Guilty pleas entered by bikers in wedding chapel brawl
Four more defendants, including members of the infamous Hells Angels motorcycle club, pleaded guilty Friday to assaulting rival gang members at a downtown wedding chapel in 2008.
On Friday, Dominic Orlando, Frederick O’Dell, Brandon Young, John Dawson, agreed to a deal with prosecutors that allowed them to plead guilty to battery charges stemming from the melee.
Each faced about a dozen felony and misdemeanor counts, including attempted murder, battery and conspiracy. Their trial was to begin Aug. 5.
A sentencing date was set for Dec. 11.
Orlando’s lawyer Patricia Palm called the deal a “fair resolution to the case.”
Co-defendant Armando Porras, is expected to plead guilty Aug. 2.
Earlier this month co-defendant Jeffrey Murray pleaded guilty to battery with substantial bodily harm with the intent to promote, further or assist the activities of a criminal gang and coercion with force, both felonies.
Murray, along with co-defendants James Sexey and John Merchant stabbed victims during the brawl, authorities said.
Sexey and Merchant are to stand trial Aug. 5.
In all, 13 men were charged with bludgeoning three Mongols during the brawl at A Special Memory Wedding Chapel on Dec. 20, 2008.
Surveillance footage of the brawl shows Hells Angels and others swarming rival gang members at the wedding chapel on Fourth Street and Gass Avenue.
Six were injured, including three members of the Mongols. Hells Angels were attending a wedding ceremony.
As they were leaving, at least three Mongols appeared at the chapel for another wedding.
The 13 men attacked the Mongols, bludgeoning them with their fists, feet, bottles and trash cans. Prosecutors called it an unprovoked attack.
Defense lawyers have said their clients were acting in self-defense because Mongols had months earlier attacked and killed a Hells Angel in San Francisco.
The five remaining defendants in the case will face similar charges in two separate trials.
All of the men remained free on bond.
Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.
