Eight Plead Not Guilty to Murder in N.Y. Subway

Eight young men said to belong to a gang whose members must commit a mugging to be admitted were arraigned Wednesday on murder charges in the slaying of a Utah tourist who was stabbed during a robbery in a subway station.

Each of the men pleaded not guilty and all were remanded to jail without bail by state Supreme Court Justice Judith Levitt. They were scheduled to appear in court Friday to hear the conclusions of a grand jury investigation.

The eight suspects, ages 17 to 20, were charged with murder, robbery and assault in the death of Brian Watkins, 22, a tennis buff from Provo, Utah.

Watkins, visiting New York with his family to attend the U.S. Open, was slain Sunday night while trying to defend his mother and father against a gang of muggers in the Manhattan subway station.

All eight suspects in the Watkins slaying were said to be part of the Queens-based FTS gang, a graffiti crew whose members are required to mug someone in order to join, according to a report in the New York Times.

Police said they were unaware of the FTS gang, even though the group’s name can be seen scrawled on the walls of subway stations and other buildings in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens.

“They have not come to the attention of the Police Department as a group that has committed an illegal act,” said John Galea, a retired sergeant and former head of a police gang intelligence unit.

Neighborhood residents and friends of the suspects told the newspaper that Yull Morales, 19, who police believe did the stabbing, was the founder of the FTS gang and the one who imposed the mugging initiation rule.

At its peak several years ago, FTS had a membership of about 250 youths who pursued dancing and spray-painting graffiti as hobbies, the Times reported.

Detectives have said they believe the suspects took $200 from Watkins’ father to pay for a party at Roseland, a popular dance hall near the subway stop.