Twenty-three gang members were originally arrested by the FBI on racketeering charges in 2017, although only eight stood trial, including Gonzalez and Palofax. (Image: LA Times\/Polaris)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAmong those on trial from the California-based Vagos gang is Ernesto Gonzalez, who fired the shot that killed Hells Angels boss Angel Jeffrey Pettigrew at the Nugget over eight years ago.<\/p>\n
In 2013, Gonzalez was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, although he always insisted he had acted in self-defense. In 2015, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the conviction because it deemed instructions to the jury had been improper.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez was awaiting a retrial when the feds took over. In 2017, he and seven of his fellow gang members were indicted by federal prosecutors on charges that included \u201cracketeering, murder, robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and other violent crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutors argue these crimes were part of a collective criminal conspiracy among the gang members.<\/p>\n
Key Witness Admits Lying \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\nBut while charges differ from defendant to defendant, much of this case hinges on what happened at the Nugget that day, and on the testimony of former Vagos member Gary \u201cJabbers\u201d Rudnick.<\/p>\n
Rudnick claimed that Vagos leader Pastor Fausto Palafox had ordered the assassination of Pettigrew, who was president of the San Jose chapter of the Hells Angels \u2013 an act consistent with that of an organized criminal enterprise.<\/p>\n
But sensationally, in September, Rudnick admitted in court he had lied about Palofax ordering the hit on Pettigrew.<\/p>\n
\n
Defense attorney Michael Kennedy, representing Gonzalez, has argued the incident at the Nugget was nothing but a spontaneous mass brawl, and his client had a right to defend himself from Pettigrew.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It was Pettigrew who threw the first punch, pulled the first gun, and fired the first shots, the jury heard. Two Vagos members had already been wounded by bullets when Gonzalez shot Pettigrew, who was at the time stomping on a Vagos member with his gun drawn.<\/p>\n
The three minutes of violence was captured on the casino\u2019s security cameras and caught the attention of media around the world.<\/p>\n
Big Picture<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe Associated Press<\/em> reports US Justice Department attorney John Han urged the jury to focus not just on the Nugget and the discredited testimony of the star prosecution witness, but on the wider picture.<\/p>\nThis included wiretaps and recordings made by an undercover FBI agent had who spent 22 months posing as a Vagos member.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story doesn\u2019t start at the Nugget, and it doesn\u2019t end at the Nugget,\u201d said Han. \u201cThis was a group of people associated together as part of the Vagos. The fact that defendants commit personal acts of violence is evidence of the criminal enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a five-month trial, a jury in Las Vegas is expected to spend several days deliberating whether the biker gang behind a notorious 2011 killing on the gaming floor of the Nugget Casino in Sparks, Nevada is a \u201ccriminal enterprise,\u201d or just a disorganized group of hoodlums. Among those on trial from the California-based Vagos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":127595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Jury Weighs Fate of Vagos Gang Involved in Sparks Nugget Casino Killing<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n