Three white supremacists and members of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang were sentenced to federal prison Monday after being convicted of ordering multiple murders while serving time in the California prison system, authorities said.
A federal judge in Fresno sentenced Francis Clement, 58, to life in prison for a racketeering conspiracy that included five murders, drug trafficking, fraud, and robbery, according to a press statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
Each of the murders in Los Angeles County occurred when Clement was in state prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Clement was convicted in February along with Kenneth Johnson, 63, who was convicted of two of the murders in the aid of racketeering, along with conspiracy. Johnson was also sentenced to life in federal prison, where there is no parole.
In addition, John Stinson, 70, who was also serving a lengthy sentence in the California state prison system, was sentenced to 20 years in federal custody, the press statement said. He was already serving a life sentence for a 1979 murder, and court documents indicated Clement and Johnson held leadership roles in the Aryan Brotherhood and directed crimes by gang members inside and outside of prison using smuggled cellphones. Prosecutors said Johnson and Clement together ordered the killings between 2020 and 2022 because they believed their victims either violated gang rules or owed the gang money.
The statement said evidence presented at the trial showed Stinson was also a high-ranking Aryan Brotherhood leader with substantial authority over the enterprise, and used a contraband cellphone within his prison cell to engage in drug trafficking. His ranking in the gang allowed Stinson to receive a cut of prison and street-level drug sales, as did Clement, prosecutors said.
Stinson was already serving a life sentence for a 1979 Long Beach murder and a 2007 racketeering conviction.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 
“The convicted defendants led a notorious prison gang that committed ruthless murders, widespread methamphetamine trafficking, and perpetuated a culture of mayhem, fear, and disorder within the prison system that bled into the outside world,” said a prepared statement from Matthew Galeotti, who heads the U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Organized crime within the prison system, enabled by the use of contraband cellphones, endangers American neighborhoods by flooding streets with dangerous drugs. The Criminal Division will continue to pursue crime syndicates, like the Aryan Brotherhood and their facilitators, to ensure they go to prison and the harm they inflict on society ends once incarcerated.”
“Today’s sentences are yet another blow to the leadership of a violent criminal enterprise run from inside California prisons and spanning multiple counties and states,” said Michele Beckwith, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California. “The Aryan Brotherhood has maintained its deadly influence over members, associates and others both inside and outside prison. We are committed to doing everything we can to stop these violent inmates from orchestrating their criminal activities from inside prison walls.”
Attorneys for Clement, Johnson, and Stinson had argued that they were convicted with testimony from lifelong criminals seeking to cut themselves a better deal. The Los Angeles Times reported that Clement’s lawyers noted in a sentencing memo that no prison guards were prosecuted for smuggling in phones or colluding with gang leaders.
The Times also reported that lawyers for Johnson and Clement filed a motion to delay their sentencing because the men had been marked for “assault and/or murder” after the trial and the threat could be grounds for a new trial.
Eleven defendants in total were charged in the racketeering conspiracy case; five other defendants are awaiting trial and three have pleaded guilty.
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