SAN ANTONIO – Nearly four months after a woman lost her 4-year-old son in an alleged gang-related drive-by shooting, her husband was arrested on federal drug-trafficking charges that tie him to another gang.
Cyntwanisha Whitley’s husband’s alleged gang is responsible for a shooting on July 19 that was answered with gunfire at the Whitleys' home and took the life of 4-year-old De-earlvion Whitley.
“I can't say that he's not affiliated with a gang, because he was,” Cyntwanisha Whitley said. “That's not the man he is now.”
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Whitley’s husband was one of nine men arrested Friday by FBI agents and was charged with conspiracy to distribute more than 28 grams of crack cocaine.
“If it's there and it's their proof that they have, then I'm fine with that,” she said. “Do what you gotta do. I'm not going to stop you from charging my son's father with his case.”
While Whitley doesn’t shy away from her husband’s past, she said he wasn’t involved in a feud between his group and another that ended in the pair of shootings July 19.
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“When all of these issues were going on between these two groups, he was one of the ones that was constantly (saying), 'Y'all just leave it alone. Let it go. Y'all sell over here. Let 'em sell over there. Let it go,'” Whitley said.
Ten days after the shooting, Charles Lee Bethany, 36, was arrested on similar drug-trafficking charges after a raid at a home in the 600 block of J Street. Surveillance video from the home showed several men returning to the home with a rifle and pistol just minutes after the fatal shooting of De-earlvion in the 200 block of Hub Street.
Neither Bethany nor other associates arrested have been charged with the child’s murder.
“I'm not going to accuse someone of something they didn't do until I have the proof,” Whitley said. “Then I'll be the one to say the bastard got what he deserved. The coward got what he deserved.”
De-earlvion’s murder case remains an open investigation.