John Jefferson
Background: The Hells Angels Vallejo (California) clubhouse (Google Maps). Inset: Kenneth Caspers Jr. (U.S. Attorney’s Office).
A member of the Hells Angels in California accused in a bloody clubhouse beating of two subordinates for breaking the gang’s rules has pleaded guilty to federal ammunition possession charges.
Kenneth Caspers Jr., 57, entered his plea on Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Sacramento, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release.
He and other members of the gang beat two subordinates in October 2021 for breaking Hells Angels’ rules, authorities said. While executing a search warrant that December at Caspers’ home, authorities found several firearms and ammunition, including 18 rounds of .22 caliber, .25 caliber, and .38 caliber ammunition in the master bedroom and bathroom, prosecutors said. Caspers was convicted of several crimes — including a previous felony conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm — that prevented him from possessing firearms or ammunition, prosecutors said.
Law&Crime reported about the beatings in 2023. The first victim, identified in court documents as Victim-1, said he felt uneasy when he arrived at the clubhouse in Vallejo, more than 30 miles north of San Francisco, as his attackers tried to convince him to come inside. Three men surrounded him when Caspers’ codefendant Michael Mahoney choked him and forced him inside, the documents state.
Once inside, the victim saw 12 of the club’s officers and other members.
They sat him down in a metal chair and severely beat him for nearly two hours, records show.
Dennis Killough repeatedly punched him in the ribs, documents state. He felt his ribs crack from the punches that Killough delivered, court documents said.
During the attack, Caspers grabbed a mop from behind the bar in the clubhouse and mopped up the blood on the ground, records show.
“Caspers walked through Victim-1’s blood as he was mopping,” court documents said.
During the assault, the assailants wanted to know who the victim had been talking with at a meeting for the Union Iron Workers Motorcycle Club (UIWMC) on Oct. 10, 2021. The victim had been a member of that club, which he described as a nationwide family motorcycle club, for about 16 years.
The assailants said they had a recording of him talking to another UIWMC member about communicating with rival motorcycle gangs.
“They told Victim-1 that if he named the other person, they would stop beating him,” court records said. “Victim-1 then told the Vallejo HAMC that he had been talking with another person, identified here as Victim-2. Despite providing this information, members of the Vallejo HAMC continued to beat Victim-1.”
The second victim was called to the clubhouse. When he arrived, he tried to flee “because he saw what was going to happen to him.”
Before he could get away, he was punched and dragged in a semiconscious state to another chair in the clubhouse, court records said.
According to documents, once inside, seated in a chair near the bar, the clubhouse president said, “Haven’t I been good to you?”
The second victim was beaten and knocked unconscious three times, documents said.
“Victim-1 noted that Victim-2 was a smaller male and could not absorb the punches well,” court records said.
After the beatings ended on Oct. 13, 2021, the club president threatened to kill the first victim if he ever saw him in Vallejo again, court records said.
Mahoney told the first victim that if he retaliated, he knew where he lived.
The first victim suffered multiple fractured ribs and pulmonary and facial bruises, authorities said.
The first victim reported the attack to police, but the second victim “did not provide the Vallejo Police Department officer with a truthful account about the attack, because he feared further retaliation — including physical harm — from members or associates of the Vallejo HAMC,” court documents state. “Victim-2 admitted that he had gone to the hospital after the October 13 incident, but he was either unwilling or unable to provide an account of what happened inside the clubhouse due to the injuries he had sustained.”
The second victim’s face was bruised and scratched, with blood coming from his ear when he returned home after the assault, documents said.
Authorities said that after the assault, the second victim “displayed great difficulty speaking and recalling events, as he regularly called his girlfriend from the hospital to ask her why he was there,” court records said.
Mahoney, Killough and a fourth defendant pleaded guilty and were sentenced. Caspers faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine and is set to be sentenced on Feb. 11.
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