Feds: Aryan Brotherhood was behind six California murders, including two separate double homicides
Three new murder counts added
By NATE GARTRELL | ngartrell@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: May 16, 2023 at 6:01 p.m. | UPDATED: May 17, 2023 at 4:36 a.m.
FRESNO — In a bombshell revealed through criminal court filings, federal prosecutors say they now have evidence that two separate double-homicides in California were ordered by the Aryan Brotherhood and committed by men who saw the brutal killings as an entryway into the secretive all-white prison gang.
A partially redacted federal racketeering indictment, unsealed Tuesday, links a total of six homicides to the California-based gang that is also known as The Brand. Stacked on top of a concurrent federal prosecution accusing gang leaders of five murders and four murder plots, this is only the latest RICO case accusing the Aryan Brotherhood of ruling over California’s less powerful white gangs and running large scale drug rings on both sides of prison walls.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice charged two incarcerated Aryan Brotherhood members, Kenneth “Kenwood” Johnson and Francis Clement, with ordering a hitman to murder Allan Roshanski, 34, of Vista, and Ruslan Magomedgadzhiev, 40, of Tarzana. Both men were gunned down on Oct. 4, 2020, in small Southern California city of Lomita, under still-mysterious circumstances.
Now, Clement and Johnson stand accused of also ordering a double homicide that was carried out on March 8, 2022, in Los Angeles County.
That’s not all. Johnson and Clement — both serving life sentences in California prison — are charged with ordering the killing of another person who died on Jan. 24, 2016. The indictment also charges two defendants whose names remain under seal with an August 2015 slaying, and accuses Aryan Brotherhood associate Kenneth Bash of involvement in a murder plot that didn’t go through.
Perhaps underscoring the cutthroat nature of prison gang politics, Johnson is listed in a separate indictment as the victim of a failed 2017 Aryan Brotherhood murder plot that resulted from the fallout over a botched robbery in Orange County.
On top of the murder conspiracy, Bash is also accused of plotting to commit arson, robbery and EDD fraud. Prosecutors say he also ran a methamphetamine and heroin ring from within Salinas Valley State Prison, which was the subject of a 2020 federal task force investigation known as Operation Lucky Charm. Earlier this year, a woman described by prosecutors as Bash’s “secretary” was given 12 years in prison for helping Bash coordinate shipments of drugs to dealers out-of-state, an effort authorities allege was assisted by the Mexican Mafia.
Two Southern California men, Justin Gray and Brandon “Bam Bam” Bannick, are charged with each carrying out a double murder with the hopes that their crimes would pave the way for entry into the Aryan Brotherhood.
Gray is accused of personally killing Roshanski and Magomedgadzhiev. Prosecutors allege Bannick not only assisted Gray in the 2020 double homicide but also killed both victims in the March 2022 shooting.
The victims of the 2015, 2016, and 2022 killings are not named in the indictment, but they correspond with notable California homicides that occurred on the dates and locations listed by prosecutors.
At around 10 p.m. on March 8, 2022, Ronnie Paul Ennis Jr., 47, and James Yagle, 44, were gunned down on the 200 block of Ridgeway Street in Pomona, authorities say. They were the only double homicide victims on that day in Los Angeles County, according to media reports. That date and location corresponds with the information in the indictment.
On Jan. 24, 2016 — the same day the indictment says a person was killed on the orders of Johnson and Clement — 30-year-old Brandon Lowrey was stabbed to death in Kern Valley State Prison, allegedly by his cellmate. Hugo “Yogi” Pinell, a reputed Black Guerilla Family member and member of the infamous San Quentin Six, was stabbed to death on a Sacramento prison yard — allegedly by Aryan Brotherhood members Jayson “Beaver” Weaver and Waylon Pitchford — on Aug. 12, 2015, the same day the indictment says one of the victims was killed.
Prosecutors haven’t revealed the suspected motives for the six killings, nor have they given the public — or even defense attorneys — a full picture of how the defendants were linked to the crimes. But some clues have leaked out through court filings.
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One document says that an LAPD drug cop developed a confidential informant who reported overhearing Gray talking to two others at an apartment in Long Beach about how he “got those two Russian guys” in nearby Lomita. Authorities say Gray was promised membership in the Aryan Brotherhood for killing both men. They allege cellphone records show he and Roshanski talked within an hour of the shooting.
Another government tipster, who isn’t named in court papers, told authorities that Roshanski had left the state in August to visit a relative, and that property was stolen from him during the vacation. The informant told authorities that the day before the homicide, Roshanski appeared nervous and said he was going to a “trap house” — slang for a residence where drugs are sold — in Long Beach to retrieve his “stuff.”
In 2010, Magomedgadzhiev — one of the two men killed in October 2020 — was charged with being hired muscle for a reputed Israeli mobster. He ended up pleading guilty to a federal offense. Ennis, too, had spent time in federal prison, for drug crimes, gun possession, and violating his supervised release. His final stint behind bars ended just five months before he was killed.
In a letter to a federal judge dated 2018, Ennis ruefully looked back on his life up to that point, lamenting the time wasted to drug addiction and poor decisions. He concluded that his “many years of misfortune” had given him a new perspective on how to tackle the future.
“Our time here on earth is so short and before you know it, it’s all over,” Ennis wrote.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/05...including-two-separate-double-homicides/
