Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA (January 29, 2024) - The U.S. Justice Department announced charges Monday against an Iranian national and two Canadians, including members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, for allegedly plotting to assassinate an Iranian defector living in Maryland.
The indictment unsealed in federal court in Minnesota is at least the third Iran-based murder-for-hire plot prosecuted by the Justice Department since 2022. The targets in the previous cases were former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton and a New York-based Iranian-American journalist.
Prosecutors say the latest alleged plot was orchestrated by an Iranian national, Naji Sharifi Zindashti, but the indictment does not accuse the Iranian government of directing the scheme.
Joliet, Illinois, USA (January 26, 2024) - A Will County judge granted a defense motion for a new trial in a case in which a jury found a man guilty of killing a woman at the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse. Judge Dave Carlson based his decision on the “cumulative effect” of all the errors by prosecutors and himself in the 2022 trial.
In 2022, a jury found Boshears guilty of killing Katie Kearns, 24, in 2017 at the Outlaws clubhouse in Joliet Township. The jury also found Boshears guilty of concealing her homicidal death from authorities by stowing her body at a barn in Kankakee County. An investigation by the Will County Sheriff’s Office led to the arrest of Boshears in 2017.
Carlson said he was not going to grant Boshears an acquittal – which would have overturned the jury’s verdict – but he would order a new trial based on what he considered the volume of errors committed during the trial.
Nova Scotia, Canada (January 25, 2024) - The Parole Board of Canada has suspended day parole for Dean Kelsie, a suspected Hells Angels Motorcycle Club hitman, because he was allegedly intimidating co-workers. Kelsie has been serving a life sentence since March of 2003 for second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He has received additional convictions for assaults he committed while in prison.
Kelsie allegedly shot and killed Sean Simmons in the lobby of an apartment building in Dartmouth, N.S., in October 2000. Kelsie was one of four men accused of the killing, which was supposedly ordered by a Hells Angel member who was upset that Simmons had an affair with his wife. His journey through the justice system has been long and complicated and included a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada that reduced his conviction to second-degree murder from first-degree murder.
He was first granted day parole in 2021, and that has been renewed in six-month increments since then. Family and friends of Simmons remain opposed to Kelsie's release and have made submissions to that effect, including one earlier this month. But Kelsie's latest problems stem from allegations he resorts to aggressive and threatening behavior when he becomes angry or impatient.
The parole board cited a confrontation at Kelsie's workplace in October, "According to the foreman supervisor, the conflict lasted three days and during which several phone calls from your co-worker were received to report that you had been threatening him and that he feared for his safety."
Police laid three charges of uttering death threats against Kelsie. Those charges are due to be heard in court in February. Kelsie's day parole suspension runs until July, at which time it will be reviewed.
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA (January 18, 2024) - The police department investigating the January 2023 death of Jonas Padilla, a member of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, are reviewing video and audio captured from cameras at the intersections of Creedmoor, Lynn and Millbrook roads. According to search warrants linked to the case, video shows Padilla being chased by five people on motorcycles and falling down an embankment into a yard.
A short time later, two people wearing motorcycle helmets walk down the hill and remove Padilla's club vest. All five people then flee on their motorcycles. The cameras show five motorcycles, one of them with female passenger, as they travel north on Creedmoor Road, make a U-turn at Lynn Road and travel back south. As the riders travel through the intersection of Creedmoor and Millbrook roads, the Padilla, on his bike, turns right onto Creedmoor Road from Millbrook Road.
The five male Red Devils MC members are visible in the video wearing the vests that identify them as members that club, according to the warrants. They dined at Bada Wings on Creedmoor Road immediately before the crimes were committed and video from the restaurant shows them using cell phones there. Police asked to search those phones as part of the investigation.
The warrant says cameras show the group stop on Creedmoor Road, and the woman gets off the bike she's riding and walks to the Walgreens parking lot nearby. The Red Devils riders then cross over the median to again travel north on Creedmoor Road in pursuit of Padilla.
Kelowna, BC, Canada (January 5, 2024) - A British Columbia Hells Angels motorcycle club member was sentenced to four years in prison after an RCMP investigation uncovered a scheme to transport drugs along the Pacific coast between California and BC. The investigation started in Kelowna in 2015, coming to a close for Vincenzo James Sansalone early last month, according to a BC RCMP news release.
Sansalone was nabbed after a 2018 search warrant and faced two charges of trafficking a controlled substance. Police said he was one of six suspects, but just four of them were charged. The investigation, initially spurred in Kelowna, was led by the BC Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit. It reached across multiple Canadian jurisdictions and American, including San Diego, Seattle and Metro Vancouver.
Investigators used undercover operations and wire taps over the course of the investigation, while also collaborating with law enforcement south of the border, according to BC RCMP. During the investigation, RCMP seized 12 kilograms of MDMA and $380,000 of cash, which police say the suspects planned to use as a down payment for 18 kilograms of cocaine.
Sansalone was sentenced to four years in prison with a lifetime firearms ban on December. 6, according to court records. Co-accused Daniel James Alexander, born in 1986, faced a more serious charge of conspiracy and was sentenced to five years imprisonment in March 2023. While Sansalone's trafficking was centered in Vancouver, according to court records, it was Alexander's conspiracy charge that implicated him in the cross-border trafficking scheme.
Marion, Indiana, USA (January 1, 2024) - A man ended up in critical condition after being shot in the chest early New Year’s Day in Marion.
According to the Marion Police Department, officers responded to a 911 call at 4:19 a.m. after a caller reported that someone had been shot at 1102 S. Race St. in Marion. The address points to the Outlaw Motorcycle Club, police said.
Officers found 42-year-old Charles Hill, of Kendallville, Indiana had been shot in the chest. They began life-saving aid; Hill was taken to a Marion hospital before being transferred to a Fort Wayne facility. He remained in critical condition as of Monday afternoon.
Police executed a search warrant on the property. They located several individuals and secured the location for processing. Investigators then located and collected evidence. The shooting remains under investigation.
