MOUNTAIN VIEW — Authorities say that in the span of an hour at a Shoreline Amphitheatre concert in June, a group of Hells Angels members viciously beat an off-duty police officer, then were involved in a fatal assault where one of them punched a man from behind, causing him to fall face-first down on the concrete.
As the second victim lay motionless on the ground — suffering a traumatic brain injury from which he would later die — the group of men poured beer on him in front of onlookers, with one of them shouting, “This is what you get (expletive), for talking (expletive).”
In the immediate aftermath, one member of the group allegedly cornered a witness against a food truck, lifted him by the collar, and told him, “You didn’t see nothing!” Another member is said to have blocked the path of a different witness, who was trying to follow the group as they left the scene while trying to call concert security.
Those details are outlined in a criminal complaint and a Mountain View Police Department investigative summary that accompany multiple felony charges — encompassing murder, assault and witness intimidation — filed against the five men, all of whom are linked to the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Tuesday, the men were arrested in the Bay Area and in Chicago, and authorities served search warrants on their homes in San Francisco, San Mateo and Pleasant Hill, as well as the Hells Angels clubhouse in San Francisco.
Logan Winterton, 37, of San Francisco, faces the most serious charge, murder, in the deadly assault at the June 18 Chris Stapleton concert at Shoreline. The man who died has been identified as 41-year-old Bakersfield resident Juan Gonzalez.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office also filed felony charges of assault likely to cause great bodily injury against Winterton and San Francisco residents Julio Moran, 43, and David Wisenhaven, 38, and 42-year-old Pleasant Hill resident Raymond Cunanan. Additionally, Cunanan and Dominic Guardado, a 34-year-old San Francisco resident, were each charged with a felony count of dissuading a witness.
Deputy District Attorney Irene Williams confirmed that Cunanan and Moran were arraigned Wednesday in Santa Clara County, and that both are being held in jail, though records only show Moran being held at the Main Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail. She said Guardado and Wiesenhaven were booked at the San Francisco jail and were released after posting bail, and are expected to make their first court appearances in mid-December.
Winterton was arrested in Chicago and was awaiting extradition back to the Bay Area, Williams said.
The prosecutor said the two victims in the case did not know the defendants prior to their chance run-ins at the concert. The investigative summary written by Mountain View Police Detective Jason Roldan states that the victim in the first attack was an off-duty police officer waiting in line for a portable restroom who had “a brief conversation” in the line with Cunanan.
Moments later, in an encounter partially captured on security footage, Cunanan allegedly put his drink down then “put both hands around (the victim’s) neck” and pushed him back and out of the camera’s view.
Roldan wrote that the man reappeared on camera “with an unsteady gait,” followed by either Winterton or Wiesenhaven throwing a drink at him, and one of the two punching the man in the face and knocking him to the ground. That was reportedly followed by Cunanan, Moran, Wiesenhaven and Winterton kicking and punching the man repeatedly, and an instance where Wiesenhaven stomped on the man’s face.
The victim in that assault, who Williams described only as a police officer who works in California, reportedly suffered head injuries including a broken orbital bone.
About an hour later, near the Stage Right Café, Gonzalez reportedly walked through a group that included the defendants and other Hells Angels members, then returned and touched the shoulder of a woman described as Guardado’s girlfriend. Gonzalez walked away; Roldan wrote that Winterton followed him, with Cunanan, Guardado and Wiesenhaven following close behind.
Winterton then punched Gonzalez in the back of the head, knocking him face-first to the ground, followed by someone in the group pouring beer on him, according to the police summary. Gonzalez was rushed to a local hospital; he was later declared brain dead and was removed from organ support on June 29.
Roldan stated that security footage coupled with months of investigation led police to identify the defendants and their affiliations with the Hells Angels, which the Deparment of Justice formally describes as an outlaw motorcycle gang. Police said they consulted with a motorcycle-gang expert from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to determine that Guardado, Wiesenhaven and Winterton were full-patch members of the club’s Frisco chapter, and that Moran is associated with the Daly City chapter but is not a full member. Cunanan’s afiiliation was not clear.
Williams said the two witness intimidation charges against Cunanan and Guardado carry gang enhancements that could increase a potential prison sentence upon conviction. She added that possible gang enhancements are being evaluated for the murder and assault charges.
Source: www.mercurynews.com