SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A Hells Angels member will serve four years in prison for helping several other members of the biker gang illegally cremate a murdered man at a Fresno funeral home known as "the pizza oven.”
U.S. Senior District Judge Edward Chen handed down the sentence Thursday in an Oakland courtroom. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of more than seven years, while former Hells Angels member Merl Hefferman’s attorney James Bustamante asked Chen for 30 months.
Bustamante did not respond to requests for comment on Chen's decision. U.S. Attorney Ismael Ramsey said in a statement that Hells Angels members have followed a "malicious" code, "encouraging the beating, maiming, and even killing of anyone who dared to cross their criminal enterprise."
“The Hells Angels murdered one of their own, and Hefferman helped them try to get away with it," Ramsey said.
Hefferman, 54, is one of four members of the Sonoma Hells Angels who have faced federal claims that they cremated former member Joel Silva after he was targeted and murdered in the summer of 2014.
Prosecutors told the judge earlier this month that Hefferman helped incinerate Silva's body —one of four bodies the feds said were illegally cremated at the Yost & Webb Funeral Home in Fresno. They said that Hefferman told the funeral home’s crematory manager Levi Phipps that he wanted to make things disappear, and that Phipps knew that he meant human bodies.
Hefferman pleaded guilty in December to obstructing justice by disposing of Silva’s body, though he was not charged or convicted for any of the other three alleged cremations. Hefferman’s attorney accused prosecutors of trying to tie him to other body disposals without sufficient evidence, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In Hefferman’s sentencing memorandum, Bustamante cited his client’s “tumultuous and violent upbringing,” experiencing homelessness and assault as a minor, along with a myriad of health issues, in asking for a lenient sentence.
Numerous family members and friends submitted character letters describing Hefferman as a family-oriented community leader with no prior convictions on his record. Hefferman has a social media presence as Bicycle King Fresno with nearly 1,400 followers on Instagram.
Federal agents have spent years embroiled in a takedown of 12 members of the Sonoma Hells Angels on racketeering charges.
Other Hells Angels members were convicted of killing Silva: Brian Wendt, Jonathan Nelson and Russell Taylor Ott. Earlier this year a jury convicted Christopher Ranieri, president of the Salem charter of the Hells Angels, for his role in planning how to murder Silva. Another member, Russel Lyles Jr., was recently convicted on racketeering charges in connection to the group and got a five-year sentence for various assaults.
Six other Hells Angels took their case before a jury in two separate trials, and five were convicted of crimes including multiple assaults, robberies, extortion plots and the murder of a former member who angered high-ranking members, The Mercury News reported.
Federal agents also reported Friday that former member Jeremy Greer, 43, was sentenced 84 months in prison after being charged with assaults, robberies and witness intimidation.
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