A member of the Hells Angels of Sonoma County used his connection at a Fresno funeral home to incinerate the body of a murdered member of the biker gang in 2014, federal prosecutors said.
By Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles TimesFRESNO, Calif. - Merl Hefferman told the crematory manager of the funeral home that he wanted to make things disappear, prosecutors said.Federal prosecutors spelled out in the most graphic detail yet last week how Hefferman, a member of the Hells Angels of Sonoma County, used his connection at a Fresno funeral home to incinerate the body of Joel Silva, a murdered member of the biker gang, in the summer of 2014.
His plea came as part of a much larger racketeering takedown of 12 members of the Hells Angels of Sonoma County, a subset of the “transnational violent outlaw motorcycle gang,” prosecutors said.As part of the same case, three other members of the gang were convicted of killing Silva. Brian Wendt was convicted of shooting Silva in the head, and two senior Hells Angels members — Jonathan Nelson and Russell Taylor Ott — were convicted of murder for orchestrating the killing.
The time the bodies were cremated lined up with the disappearances of Hells Angels members Robbie Huff and Art Carasis, who went missing in 2015 and 2016; Huff participated in the coverup of Silva’s murder, prosecutors said. Hefferman’s attorney identified the fourth missing person as Juan Guevara, also a Hells Angels member.
But Hefferman’s attorney shot back at what they called prosecutors’ last-ditch attempt to tie Hefferman to additional body disposals he was not charged with.
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