The second big Aryan Brotherhood RICO trial in the last 12 months kicked off the week of January 13, this time in Fresno, California. John Stinson (a/k/a Youngster) (a/k/a Pops) (a/k/a Taco), Kenneth “Kenwood” Johnson, and Francis “Frank” Clement are on trial. All three are veteran AB members and their names all came up in the 2024 Sacramento trial.

The big difference from the 2024 Sacramento trial is that the defendants are in trial clothes (i.e., suits and ties) and are only leg shackled, out-of-view from the jury. In contrast, the three Sacramento defendants—Ronnie Yandell, Billy Sylvester, and Danny Troxell—wore their California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) prison uniforms in court. They were also waist chained to their chairs, but out-of-view from the jury.

The three Fresno defendants have remarkably similar appearances. Clement and Johnson are virtually undistinguishable from each other—both have bald/shaved heads, handlebar mustaches, and wear glasses—and sit at the same table. Stinson, who appears slightly different (i.e., he has closely cropped hair and a goatee) sits at a separate table facing the jury in front of Clement and Johnson. Plexiglass barriers sit on the prosecution and defense tables, although no one is wearing a facemask or gloves.

More interesting is the legal representation. Stinson, 70, is represented by Kenneth Reed, an Orange County private practice defense attorney. Reed’s website states, “I have always believed this to be the irreducible essence of what it means to say ‘Kenneth Reed for _____________, the defendant.’ That means I am there 24/7 for my client, 24/7 for you.”

Kenwood Johnson, 63, is represented by Andrea Leum, a private practice attorney out of Las Vegas. Also on Johnson’s team are Ryan Villa from Albuquerque and local Fresno counsel Peter Kapetan.

Perhaps the most interesting legal team is the one representing Frank Clement, 58. All three lawyers have New York City office addresses in the official court records: Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, Jean deSalles Barrett, and David Stern. However, Fisher-Byrialsen’s firm bio shows she works in Denver and deSalles Barrett’s profile says she is based in New Jersey. Wherever they’re based, that’s a long way from Fresno.

Inmate-Made Weapons Found in Jail

The defendants in this RICO prosecution are being held in Fresno County Jail (a/k/a Club Snoopy). Trial Day 1 saw lead prosecutor Stephanie Stokman bring to Judge Jennifer Thurston’s attention that at least two inmate-made weapons had been discovered by Fresno County jail deputies. The weapons were found in the cells of co-defendants Justin “Sidetrack” Gray and James “Suspect” Field.

Stokman told the Court that co-defendants Jayson “Beaver” Weaver and Waylon Pitchford were orchestrating a plot to attack witnesses. Gray was found with a “large inmate-made weapon” and a handcuff key. Field was found with a weapon hidden in his cell.

Weaver and Pitchford allegedly stabbed Hugo “Yogi” Pinell to death at New Folsom in August 2015 and were subsequently made as full-fledged Brand members. For reasons that have not been explained, neither Weaver nor Pitchford were named in the 2019 Sacramento RICO indictment. The subsequent 2024 trial had extensive testimony about the Yogi stabbing, including from the two CDCR Correctional Officers who witnessed it from just feet away. Weaver and Pitchford are named defendants in the Fresno indictment but are not part of the trial that began in January 2025.

Pitchford is also believed to be Unindicted Co-Conspirator No. 2 in the October 2024 SFV Peckerwoods indictment. In that indictment, Unindicted Co-Conspirator No. 2’s text messages from his contraband cell phone were cited as overt acts. Pitchford has been housed in Fresno County Jail for several years and, hence, if he is Unindicted Co-Conspirator No. 2, those messages were most likely sent from Club Snoopy.

Meanwhile, Justin “Sidetrack” Gray is alleged to have committed the murders of pimp Allan Roshanski and Israeli Mob-connected goon Ruslan Magomedgadzhiev in Los Angeles County in 2020 at the direction of Johnson and Clement, as reported by the El Segundo Times.

James “Suspect” Field is alleged to have murdered Michael Brizendine in Lancaster in 2022 on Clement’s orders, according to the El Segundo Times.

What To Look Forward To

Jury selection occurred the week of January 13, 2025. The Court Calendar shows opening statements are expected for Thursday, January 23, 2025, in Courtroom 3 at the Robert E. Coyle United States Courthouse in Fresno. It is anticipated to be a two- to three-month trial.

The third superseding indictment that dropped in May 2024 mentioned multiple murders, arson, kidnapping, robbery, and interstate drug trafficking. Given that COVID relief fraud overlapped with the timeline of events covered by this indictment, expect some of that as well.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect to this case will be the defense theories. Presumably, Kenneth Reed won’t be making the Drop Out defense for his client, John Stinson, which didn’t work out the first time around circa 2006-2007. Likewise, Andrea Leum might have a tough time claiming her client, Kenneth Johnson, was a victim of a murder conspiracy (Sacramento RICO case), while he is alleged to have participated in the same exact thing in the Fresno RICO case. And Frank Clement’s New York Team (or at least Colorado-New Jersey Team) are the hardest to predict.

This is perhaps the most significant criminal trial in California at the moment. And there’s a lot of pertinent questions to be answered with this trial. Is it a wise use of taxpayer dollars to charge a septuagenarian serving multiple state and federal life sentences (i.e., John Stinson) with yet another federal crime? How complicit was CDCR in allowing the alleged crimes to occur (i.e., the murder of Hugo Pinell)? And with the United States Bureau of Prisons not accepting CDCR inmates via jurisdictional shift, will this change anything?