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Death Of Hip-Hop Artist, Gang Member Still Mystery

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By LISA A. DAVIS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 8, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Photographs tell only part of his life story, a tale not even his parents can tell with certainty.

James Andre Paulin , a native of New York's Queens borough, graduated from a private high school in New York City, began studying business at an Atlanta college and then, much to his family's chagrin, dropped out to follow his dream of becoming a rap/hip-hop artist.

Along the way, while writing lyrics that spoke of gang bangers, he had three children, now ages 5, 12 and 13. Among the family photos is one of Paulin with his youngest, Cecelia, as an infant nestled on his shoulder.

About three years ago, he moved in search of a better life to New Port Richey, where a cousin lives. Early last year, his eldest child, son QuamellÖ , was about to join him when news reached New York that Paulin was dead.

On the cover of his memorial service program is a photo of Paulin wearing a blue cap and gown, and a stoic expression.

In a picture taken much later, printed on a flier offering a reward for information leading to his killer's arrest and conviction, his face looks similar but has more chin fuzz. In this snapshot he appears more casual, his hair tied in pigtails. As in the commencement portrait, his chocolate eyes stare straight ahead.

Both images show the son Paulin's parents knew.

After her only child died, Pat CabellÖ sat in the New Port Richey police station and looked through his dossier. Officers had kept tabs on him, she was told, because they suspected he was a gang member.

Cabell barely recognized her 30-year-old son in a photograph within the file. He was clothed in red, the color of the Bloods gang, from head to toe.

"I said, 'What the hell is all that red?'" she recalled this week via telephone from her job at a Social Security office in New York.

Police told her things she didn't know; things she couldn't believe. Today, a year after Paulin's death, she wonders where the truth lies. She wants to believe in the son she knew.

"If he was a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, then God bless him, he took it to the grave. He even had his mother fooled," Cabell said.

Paulin was known by family and friends by the initials "JAP" and later took the stage name "JAP Valentine." He chose that surname, his mother guessed, because his father was born on Feb. 14.

Allen Paulin, who remains tight with Cabell despite years of separation, said he never heard the "Valentine" until his son was killed.

"I was like, 'Who the hell is that?'" he recalled en route to his job driving a bus in Brooklyn. "… He could've been someone different down there."

Shots, Screams And A Life Lost

JAP Valentine is the name known to New Port Richey police who investigated a purported gang Ö set called the Valentine Bloods. Its exact origins are unknown. New York has a set (sort of like a chapter) of Valentine Bloods, originally a prison gang that later recruited from the streets. It's not clear whether Paulin was connected to that group or if he just used the same name.

Paulin was the local set's leader, according to New Port Richey police Detective Randy Murphy. That Ö Blood affiliation likely led to actual bloodshed. Paulin was shot Jan. 4, 2007, shortly before midnight outside a mobile home in Congress Park. He died early the next morning at Morton Plant North Bay Hospital.

Neighbors said they heard shots ring out — "pop, pop, pop" — at about 11:40 p.m. and then saw people in red clothes and bandannas running and screaming.

"You killed him! He's dead!" one person reportedly yelled.

Moments later, city police rolled up and nearly everyone was gone except for Paulin's limp body.

"It was chaos," Murphy recalled.

Through eyewitnesses, the detective has learned there was a gathering at the mobile home and, a couple of hours before the shooting, Paulin tried to break up an altercation between gang members.

"JAP intervened," Murphy said. "He stopped the fight reportedly. His death is in retaliation for interfering, for dissing another gang."

That gang, Murphy said, is the Latin Kings.

At the time, several members of both the Valentine Bloods and the Latin Kings lived in Congress Park; some still do. Instead of being rivals they were friends who hung out together, Murphy said. At least until the night Paulin was shot.

No one has been arrested for that crime.

"The problem with this whole case is that it's a gang-related type thing," Murphy said. "They're all tight-lipped."

Murphy has some theories but won't reveal them lest it compromise the investigation. He's aware that some people he's talked to know much more than they let on.

Fruquan Ö Williams, a Valentine Blood, according to Murphy, took on the leadership role after Paulin's death but wound up in jail shortly after. Most of the others in the set are behind bars, too, the detective added.

Williams denies being there the night of the shooting and told Murphy that he heard the assailants wore masks.

"He said, 'If I knew who it was, I'd take care of it myself,'" Murphy recalled Thursday.

Williams is serving a nearly five-year sentence in a minimum-security prison on drug charges.

A $5,000 Incentive

Meanwhile, Paulin's family has offered a $5,000 reward in hopes of finding his killer. A few tips have come in, Murphy said, but nothing he hadn't already found out. He still doesn't have enough evidence to make an arrest but is confident it will happen eventually.

"Money talks," he said, referring to the family's reward. "I believe one day someone will come forward."

He continues to monitor Paulin's MySpace pages for clues.

"It can be informative. It can be dead ends," Murphy said. "People like to write and talk."

Paulin's pages on the online social network are decorated with Bloods symbols, photos of piles of cash and expressions like "BLAAAT! BLAATT!" a call-to-arms expression for that gang. Samples of his music are posted there, too.

The narrative states he was a one-man band with influences from Run DMC, LL Cool J., Slick Rick and Mobb Ö Deep. He spent his time "doing different things to get money and to past [sic] time (stick-ups, drug pusher, beat u the [expletive] up artist) things of that nature," the site says. "He's Ö all ways stuck to his greatest love of all ... Music."

His parents want to believe JAP Valentine was simply the persona their son created in hopes of boosting his musical career.

"I guess he thought it would sell more records," his father said.

The younger Paulin never got a record deal. He sold CDs on his own and worked store-clerk jobs, his parents said.

Police suspect Paulin was dealing drugs but he has no record of such arrests. When he died, he was not under the influence of any drugs and toxicology tests found no traces in his system, Murphy said. Paulin was, however, extremely intoxicated from alcohol when he took his last breath.

Friends, many of whom are younger than 20 and appear to have gang ties, continue posting comments about missing him and "Blood love" on Paulin's MySpace pages. And There have been threats, too, against whoever killed him, said Murphy said.

The detective vows to continue investigating the case no matter how cold it gets.

"It won't be let go, not as long as I'm a police officer," he said. "…It doesn't matter what his past was or what he's done. His life was taken and it was a homicide, a murder. It was illegal.

"And I want to bring justice to him and his family."

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

HELP SOLVE THIS CRIME

Anyone with information about the fatal shooting of James Andre Paulin is asked to call Detective Randy Murphy at (727) 816-1130, Ext.131.Ö

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