A senior Oshawa Hells Angel and a member of the club's elite Nomads chapter walked free from Whitby court this morning, after a jury rejected charges that they hired a hitman to kill a fellow biker. Remond (Ray) Akleh, 46, formerly of the Hells Angels' Ottawa-based Nomads chapter and Mark Cephes Stephenson, 45, president of the Oshawa chapter, hugged their families and then each other in a courtroom hallway after the jury foreperson said 'Not guilty' three times. The jury reached its verdict this morning on the fourth day of deliberations. 'I just want to see my kids and hold them,' said Akleh, a father of three, as he walked out of the courthouse, surrounded by wet-eyed family members.
He praised the work of the jury in the three-month trial. 'I'm still in the football pool at the jail,' Stephenson joked.
'So I'm expecting to win.' Stephenson, who works as millwright, praised the jury for not assuming they were guilty, simply because they're Hells Angels. 'We're bikers, not criminals,' Stephenson said. 'Oshawa, we try to stay what we are: good old boys.' Akleh and Stephenson had each been charged with murder conspiracy and counsel to commit murder for an alleged plot to murder Frank (Cisco) Lenti of the Bandidos Motorcycle club in the summer of 2006. The alleged murder plot was never carried out.
In reaching its verdict, the jury rejected the testimony of former Hells Angel Steven Gault of the club's Oshawa chapter, who told court he was recruited to be the hitman in the plot against Lenti. No direct orders to kill Lenti were picked up on recording devices worn by Gault, but Gault said the command was conveyed with a series of hand signals. The trial took a bizarre twist in early December, when Akleh shocked the courtroom by announcing that he too was a police informer, feeding authorities information on Gault and the rival Bandidos club. At the time he was an informer, Akleh was a member of the Hells Angels 'Dream Team,' the Ottawa-based Nomads chapter. He became emotional last month when he told court that love of his family and fear of Gault drove him to commit the biggest sin in the Hells Angels world: inform to police. Most of his information was against Gault, and to a lesser extent the Bandidos, court heard. Akleh testified that he began talking to police because he believed Gault was a threat to the lives of himself and his family.
Court heard that Akleh told his police contact that tensions erupted between himself and Gault after he accused Gault of being a police informer, and tried to have him thrown out of the club. The club held a series of hearings to settle the dispute between Akleh and Gault, court heard, with the Hells Angels eventually ruling that Gault was a loyal member, not an informer. Akleh's lawyer, Glenn Orr, argued that only 'an imbecile or a moron' would recruit someone to carry out a murder, while suspecting that the would-be hitman was a police informer. Orr and Stephenson's lawyer, Brian Grys, each assailed the credibility and character of Gault, who they said was motivated by a desire for money from the police and revenge against Akleh and Stephenson.
Akleh and Gault became bitter enemies, after Akleh accused Gault of being a police informer, while Stephenson reportedly suggested that Gault wasn't smart enough to hold the position of secretary-treasurer for the club. Gault received more than $1 million for working as a police agent in an 18-month project that ended in September 2006, with the arrests of 16 full members of the Hells Angels on a variety of drug and weapons charges. Court heard that Gault requested the work and home address of Lenti, and a photograph of him, to help in the murder bid, but that they were not provided to him. The Crown team of John Scott and Martin Flagg had argued that Lenti was targeted for murder by the Hells Angels because he was attempting to revive the Bandidos in Ontario, after eight members were murdered in April 2006 near the hamlet of Shedden in southwestern Ontario. Court heard of longstanding tensions between the Bandidos and Hells Angels around the world. The jury also heard from Hells Angels minutes from July 2006, which stated that the club believed that the Bandidos' Canadian arm had been disbanded by the club's headquarters in Texas. The trial in the Bandidos mass murder is scheduled to begin next month in London.
Six people connected to the Bandidos club each face eight first degree murder charges. Meanwhile, Lenti is serving a six-year manslaughter term after pleading guilty to fatally shooting West Toronto Hells Angel David (Dred) Buchanan in December 2006. Lenti told police he feared for his life after being told that the Hells Angels had taken out a contract on his life. In a conversation with the Star last winter, Lenti said that he never believed Akleh would try to kill him, as the two men had been friends when they were clubmates together in the Toronto chapter of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club in the late 1990s.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. The 28-year-old Surrey man gunned down Tuesday is Apollo-Lyn Simpson. His family agreed with police that releasing his name might help the investigation.
He has no criminal record, but was a problem tenant, according to his landlady. And the 38-year-old man gunned down execution-style in the driveway of his Walnut Grove rental house has been identified as Jeremy Olivier Bettan. Bettan also has no criminal record, but has learned he did in fact have some associations within organized crime. One blog reader just pointed out that when I made my post the day before they were shot was called Steroids and Silicone.
Kind of a plastic world if you ask me. Nevertheless, one commenter said Jonathon didn't own the boat, Larry Amero and Jeremy did. I would certainly be a coincidence if the Jeremy Bettan who was recently shot was an associate of Larry Amero. I am told by someone who went to High School with Larry Amero that he went to Walnut Grove High Secondary and was picked on in school. I guess that's why he turned to the steroids. They claimed his father was a longshoreman which was the HA contact. Update: Other sources claim Jeremy Bettan was originally from Langley and went to Montreal to set up a courier company there.
Yet another source claims Jeremy Bettan 'worked' for Larry Amero. That doesn't confirm joint ownership in the boat Steroids and Silicone but it does confirm a connection to Larry Amero and the Hells Angels.
A biker was partially blinded by a gang of Hells Angels after he refused to join their UK chapter saying he was 'too old', a court heard. Christopher Harrison, 53, was left unconscious in a pool of blood when Angels leader Matthew Barnes, 46, and other gang members allegedly targeted his eyes to stop him identifying them after the attack.
He suffered from two ruptured eyeballs and told how the blows were 'raining in' on him after an argument with Mr Barnes' co-defendant Oliver Wilkinson, 49, at the Carlisle Pub in Hastings. Around 200 people had gathered at the biker pub to watch punk band named '90% Proof' play, with around 20 Hells Angels attending, a court heard. With the music blaring, Mr Wilkinson took Mr Harrison, nicknamed 'Swaggers', outside into the picnic area of the pub for a chat.
The pair had once been friends, but had fallen out over the death of a fellow biker called 'Papa Smurf' several years earlier. Bartender Anne Penfold ran outside after seeing several Hells Angels returning to the pub 'pumped up', jurors heard.
She saw Mr Harrison unconscious on the patio and hailed a passing police van. Mrs Penfold described seeing 'blood spatters' on the pub wall following the assault. Prosecutor Nicholas Cooper said: 'The prosecution case is that both defendants were members of the Hells Angels and that Mr Barnes is the president of the Hells Angels Sussex chapter. 'Mr Wilkinson was part of the Hells Angels as a support crew member. 'Mr Harrison was not a member of the Hells Angels, but he was a biker. 'The allegation is that both defendants, with others unknown, punched and kicked Mr Harrison to his head and face with such ferocity that both his eyeballs ruptured. 'That night at the Carlisle Pub there was a concert, the band were called '90 Per Cent Proof'.'
Angel Hells Angels Motorcycle Club
Fantasia disney 1940 ita download. Mr Cooper described the build up to the attack outside in the picnic area of the pub, with an argument over biker gangs sparking the attack. He told the court: 'Mr Wilkinson asked Mr Harrison if he was interested in becoming a Hells Angel. 'Mr Harrison said he was too old. Mr Wilkinson then said: 'I'll get someone to talk to you'. 'He came out with the president, Mr Barnes. Harrison thought straight away that there was an attitude in the way that he came out. 'Mr Barnes said: 'Why would you not wear these colours? They're perfectly good colours.
'Mr Harrison said: 'You get all sorts of colours here, I'm just not interested. You get blue and whites, referencing to other groups or gangs. 'Barnes replied: 'I hate black and whites, all black and whites should die. 'And with that he flew in and headbutted him. Harrison said from then on the punches started to rain in. 'They knocked his legs from behind so that he fell to the ground.' Mrs Penfold was told by Wilkinson: 'If you talk to the police you and your children are next'.
Hells Angel Killed In Connecticut
Barnes, of Washington, West Sussex, and Wilkinson, of Leonard's-on Sea, East Sussex, both deny causing grievous bodily harm with intent. Later, Recorder Brian Altman QC discharged the jury and said the case was being put off until July. He said the reason was because the case was going to run over its two-week estimate, causing problems for at least two jurors.
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