CHARLESTON, W.Va. Biker gets time served on weapons charge

OFF THE WIRE
By Andrew Clevenger
The Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A member of the Last Rebels Motorcycle Club was sentenced Friday to time served for his role in a plan to smuggle guns and other weapons into a David Allan Coe concert at a Huntington bar in 2006.
In June, Thomas E. Geer, 58, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit a violent crime in aid of racketeering for planning to use a guitar case to get guns and ax handles into the Monkey Barrel.
The Last Rebels, a smaller club affiliated with the Pagans Motorcycle Club, wanted to use the weapons to confront members of a rival gang who were rumored to be planning on going to the concert, according to court records. Although Coe canceled the gig for unrelated reasons, members of the Last Rebels did bring weapons to the concert.
During Geer's sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Blaire Malkin played a recording of the Last Rebels Huntington chapter president, Richard "Stump" Stevens, discussing the plan with Ronnie "Pagan Ronnie" Howerton, a member of the Pagans who was also a confidential informant working for the FBI.
On the recording, Stevens said Geer told him about the plan.
"I made an arrangement with the band, if they won't let us bring [our weapons] in, all we have to do is call Allen [a member of one of the bands playing that night]. He's got an empty guitar case for me," Stevens told Howerton. "Load up all of our [expletive] up in that and he brings it in the back door for us."
"Who's all going to take something with them? Do you know?" Howerton asks on the recording.
"Pretty much all of us," Stevens answered.
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U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston sentenced Geer to eight months he has already spent in custody. He did not impose a fine, and placed Geer on six months of supervised release. Under Geer's plea deal, he faced a maximum of one year and one day in prison.
On Monday, a Virginia Pagan who admitted that he helped stockpile explosives as part of an ongoing feud with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, was also sentenced to time served.
In November 2009, James Vernon Hoback, 44, an auto mechanic from Pilot, Va., known as "Timex," admitted he helped others take military-grade C4 and two hand grenades across state lines to Princeton, W.Va.
Hoback admitted that Charles H. "Tombstone Charlie" Nichols, of Roanoke, Va., obtained the explosives and gave them to him. In turn, Hoback gave them to Richard Howard Lacy "Reverse" Smith, also of Roanoke, who gave them to Howerton, the FBI informant, in Princeton.
Johnston placed Hoback on supervised release for two years.
In October 2009, federal prosecutors unsealed a sweeping, 44-count racketeering indictment against 55 members and associates of the Pagans. The indictment included charges against defendants from Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
Most entered into plea deals to vastly reduced charges, and a handful entered into agreements where their charges will be dismissed if they stay out of trouble for a year.

Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.