SACRAMENTO — In a crippling blow to one of California’s oldest and most notorious prison gangs, federal prosecutors have indicted 25 alleged Aryan Brotherhood members and associates on racketeering charges, according to court records unsealed Thursday.
The lead defendant is Richmond resident Ronald Dean Yandell, 56, a reputed Aryan Brotherhood leader who — like several of his co-defendants — is already serving a life sentence in state prison. Yandell was convicted of murder and manslaughter related to a 2001 double homicide in El Sobrante.
The other defendants include Danniel Troxell, 66; William “Billy” Sylvester, 51; Travis Burhop, 46; Brant Daniel, 44; Donald Mazza, 48; Pat Brady, 48; Jason Corbett, 47; Matthew Hall, Samuel Keeton, Michael Torres, 55; Jeanna Quesenberry, Kevin MacNamara, Kristen Demar, Justin Petty and Kathleen Nolan.
Troxell and Yandell are reputed to be part of a three-man commission that runs the gang in California. They, along with Sylvester, Burhop, Torres, and Corbett, are all serving life sentences for murder, authorities said.
Prosecutors say the federal death penalty has not been taken off the table in the case. If authorities pursue the death penalty against any of the defendants, it would require approval by the U.S. Department of Justice and kick off a lengthy legal process.
All but two of the defendants are in custody, authorities said. One is believed to be outside of the United States but Scott told reporters Thursday to “rest assured we are hot on his trail.”
The indictments, acquired by the office of Eastern California District U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott, targeted reputed high-ranking members of the Aryan Brotherhood. The whites-only gang, also known as “The AB” or “The Brand,” is believed to be linked to hundreds of murders inside and outside of prison during its more than 55 years in existence.
The crimes spread as far as Missouri and South Dakota, and include allegations of nefarious plots all over California. The 143-page indictment describes drug trafficking, murders, attempted hits and home invasions.
According to authorities, Aryan Brotherhood members plotted nine murders around the state prison system, and carried out five of the hits at correctional facilities throughout the state. One of the homicide victims was a Black Guerrilla Family gang member. The four others are other Aryan Brotherhood members, or associates who fell out of favor with the gang.
“The AB has hard and fast rules, which it expects its members to follow,” Scott said at a press conference Thursday.
The indictment says AB leaders ordered the killing of Black Guerrilla Family member Hugo Pinel at Folsom State Prison in August 2015, a hit carried out by unnamed AB associates. It also says the gang was behind the murder of 53-year-old Douglas Maynard, stabbed to death in High Desert State Prison on Oct. 15, 2016, allegedly by AB associate Bobby Stockton. Two weeks later, Daniel murdered Salinas Valley State Prison inmate Zachary Scott at the AB’s direction, authorities allege.
The most recent killing listed in the indictment is the July 2018 fatal stabbing of Donald Pequeen at High Desert State prison, which the indictment alleges were committed by Corbett and Brady. Authorities say all the homicides were done to further the gang’s interests, and that the killers intended on boosting their status in the gang.
The indictments came from a wiretap investigation targeting some of the defendants. Authorities also gathered evidence from jailhouse kites — illicit notes — written by Yandell and seized by officials with the California Department of Corrections.
Scott said the investigation started with a conversation between a methamphetamine dealer and a Vallejo officer at an undisclosed date, which led police to discovering Yandell had a cellphone smuggled to his prison cell. Rather than confiscating it, police wiretapped the phone, and recorded evidence of him discussing gang business during the summer of 2016, authorities said.
“It formed the cornerstone of this case,” Scott said.
According to the indictment, the investigation started with a Drug Enforcement Administration probe into the Family Affiliated Irish Mafia gang, also known as FAIM, which originated in Rodeo and spread across Contra Costa and Solano counties. It is estimated to have around 100 members and deep ties to the Aryan Brotherhood.
Quesenberry, described in court records as the only female FAIM member, was Yandell’s point person for heroin trafficking, authorities said. She also has been indicted in a separate case accusing her and three other women of methamphetamine and heroin trafficking.
Through the wiretap operation, authorities were able to prevent four murders from taking place and move the intended targets to safe locations, Scott said.
One of the defendants, MacNamara, is a licensed attorney who allegedly used attorney-client privilege to sneak a cellphone to Sylvester. Authorities anticipated what was happening and bugged the room where the cellphone transfer took place, Scott said.
The charging records also describe an alleged plot to smuggle cellphones and drugs, such as heroin, into California prisons, and attempts by Aryan Brotherhood leaders to link up with drug suppliers in the Mexican Mafia.
In the early 2010s, Yandell was a leader in a statewide prison hunger strike — and the plaintiff in federal lawsuits — aimed at combating California’s policy of keeping some prisoners in solitary confinement indefinitely. Another lawsuit, filed by another high-ranking AB member named Todd Ashker, succeeded in getting the state to ease its restrictions on when inmates can be placed into a segregated housing unit, also referred to as SHU.
After the state loosened its rules on solitary confinement, Yandell was transferred from Pelican Bay State prison to Sacramento State Prison, commonly known as “New Folsom,” where he shared a cell with Sylvester. In the indictment, prosecutors describe the hunger strike as a prison gang-powered sham, noting that its participants would sneak meals when they could.
The Aryan Brotherhood was formed in the California prison system in the 1960s. Its symbol is the shamrock, though its members are also known to display swastika tattoos and other Nazi symbols. It is known for having a longtime alliance with the Mexican Mafia, and unlike many white supremacist groups, has allowed people with mixed ethnicity to join.
Authorities say the gang has a “blood in, blood out” motto; prospective members are required to commit violence in order to join, and the only way out is to die.
The charges were filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, a 1970 federal law designed to curb large-scale organized crime rings such as the Italian Mafia. The law allows for sprawling indictments that hold members of a criminal organization responsible for acts committed by their cohorts.
In the early 2000s, the Aryan Brotherhood was targeted in what was the biggest RICO case in U.S. history at the time. It targeted the gang’s leaders, Tyler Bingham, and the late Barry Mills, along with dozens of top members, linking the gang to more than a dozen murders and a violent conflict with a rival, African-American gang, the DC Blacks. Mills and Bingham were convicted and narrowly escaped the death penalty, sentenced instead to life in prison at the supermax facility in Florence, Colorado, widely considered the nation’s most secure prison.
Yandell’s history with the Aryan Brotherhood goes back to 1997, when he was sponsored for membership by Mills. Yandell served time in federal prison, then after his release in the early 2000s returned to Contra Costa County at Mills’ direction. By 2001, he had been charged in a double homicide, and according to state prosecutors, attempted to have witnesses in his case murdered.
Weeks before the indictment was filed, Yandell wrote an op-ed that was published by the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, claiming that prison officials were retaliating against him for his work on the hunger strike. He admitted to being caught with a cellphone and illicit notes, but claimed that was related to his work on a documentary about the prison system. He wrote that he plans to file a lawsuit against the state.
“Those of us released within the last five years from the SHU Short Corridor back into General Population (GP) due to the hunger strike have mostly held the agreement across California, bringing prison racial violence to a historic low,” Yandell wrote.
