AP News, November 20th, 2007
Six current and former Mongols motorcycle club members accused in a deadly brawl with rival Hells Angels during a biker rally pleaded guilty to reduced charges Monday.
The agreements capped more than five years of state and federal prosecutions from the 2002 casino shooting that was captured on dramatic surveillance video footage.
It means that none of the 48 defendants identified, apprehended and hauled into court from either motorcycle club will serve more than five years in prison in the melee, which left two Hells Angels and one Mongols member dead and at least a dozen people hurt at the Harrah's Laughlin hotel-casino in Laughlin, 90 miles south of Las Vegas.
"This resolves the incident out of Laughlin," said Joseph Abood, lawyer for Pedro Martinez Jr., a Mongols defendant who could be released within months after being credited for time served. Martinez has been in custody since his arrest shortly after the brawl.
Martinez, Alexander Alcantar and four other men from Southern California had faced trial Nov. 26 on 12 charges including murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, battery and assault with a deadly weapon. Each faced a possible sentence of life in prison on the murder charge.
Under the pleas entered before Clark County District Judge Michelle Leavitt, most of those now free on bond can seek probation at sentencing in January.
Alcantar, 34, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of manslaughter in the slayings of two Hells Angels members. He was promised a sentence of no more than 18 to 45 months in state prison.
Prosecutor William Kephart said outside court that it would have been difficult to convince a jury that Alcantar, who was stabbed and shot during the fighting, was not acting in self-defense.
Monday's pleas came after a plea deal in October 2006 ended a federal racketeering trial and resolved state charges against six Hells Angels members. Most received sentences of about 30 months in prison. Federal prosecutors dropped charges against 36 other Hells Angels.
Hells Angels member Frederick Donahue remains a fugitive on murder and attempted murder charges, and Kephart said he will be prosecuted if he is apprehended.
