A federal grand jury in Sacramento returned a two-count indictment Thursday towards a 29-year-old Fairfield man and Hells Angels Bike Membership member, charging him with possessing a firearm with an obliterated or altered serial quantity and possessing an unregistered short-barreled shotgun, a federal official mentioned.
Michael Mahoney is the third particular person to be indicted within the Japanese District of California based mostly on an investigation right into a brutal beating within the clubhouse for the Vallejo chapter.
The opposite two defendants — Jaime Alvarez of Vallejo and Dennis Killough Jr. of Vacaville, each 51— have been indicted by a grand jury on Could 27.
In accordance with courtroom paperwork, in October 2021, two totally different victims — each of whom have been members of a unique motorbike membership that's thought-about a “puppet,” or subordinate, membership of the Hells Angels — have been crushed by Mahoney, Alvarez, Killough, and different membership members based mostly on perceived infractions of the Hells Angels’ guidelines, U.S. Lawyer Phillip A. Talbert mentioned in a press assertion.
Court docket information present that on Dec. 8, 2021, regulation enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Mahoney’s Fairfield dwelling and located a number of firearms, together with a Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver with a serial quantity that had been scratched off, in addition to a Sears & Roebuck 12‑gauge shotgun with a barrel that had been sawed off to roughly 12.75 inches in size, he famous.
Mahoney had not registered his possession of the shotgun with the Nationwide Firearms Registration and Switch Document, as required by federal regulation, Talbert added.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aaron D. Pennekamp and Jason Hitt lead the prosecution.
The case stems from an investigation by the Solano County District Lawyer’s Workplace, the Solano County Sheriff’s Workplace, the Vacaville, Vallejo and Fairfield police departments, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
If convicted of possessing a firearm with an obliterated or altered serial quantity, Mahoney faces a most time period of 5 years in jail and a $250,000 wonderful. And if convicted of possessing an unregistered short-barreled shotgun, Mahoney faces a most penalty of 10 years in jail and a $10,000 wonderful.
The case is being prosecuted as a part of the joint federal, state, and native Mission Secure Neighborhoods Program, the centerpiece of the U.S. Division of Justice’s violent crime-reduction efforts.
Based in 1948, the Hells Angels is a worldwide outlaw motorbike membership. The Vallejo chapter, at one time thought-about the enforcer for the Oakland chapter, was infamous for 2 members’ involvement in an Oct. 5, 1986, mass homicide of a household of 4, together with two kids, ages 5 and 17, in Fort Bragg. It was a criminal offense that made nationwide headlines on Oct. 7, someday after two members of the Sonoma County chapter traveled to Fort Bragg and, at night time, burned down a home with the 4 our bodies inside.