OFF THE WIRE
lasvegas.cbslocal.com/
The State presented witnesses this week in its prosecution of 8 men associated with the Hells Angels, on charges stemming from a rumble with the Mongols motorcycle club at a Las Vegas wedding chapel in 2008.
The fight involved 13 members and friends of the Hells Angels attending a wedding where Mongol members arrived for a different wedding scheduled for later the same day.
On Friday, Metro police officer Joel Albert took the stand to guide the jury through photos of the fight scene taken by police at A Special Memory wedding chapel. Dozens of photos showed blood on the floor and doorways, broken and blood-stained items, and a small zipper pouch containing drugs that was left near a chapel pew.
Testimony revealed guns were also impounded from the scene. Except for decorative items belonging to the chapel, the ownership of the impounded items isn’t clear.
Two members of the Mongols wedding party testified about the events leading up to the fight and the ensuing melee, which they claim was an unprovoked attack by the Hells Angels and friends.
The defense claims the Hells Angels and friends were fending off an attack, fearful of the Mongols after the murder several months earlier of San Francisco Hells Angels President Mark “Papa” Guardado by a Mongol.
Former Mongol Eugene Formica was stabbed in the chest during the fight. He testified that he was treasurer and sergeant-at-arms of his Mongols club, but quit the club when he was released from the hospital, because being a Mongol no longer seemed worth it.
Formica also filed a civil lawsuit against the entity that owns wedding chapel, claiming management should have engaged security on the day of the wedding because the Hells Angels presented a threat. An employee of the chapel testified earlier in the week that she was not aware that it was a ”Hells Angels” wedding, according to an attorney who was present during the testimony.
Another witness, Tim Jameson, is a Harley Davidson employee who became friendly through his job with the groom in the Mongols wedding party. He testified that he attended the “black-and-white” wedding wearing Mongols colors because a member of the club asked him to, although he was not a member or a “prospect,” that is, a friend who is interested in becoming a member.
Jameson described the fight, including having seen Hells Angels lunging at Formica with a knife. Jameson did not see any guns, he said, and did not see any of the Mongols party using any weapons.
The prosecution is exected to continue its case through next week.
