California - Hells Angels member arrested in Nugget shooting released on bail

OFF THE WIRE
Source: rgj.com
Written by
Jaclyn O'Malley
The San Jose Hells Angels member arrested on allegations of shooting a gun on a crowded dance floor at a Sparks casino during a melee last month with rival bikers that ended in his chapter leader’s murder, was released on bail late Monday.
Cesar Villagrana, 36, of Gilroy, Calif., had been jailed in lieu of $500,000 cash only bail, which was reduced late Monday to $150,000 bondable bail, the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office said. Villagrana then posted the reduced bail and was freed.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 12 at Sparks Justice Court.

Villagrana has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon and firing a handgun into a structure in connection with the Sept. 23 fatal melee at Trader Dick’s bar inside John Ascuaga’s Nugget.

San Jose Hells Angels chapter president Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew, 51, was killed after Sparks police allege rival Vago biker Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez, 53, of San Jose, shot him at least four times in the back before fleeing the casino. Police said video surveillance is being used as evidence in the cases against Villagrana and Gonzalez.

Footage of the incident showed Villagrana, 36, pulling a gun from his waistband and “actively firing into a crowd of uninvolved citizens and well as rival motorcycle gang members,” according to court records.

A call Tuesday morning to Villagrana’s Las Vegas attorney was not immediately returned.

Meanwhile, authorities in Washoe County are awaiting an extradition hearing to be scheduled in San Francisco where Gonzalez was arrested last week on a warrant charging him with Pettigrew’s first-degree murder. He was arrested by University of San Francisco police and held there as a fugitive from justice, Sparks police said.

Gonzalez is also seen on the video surveillance, according to the arrest warrant filed against him, walking to the dance floor during the scuffle between Pettigrew and his fellow Vagos while carrying a gun in his hand. Customers are then seen ducking under tables as if they heard a succession of shots fired, and then Gonzalez is seen running away while tucking a gun in his waistband. During the incident, he was wearing a motorcycle vest with his gang’s name on it. It was not clear Tuesday if Gonzalez had an attorney.

Two Vagos members also were wounded by gunfire while a third was shot in the stomach the next morning by someone who fired several shots from the inside of a BMW, police said. The incident at Trader Dick’s occurred during the annual Street Vibrations motorcycle festival. Police said no arrests have been made in the drive-by shooting, which they suspect was a crime of retaliation.