Copyright 2010 Charleston Newspapers
Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)
July 30, 2010, Friday
NEWS; Pg. P4C
657 words
Andrew Clevenger, Staff writer
The retrial of a former federal corrections officer accused of plotting to retaliate against a jailed member of the Pagans Motorcycle Club began Thursday with prosecutors retracing familiar territory.
Michael Lloyd Stevens’ previous trial, held last week in federal court, ended in a mistrial after jurors could not agree on a verdict.
Stevens, 38, of Huntington, is accused of conspiring with members of the Pagans and its Huntington-based support club, the Last Rebels, to have another inmate assault Vincent “Hot Rod” Morris.
Morris, a member of the Charleston chapter of the Pagans, was convicted of robbing a Big Chimney bank in February 2004 with fellow Pagan Paul “Paulie” Hysell.
The Pagans branded Morris as a snitch because he cooperated with the FBI as it investigated the bank heist, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Loew said during his opening statement. Morris’ cooperation resulted in Hysell’s capture and conviction, he said.
Stevens, whose brother was president of the Huntington chapter of the Last Rebels, wanted to join the club, but his job as a corrections officer kept him out, Loew said. The Pagans and their affiliated clubs didn’t want any law enforcement officers near their organization, and even required members to report any contact with police, he said.
When Morris was transferred to the federal prison in Ashland where Stevens worked, Stevens saw an opportunity to prove that he was more loyal to bikers than police, Loew said.
The jury heard surreptitious recordings of Stevens talking with David “Kicker” Cremeans, then a member of the Last Rebels, and James Ronnie “Pagan Ronnie” Howerton, a member of the Pagans, about how to keep Morris quiet.
Cremeans testified that as a member of the smaller club, he could not authorize any action against a Pagan without permission, so he talked to Howerton, who was Pagans’ national vice president Floyd “Jesse” Moore’s right-hand man.
Howerton was working as a confidential informant for the FBI and recorded their conversations.
On one recording, Cremeans told Howerton that Morris had been telling lies in prison.
“He’s a loose cannon, he’s a hot mouth, and he’s a hothead,” Cremeans said. “I would like him to shut the [expletive] up.”
Stevens said that he didn’t like how "[Morris] done Paulie,” adding that he liked Hysell, a tattoo artist who had tattooed Stevens.
“To me, a snitch is the worst thing that’s walking,” Stevens said on the recording.
Stevens said that inmate Timothy “Tiny” Sizemore, a 6-foot-6, 350-pound member of the Brothers of the Wheel club based in Kentucky, would take care of Morris for $300 or $400. Stevens said he had already given Sizemore some cigarettes, which went for $150 a pack because they were banned inside the prison.
Sizemore intended to make the incident seem like self-defense by stabbing himself, Stevens said.
“I think Tiny’s planning on sticking himself and then stomping [Morris’] guts out,” he said on the recording.
Defense attorney Jackie Hallinan deferred giving her opening statement until after the government had rested its case.
At Stevens’ previous trial, she maintained that the government had no evidence that he knew Morris had cooperated with federal authorities.
Stevens was one of 55 defendants named in a racketeering indictment against members and associates of the Pagans. He has been in custody since the indictment was unsealed in October.
Cremeans and Moore have both pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.
Only two Pagans defendants, Kim H. “Bear” Berryman and Eric W. “Fritz” Wolfe, still have charges pending, and both are scheduled to go to trial next week.
Most defendants have entered plea deals to lesser charges, and several have entered pretrial diversions in which prosecutors agreed to drop the charges against them if they stay out of trouble for a year.
Stevens’ trial is set to continue today in front of U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston.