Queens, NY drug lord Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff was spared the death penalty yesterday for orchestrating the murder of two rivals in 2001.
Jurors in a federal court in Brooklyn deliberated for two and a half hours but were split on sentencing McGriff to death.
McGriff, who remained stone faced when sentenced, will be sent to a federal prison for life, without the possibility of parole.
On Feb. 1, the same jury found McGriff guilty of murder conspiracy and drug dealing charges, for paying $50,000 to gun down rivals Troy Singleton and aspiring rapper Eric “E Money Bags” Smith.
Officials also claimed McGriff secretly controlled Irv Gotti’s rap label Murder Inc.
Gotti and his brother Christopher Lorenzo were acquitted of laundering millions of dollars in drug proceeds for McGriff in Dec. 2005.
McGriff was the founder of The Supreme Team, a Queens, NY based drug dealing organization in the 1980’s.
