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Evidence from surveillance collected against a man described by authorities as a hit man for the 5400 Boys gang will be allowed to be introduced at his trial on gun and drug charges.

Defense attorneys for 36-year-old Marvin Payne sought to suppress documents detailing multiple days of surveillance on him and his associates carried out by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office in May 2021.

But Judge Louise Hines ruled last week that prosecutors will be able to use the evidence in court.

In addition to physical and digital surveillance, the evidence includes descriptions of jail phone calls involving Payne and information from multiple confidential informants on his alleged heroin-dealing operation.

Payne and three co-defendants face numerous gun and drug charges.

He is charged with a count each of possession of a machine gun, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession with intent to distribute heroin and possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

In March, Payne was the focus of a subpoena against the City of Baton Rouge, seeking information about a 2022 gun-safety event involving him and bankrolled by the city-parish government. 

Payne, known in police records as "Madd Marvin," was awaiting trial on a murder charge at the time. The charge was later dropped.

'Extremely influential and powerful'

The newly entered evidence demonstrates what day-to-day operations look like for an outfit like the 5400 Boys, which operates out of Zion City, District Attorney Hillar Moore said.

"For this particular area of town, they're extremely influential and powerful," Moore said. "I think a lot of that is because of their age. This particular section, compared to all the others that we see that are, you know, younger."

He added that, because of being older on the whole, members of 5400 Boys are more involved in organized drug dealing than just retaliatory acts of violence, which is how younger gangs tend to break the law.

Besides documenting the location of residences where drugs were allegedly being kept, and tracking Payne while he allegedly made deliveries, the most revealing parts of the allowed evidence were conversations from confidential sources detailing a feud between the 5400 Boys and another gang, the Banks Town Mafia.

According to police documents, an informant referred to only as "source of information 2" detailed how the gang feud had led to multiple shootings and homicides, with Payne being identified as the "hit man" for the 5400 Boys.

One of Payne's co-defendants, Clyde Jones, also known as the "King of Zion City," was identified by the informant as the person "bank rolling" the feud by paying for hits on individuals from the Banks area.

The informant describes Payne as Jones' "right-hand man."

Payne's attorneys filed motions to suppress this evidence in 2024, on the grounds that search warrants were approved based on unreliable information from anonymous confidential informants.

Attorneys also argued that the search warrant the sheriff's office was granted was a "knock" warrant, but that deputies failed to knock or make their presence known before entering the residence.

On May 18, Hines denied these motions to suppress.

Daily drug sales

In April 2021, a different confidential source notified investigators with the sheriff's office that Jones was conducting a large-scale heroin-dealing operation in Baton Rouge.

With that tip, detectives began an investigation in the first week of May 2021 into a host of addresses where 5400 Boys members were believed to have conducted drug sales, including a residence on Stearns Street and three residences on Paige Street.

Drug sales involving both Jones and Payne were attested to at these addresses by either confidential informants or through previous arrests, according to court records.

"Agents have conducted countless hours of recorded digital, electronic and physical surveillance of Jones and his associates at the aforementioned locations on a day-to-day basis. These locations have been deemed as primary distribution points," a sheriff's office request for a search warrant reads.

Between May 4 and May 18, detectives surveilled these addresses, routinely seeing multiple associates of Jones and Payne bringing coolers and duffel bags in and out of the residences. Detectives believe regular deliveries of narcotics were being made to these addresses.

On May 12, an informant told detectives that Jones had visited with the informant and was seen with an AR-15 on his lap and a briefcase in his vehicle's truck where the informant saw kilogram amounts of heroin.

On May 13, multiple associates of Payne's (some of whom were identified as known convicted felons) arrived at the residence on Stearns Street, armed.

Later, detectives saw multiple men leaving the Stearns Street residence with semiautomatic handguns and rifles. Payne is identified, carrying a AK-47-style rifle. The men then arrive together at one of the Paige Street addresses.

At the same time, Baton Rouge Police received a call regarding a shooting on the nearby 5000 block of Peerless Street.

Less than 10 minutes after the men arrived, detectives saw them running out of one of the Paige Street residences.

On May 17, on a recorded jail phone call, Jones discussed with an inmate about how he limits the number of associates in an effort to avoid the risk of informants.

Throughout this surveillance, detectives witnessed Jones driving a vehicle that would visit the above addresses as well as a Baker residence on Alba Drive. With the surveillance evidence detectives successfully requested a search warrant for the Alba Drive residence, where they believe Jones was staying.

When the residence was searched, detectives found heroin, cocaine and other drugs, as well as guns and cash.