· Jimmy Ray
Fritts was sentenced to serve 87 months in prison;
· Filip Caruso
was sentenced to serve 70 months in prison;
· Ryan Myrtle
was sentenced to time served, three years supervised release to include six
months home detention, and 150 hours of community service; and
· Emmett Green
was sentenced to time served and two years supervised release.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph M. Tripi and Brendan T.
Cullinane, who are handling the case, stated that the defendants admitted to
being members of the Kingsmen Motorcycle Club (KMC), a criminal organization
which engaged in such crimes as distribution of controlled substances,
maintaining premises for use and distribution of controlled substances,
possession, use and sale of firearms, sales of untaxed cigarettes, and
promoting prostitution. The KMC sought
to preserve and protect their power, territory, and reputation through
intimidation, violence, threats of violence, assaults, attempted murder and
murders, and was involved in placing victims, potential witnesses, and others
in fear of the enterprise, its members, and associates, through violence and
threats of violence.
Defendant Fritts was at various times a KMC Tennessee
Moonshine Chapter President. Fritts worked with other KMC members, including
Andre Jenkins, to obtain cocaine from a bar in Deland, Florida, and he
distributed cocaine in KMC clubhouses and at KMC events in Tennessee, Florida,
New York, and Pennsylvania. Fritts also possessed a cache of firearms, to
include handguns, rifles, and shotguns.
On July 15, 2015, Fritts testified falsely and evasively
about material facts before a federal Grand Jury in the Western District of New
York, specifically regarding: the circumstances under which he loaned his
motorcycle to Andre Jenkins, a/k/a Little Bear, to travel from Tennessee to New
York; what other person was with him when he loaned his motorcycle to Jenkins;
where he was when he provided the motorcycle to Jenkins; the circumstances
under which Jenkins traveled back to Tennessee from New York to return his
motorcycle; whether Jenkins was threatened upon his return to the KMC Tennessee
Chapter; and who he met with, and what was discussed, the night before his
federal Grand Jury testimony on July 15, 2015. Read more...
Fritts further admitted that his participation in this
conspiracy included his agreement that acts involving murder would be committed
by members of the KMC. Specifically, the defendant met with David Pirk, Andre
Jenkins, and "Drifter" in the Tennessee KMC Chapter clubhouse and
discussed and agreed that Andre Jenkins was going to travel from Tennessee to
New York to commit the murder of Filip Caruso and to investigate
"leakers" within the KMC suspected of providing information to
rivals. Prior to this meeting, Fritts provided a loaded 9mm Glock
semi-automatic firearm to Andre Jenkins. On September 6, 2014, Andre Jenkins
shot and killed KMC members Paul Maue and Daniel Szymanski behind the North
Tonawanda Kingsmen Clubhouse on Oliver Street in North Tonawanda, NY. Jenkins,
in committing the murders, was acting under the direction and supervision of
David Pirk, who authorized the murders. Following the murders, Fritts made
arrangements to help Jenkins flee New York and return to Tennessee.
When Jenkins returned to Tennessee on September 7, 2014, the
Tennessee KMC members, who at that time were unaware that Pirk had sanctioned
the murders of Maue and Szymanski, were armed with firearms and prepared to
kill Jenkins until David Pirk, while speaking on the phone with the Tennessee
KMC members, directed the Tennessee KMC Moonshine Chapter members to
"stand down" and not harm Jenkins. As time went by, eventually one of
the Tennessee KMC members, D.S., who was present when Jenkins returned from New
York to Tennessee, was kicked out of the KMC Tennessee Chapter for using
heroin, a drug prohibited by the KMC. The KMC determine that D.S. was
compromised and should be killed because of the incriminating information he
possessed regarding the KMC's role in the murders and Paul Maue and Daniel
Szymanski. Fritts and other Tennessee KMC Chapter members agreed to kill D.S.,
provided Jenkins with a firearm, and instructed Jenkins to kill D.S. Jenkins
agreed to kill D.S. Jenkins was subsequently arrested in the State of Georgia
with the firearm provided to him by members of the Tennessee KMC Chapter on
about October 10, 2014.
Defendant Caruso, a/k/a Filly, was a member of the KMC at
various times between 2009 and mid to late August of 2014. In January 2014, Caruso
and another KMC member from the Western District of New York traveled to
Florida. While Caruso was in Florida, David Pirk and Timothy Enix, KMC Florida
Regional President, wanted his help to retrieve KMC property that was in the
possession of former KMC members who had jumped patch to a rival motorcycle
club in Florida. KMC members, including Caruso, Pirk, Enix, Andre Jenkins, and
others obtained and possessed various firearms and engaged in discussions about
how to retrieve their property from the former KMC members. During the course
of these group discussions, it was agreed upon that they would recover their
property by any means necessary, which included killing or kidnapping the
former KMC members in order to get back KMC property. In August 2014, Caruso
and another KMC member punched and struck a fellow KMC member with a pool cue
inside the Niagara Falls Chapter clubhouse.
On June 7, 2013, KMC forcibly shut down the Springville
Chapter and stripped members of their colors because they were deemed
non-compliant. Defendant Myrtle participated in the forced shutdown during
which other KMC members struck a victim in the head with a blunt object and
stole items from the Springville clubhouse. They then used bleach to clean
areas where the victim bled and cut and removed portions of the rug which
contained blood. In addition, on September 21, 2012, Myrtle participated in a
drive-by shooting in order to retaliate against a former KMC member who
assaulted a KMC Regional President. On
that date, two car loads of KMC members, including the defendant, drove to the
residence of the person in the Riverside section of Buffalo and opened fire at
the residence. No injuries were
reported.
In December 2014, defendant Green and co-defendant Robert
Osborne, Jr., and others, assaulted a former Kingsmen for breaking club rules
by punching the victim repeatedly in the body and chest and knocking him to the
ground.
A total of 16 defendants were charged and convicted in this
case, including KMC National President David Pirk and Andrew Jenkins who were
each sentenced to serve multiple terms of life in prison.
Today’s sentencings are the culmination of an investigation
led by the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force. Assisting in the investigation were
the FBI Knoxville, Tennessee and Jacksonville, Florida Field Offices; U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; the
North Tonawanda Police Department; the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office; the
Erie County Sheriff’s Office; the Buffalo Police Department; the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the New York State Police; the Olean Police Department; the
Lancaster Police Department; the Amherst Police Department; the Town of
Tonawanda Police Department; the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority
Police; the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s
Department; and the Hamburg Police Department.
