Federal agents and officers investigate a bar in Santa Rosa after the arrests of Hells Angels in 2017. Inset photo is of Raymond “Ray Ray” Foakes (Photos from The Press Democrat)
Two high-ranking members of a California chapter of the Hells Angels have been found guilty in a racketeering and murder conspiracy that authorities said permitted and sometimes encouraged beating, maiming, and killing anyone who dared to cross their criminal enterprise.
A federal jury found Raymond “Ray Ray” Foakes and Christopher “Rainman” Ranieri guilty of racketeering conspiracy and murder conspiracy for their participation in the criminal enterprise of the Sonoma County charter of the Hells Angels, authorities said in a news release. A third defendant, Brian Burke, was acquitted of a count of witness intimidation, officials said. Ranieri faces life in prison. Foakes faces up to 60 years in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nina Peng said the Hells Angels in Sonoma lived by the creed, “F— around and find out,” the San Jose Mercury News reported.
“(Foakes) was the main guy. He was Mr. Hells Angel,” Peng told the jury, the Mercury News reported. “He got respect by beating people, including other Hells Angels, down into submission.”
U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey said Foakes and Ranieri followed a malicious code that permitted and encouraged beating, maiming and killing.
The trial is the second following the Oct. 10, 2017, federal grand jury indictment against the Sonoma County-based Hells Angels charter north of San Francisco.
The indictment charged 11 members and associates with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, narcotics distribution, assault, robbery, extortion, illegal firearms possession, obstruction of justice, and witness intimidation, officials said.
With Friday’s verdict, officials said nine of 11 defendants have been convicted. One died. The defendants include five former presidents of three Hells Angels charters — Sonoma County, Fresno, and Salem, Mass., authorities said.
The first trial in 2022 centered on the July 15, 2014, murder of former member Joel “Doughboy” Silva. Jonathan “Jon Jon” Nelson, 46; Brian Wayne Wendt, 45; and Russell “Rusty” Taylor Ott, 69, were convicted. Their attorneys attacked the government’s case as “a flimsy hodgepodge of unreliable witnesses coupled with inconsequential FBI testimony designed to smear the Hells Angels and make mountains out of molehills,” the Mercury News reported in 2022.
In the second trial, Ranieri, the president of a Hells Angels charter in Salem, was convicted for his role in planning Silva’s murder with Wendt and Nelson, officials said.
Silva was killed for disrespecting the men after he threatened a member of the club’s Salem charter who was close to Ranieri, authorities said.
“The three agreed that Silva had to be killed,” officials said.
On July 15, 2014, Silva was lured to the Fresno Hells Angels clubhouse, where Wendt shot him in the back of the head, officials said. The following morning, Silva’s body was burned at a crematory, his truck set on fire.
A party was held to celebrate Silva’s killing, authorities said.
Rainieri’s lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment from Law&Crime. The Mercury News reported that Rainieri’s attorney argued that a former Hells Angel who testified for the prosecution about Silva’s murder is a habitual liar who admitted to seeking movie and magazine deals to tell his story as a biker gang member.
Foakes was convicted of assault with a firearm in aid of racketeering in the beating of a former club member who was being kicked out of the gang because he had an affair with Foakes’ then common-law wife.
“During the expulsion, among other acts of violence, Foakes beat the victim with a baseball bat, forcibly tattooed the victim’s forehead, and induced Nelson to pistol-whip the victim in the face,” officials said.
Foakes was also convicted of witness intimidation for sexually assaulting the victim’s wife as the victim was being beaten at the clubhouse and told her not to report it to the authorities.
Albert Boro, Foakes’ lawyer, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime. He said the government had failed to implicate his client in the beating or sexual assault of the victim’s wife, the Mercury News reported.
He said the beating wasn’t a federal crime and questioned if his client was “Mr. Hells Angel,” why he would need to assault someone to maintain or improve his rank in the club, which is a required element for a RICO conviction, the newspaper reported.
The Mercury News quoted Erik Babcock, Burke’s lawyer, saying the alleged witness intimidation was “completely uncorroborated.”
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