattoos. The nice thing about OCA gang cases is that you can have the trial court order the defendant to take off his shirt and display tattoos to the jury as your expert explains them. Finally, the same TDCJ experts testified that a couple of my defendants were "known" gang members through the TAGITT system. They can tell you what TAGITT is. Let me know if you need expert info. Hope your defendants have tattoos.