Hells Angels member gets 21 months for gun possession

A member of the Vallejo chapter of the Hells Angels, among four indicted last year and in 2023 on firearms or ammunition charges, was sentenced on Tuesday to 21 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm

Jaime Alvarez, 52, of Vallejo, who pleaded guilty to the charge in December, heard U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd hand down the sentence in a federal courtroom in the Department of Justice's Eastern District of California in Sacramento. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office confirmed the sentence.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, Alvarez was not in custody, Sacramento County Jail records indicated.

According to court documents, on Dec. 8, 2021, law enforcement officers served a search warrant at Alvarez's home as part of an investigation into a brutal beating at the clubhouse for the Vallejo chapter of the notorious motorcycle club.

Specifically, in October 2021, two different victims — both of whom were members of a different motorcycle club considered a "puppet," or subordinate, club of the Hells Angels — were beaten by Alvarez and three other club members based on perceived infractions of the Hells Angels' rules.

As previously reported, during the December 2021 search of Alvarez's Vallejo home, officers found several firearms, including a Glock 27 .40 SW caliber handgun. Alvarez has prior felony convictions, which prohibit him from possessing firearms, noted U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert.

The case stems from an investigation by the Vallejo Police Department, Solano County District Attorney's Office, the Solano County Sheriff's Office, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aaron D. Pennekamp and Jason Hitt are prosecuting the cases, part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice's violent crime-reduction efforts.

As previously reported, a second Vallejo Hells Angels member, Michael Mahoney, 30, of Fairfield, pleaded guilty on Jan. 24 to two felony firearms charges. He initially was charged with possessing a firearm with an obliterated or altered serial number and faces a maximum term of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for that offense. If convicted of possessing an unregistered short-barreled shotgun, Mahoney faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He is scheduled for sentencing on May 2.

A third Vallejo Hells Angels member also returns in the coming days to a federal courtroom in Sacramento for sentencing in a firearms case.

Dennis Killough Jr., 51, of Vacaville, charged with being a felon in possession of two different firearms, pleaded guilty on Jan. 9 and will be sentenced on March 27. Killough, previously remanded to Sacramento County Jail custody without bail, is no longer in jail, according to a records search.

Court documents show that, on Dec. 8, 2021, law enforcement searched Killough's home and found two firearms, including a Taurus G2C 9 mm pistol with an obliterated serial number and a Taurus PT 745 Pro handgun. Killough has several prior felony convictions — including previous firearm convictions — which, by law, prohibit him from possessing any firearms or ammunition.

Killough faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing.

A fourth Vallejo Hells Angels member, Kenneth Caspers Jr., 55, of Vacaville, faces a single charge of being a felon in possession of ammo. He faces a status conference on April 4 in federal court in Sacramento.

Founded in 1948 in Fontana by Otto Friedli, the Hells Angels is a worldwide outlaw motorcycle club. The Vallejo chapter, at one time, considered the enforcer for the Oakland chapter — founded by the late Ralph "Sonny" Barger, who later became the club's de facto leader — was notorious for two members' involvement in an Oct. 5, 1986, mass murder of a family of four, including two children, ages 5 and 17, in Fort Bragg.

It was a crime that made national headlines on Oct. 7, one day after two members of the Sonoma County chapter traveled to Fort Bragg and, at night, burned down a house near Highway 20 with the four bodies inside.

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