John Jefferson
Inset: Ronald Yandell and background: California State Prison — Sacramento (California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation).
Two high-ranking members of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang will spend the rest of their lives in prison for ordering murders and drug trafficking operations from their California prison cells.
Ronald “Renegade” Yandell, 62, and William Sylvester, 56, were sentenced Wednesday to two consecutive life terms in prison for murder in aid of racketeering and various other Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) crimes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release. Yandell, Sylvester, and a third co-defendant were found guilty in April of RICO conspiracy, conspiracy to murder, murder in aid of racketeering, and multiple counts of drug trafficking. The third defendant is set to be sentenced on Feb. 18.
Yandell was defiant in court at his sentencing.
“I’m still standing, and my life hasn’t changed,” he said, the San Jose Mercury News reported. “I ain’t easy to kill, and I’ll be back before this court on appeal.”
The indictment spells out crimes spanning 2011 and 2016. Using smuggled cellphones, the defendants oversaw criminal activities inside and outside of the prisons, authorities said.
Authorities said Yandell was serving 65 years to life for murder and voluntary manslaughter when he ordered a prison hit on Aug. 15, 2015, at a lockup in Sacramento. He offered two inmates membership in the gang if they carried out the killing. About a year after the murder, the Drug Enforcement Administration intercepted calls made by Yandell over a contraband cellphone in which he bragged about directing the murder and sponsoring the killers for membership in the gang, prosecutors said. Yandell also ordered that money earned from Aryan Brotherhood criminal activities be directed to support the two murderers, officials said.
Last month, Yandell allegedly pulled an improvised knife on guards escorting him back to his cell after a medical appointment, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The guards were not hurt, and Yandell was subdued by mace.
On Oct. 7, 2001, Sylvester murdered another inmate at the Sacramento prison to earn his membership in the Aryan Brotherhood. The target was a member of a gang marked for death for refusing to recognize the Aryan Brotherhood’s authority, officials said. Sylvester, serving a life sentence without parole, and another inmate used handmade weapons and surprised the victim with multiple stab wounds to the body. Afterward, he earned membership into the gang, authorities said.
The Aryan Brotherhood is a white supremacist gang formed in the California state prison system in the late 1960s, the FBI said. The Southern Poverty Law Center said it is the nation’s oldest major white supremacist prison gang and a national crime syndicate. It was founded by Irish bikers as a form of protection for white inmates in newly desegregated prisons. It is the largest and deadliest prison gang in the U.S., with an estimated 20,000 members inside prisons and on the streets, according to the legal and advocacy group.
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