🦍 The Gutter Report: Behind the Name: The Story of Staten Island’s Gangster Adam
Adam Kamagate’s street reputation, longstanding Harbor conflict, and the criminal cases that led to a reported 17-to-22-year prison sentence
🦍 Adam Kamagate, known locally as “GA” or “Gangster Adam,” is the subject of this examination of his Staten Island reputation and criminal cases.
🏙️ The Name Behind the Reputation
Staten Island, New York — On Staten Island, Adam Kamagate is known locally as “GA”—short for “Gangster Adam.”
In the street history I’ve covered, GA is a well-known figure associated with the Apes whose reputation includes longstanding conflicts involving people from New Brighton and Mariners Harbor. Accounts of him enforcing gang discipline form another part of that reputation.
To understand the tensions surrounding his name, the story reaches back to the shooting that killed Justin Stokes.
🔎 The Justin Stokes Shooting and the Harbor Conflict
🕊️ Justin Stokes, 19, was killed in a May 5, 2012 shooting in Mariners Harbor that also wounded three others.
According to DNAinfo’s contemporary reporting, police publicly identified Kamagate, then 25, as a suspect they were seeking in connection with the shooting. The report identified Kyle Charles as another suspect who had already been arraigned on murder, attempted murder and weapons charges.
The sources reviewed for this report do not establish the eventual disposition of Kamagate’s involvement in that investigation. His identification as a suspect does not establish that he was convicted of Stokes’s killing.
In my account of the local history, the Stokes shooting became a defining source of GA’s long-running conflict with people in Mariners Harbor. That connection provides context for the neighborhood tensions and later confrontations surrounding his name.
👊🏾 The Scooty Incident
One confrontation I have previously discussed involves Darren “Scooty” Lloyd.
As I have described it, GA chased Lloyd through Mariners Harbor and beat him as part of removing him from the gang—what people in that environment refer to as being “faded.”
During LFTG Radio’s March 2025 interview with Thomas “Tom” Cintron, I referenced that alleged removal, stating that “GA faded him.” The recording documents my earlier public account; it does not independently establish the circumstances of the confrontation.
The incident, as I previously described it on LFTG Radio, illustrates the authority GA was reputed to exercise within his gang circle.
🧸 The Death of Sakani Kamagate
In February 2023, Kamagate’s 16-month-old son, Sakani, died after suffering a fatal drug overdose while in his father’s care.
Staten Island Advance reporting preserved on NYC’s website states that the medical examiner determined Sakani died from acute intoxication involving fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl and cocaine. His death was ruled a homicide.
Kamagate was subsequently arrested and arraigned on charges including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and drug possession.
While he was being held on Rikers Island in connection with that prosecution, investigators uncovered a separate alleged drug-smuggling operation.
📄 The Courthouse Paperwork Scheme
On February 22, 2024, Richmond County District Attorney Michael McMahon announced an indictment against Kamagate and Curtis Braswell involving court documents infused with fentanyl, cocaine and PCP.
The district attorney’s announcement alleged that the paperwork was being transferred inside Staten Island Supreme Court with the intention of bringing the drugs into Rikers Island.
Investigators intercepted documents in September 2023 after learning of the alleged scheme through Kamagate’s recorded jail calls. The investigation identified at least two earlier alleged transfer attempts that summer.
Authorities described the prosecution as a first-of-its-kind case.
☎️ The Fight Over His Recorded Calls
Kamagate challenged prosecutors’ use of certain Rikers phone calls.
In a June 2, 2025 court decision, Richmond County Supreme Court Justice Mario F. Mattei denied his motion to exclude them. The judge required prosecutors to establish the relevance and admissibility of each call they sought to introduce.
The published decision addresses whether the recordings could be used as evidence. It does not reproduce the conversations or disclose what Kamagate said in individual calls.
⚖️ The Sentence and Appeal
NYC’s Department of Correction reported in its July 2025 newsletter that Kamagate received a combined prison sentence of 17 to 22 years in connection with the manslaughter and drug cases.
The department’s summary contains a discrepancy in its description of the manslaughter degree and sentence. The precise conviction breakdown therefore requires confirmation against the sentencing record.
A March 6, 2026 appellate order confirms that Kamagate appealed a July 23, 2025 judgment entered upon a guilty plea under indictment 70459/2023. The order assigned appellate counsel through the Legal Aid Society.
That order concerns representation and the processing of his appeal. It does not overturn his conviction or decide the merits of his challenge.
🎙️ The Gutter Perspective
GA’s story extends across years of Staten Island street conflicts and criminal proceedings.
The Justin Stokes shooting investigation remains central to that history, both as a documented police investigation and, in the accounts I have discussed, a defining point in his conflict with Mariners Harbor. The Scooty incident adds another dimension to his reputation for exercising authority within his gang circle.
The more recent cases carry consequences beyond street standing. A young child died, a separate drug-smuggling prosecution followed, and Kamagate received a lengthy prison sentence that he has taken steps to appeal.
Sakani was 16 months old. His life and death deserve a central place in any examination of the man known as “Gangster Adam.”
Not for clicks — for clarity.
— Elliott Carterr, LFTG Radio
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