Nevada

Nevada court rules that Las Vegas Hells Angels can face gang prosecution

Published

1 year ago

December 27, 2024

Nevada court rules that Las Vegas Hells Angels can face gang prosecution

Las Vegas Hells Angels motorcycle club members accused of targeting a rival club in a Henderson highway shooting can be prosecuted as gang members under state law, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The 2022 Memorial Day shooting on Interstate 11 — which Clark County prosecutors alleged targeted Vagos Motorcycle Club members — injured seven people.

Addressing that case, the higher court ruled that there was enough probable cause to classify the Hells Angels as a criminal gang.

Indicted Hells Angels members included local chapter President Richard Devries.

District Court Judge Tierra Jones in 2023 dismissed some of the charges the suspects were facing, including racketeering, gang enhancements and 20 of 25 shooting-related counts.

Jones had sided with defense attorneys who had argued that the indictment failed to properly specify which defendants engaged in alleged racketeering activities.

Police told a grand jury that investigators recovered 25 spent bullets on the highway.

Jones noted that prosecutors only presented evidence from a witness who testified that one of the suspects fired five rounds.

Defense attorneys countered that the state failed to consider exculpatory evidence that some of the Vagos members had guns and that one of the indicted suspects, Rayann Mollasgo, had also been shot.

‘Criminal gang’

“We conclude that this was an error because the State presented at least slight or marginal evidence to support a reasonable inference that Hells Angels members commonly engage in felony-level violence directed at rival motorcycle clubs, such that that group constitutes a criminal gang,” Supreme Court justices wrote in their ruling.

Added the higher court: “Because the District Court substantially erred in dismissing the gang enhancement, we reverse and remand.”

The other Hells Angels members indicted were Stephen Alo, Russell Smith, Aaron Chun, Cameron Treich and Taylor Rodriguez.

After Jones’ ruling, they still were facing 17 charges, including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Roneric Padilla, who also was indicted, was charged with accessory to commit a felony.

The Vagos group was returning to Las Vegas from Hoover Dam in a ride commemorating the holiday when Hells Angels motorcyclists rode behind the victims, according to prosecutors, who allege the Vagos were ambushed.

The suspects broke up the victims’ group and then shot at individual riders, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors alleged that the shooting might have been in retaliation for a California shooting that killed a Hells Angels motorcyclist, an accusation challenged by Vagos members during a grand jury hearing.

Nsc Hells Angels Decision by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.

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Nevada

Best Nevada high schools for athletes? One study has revealed a top 25

Published

7 hours ago

May 15, 2026

Press Room

Best Nevada high schools for athletes? One study has revealed a top 25

Nevada has a rich history of producing athletic legends.

Total number of sports: 24

1. Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas)

Total number of sports: 14

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Nevada

Nevada designates more than 119,000 voters inactive

Published

19 hours ago

May 14, 2026

Press Room

Nevada designates more than 119,000 voters inactive

CARSON CITY, Nev. (KOLO) – The State of Nevada says it has designated more than 119,000 voters as inactive ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar says that in the spring of this year, counties updated 14,164 voter records, designated 119,533 voters as inactive and canceled the voter registrations of 7,583 people.

This is in addition to 2025 voter roll maintenance efforts that registered more than 138,000 voters inactive and canceled nearly 177,000 voter registrations.

“State and local election officials are working hard to prepare voters for the upcoming June Primary, and keeping Nevada’s voter rolls up to date is a critical part of that process. County election officials have dedicated significant resources to make sure Nevada’s voter registration records are accurate, so that all eligible Nevadans – and only eligible Nevadans – can cast a ballot,” said Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar. “Mail ballots are being sent to active, registered voters across the state now. Voters can support their local officials’ work by checking and updating their registration information on VOTE.NV.gov.”

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Nevada

Arbor View beats rival Centennial for 5A boys volleyball state title

Published

1 day ago

May 14, 2026

Press Room

Arbor View beats rival Centennial for 5A boys volleyball state title

The Arbor View boys volleyball team has embodied the mindset that it would take the efforts of all 16 players to win the school its first boys volleyball title.

It proved to be the case on Wednesday night against rival Centennial in the Class 5A state championship match, and the Aggies’ efforts all season showed up in the biggest game of the season.

No. 3-seeded Arbor View claimed its first boys volleyball title with a 25-20, 25-27, 25-19, 25-19 victory over top-seeded Centennial at Sunrise Mountain.

“It feels amazing. The boys have worked hard, I don’t even know if I could put it into words,” Arbor View coach Nicole Adarme said. “Our big goal was to stay calm and collected the entire time. I just wanted to reflect that for them.”

Arbor View (28-13-1) let its emotions out after the final point on an Owen Wenger kill. The Aggies huddled and jumped for joy, helped carry injured teammate Gunnar Robinson off the bench, and eventually moved the celebration into the stands with a sea of red from the Arbor View student section.

“It feels absolutely great,” junior middle blocker/outside hitter Risden Miller said. “We trust each other so much. We’re best friends in and out of volleyball, and that really helps us on the court with just competing as a team.”

Even though the two team’s previous meeting on April 14 was a three-set win in league play by Centennial (32-6), Adarme said she knew the fourth meeting of the season for the two northwest rivals wasn’t going to be a sweep on either side.

Arbor View won a back-and-forth first set on a kill from Miller. Then it looked like the Aggies were going to win a close second set, but Centennial got a point for Arbor View being out of rotation, and the Bulldogs won four of the last five points to even the match score to one set apiece.

“That’s the traditional thing (when we play) Centennial (to play long matches), so for us, we just treated it like another set,” Adarme said. “We knew they were going to fight, so how do we respond to that? Our constant conversation was responding to the negative and moving forward in a positive direction.”

Arbor View scored six straight points in the third set to take a 20-15 lead, and the Aggies never let up to get to the fourth set with a chance to win the title. The Aggies took advantage of several Centennial errors to take the lead in the third set on their way to the title.

“We took three deep breaths and reset and recollected ourselves as a team,” Miller said of closing out the final two sets. “That’s just completely huge for rebounding from a lost set.

“For me, personally, just looking at all my best friends on the court, that truly calms me down and I know it calms them down as well.”

Miller recorded 18 kills and Wenger was key at the net with eight kills and eight blocks. The Aggies also got contributions from Graham Blanchard, Kenyon Wickliffe and Robinson before he went down with a lower left leg injury in the fourth set.

Lincoln Larson led Centennial with 19 kills. It’s the first boys volleyball state title for Arbor View and first appearance in the title game after the program reached the state semifinals four previous times.

“We can’t (win) with six, we have to do it with all 16,” Adarme said. “We’ve been training all of them to be ready for big moments and it was an amazing moment for Cooper (Ball, coming in for an injured Robinson) to be able to come in for us.

“We just had to know we couldn’t be outside of ourselves. Where we fell short in the past was trying to be more instead of focusing on what our role is and what our job is.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.

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