Prison Gang Leader Sentenced to 20 Years for Violent Crime/Racketeering Conviction

LAS VEGAS—Ronald “Joey” Sellers, a leader of the Aryan Warrior’s prison gang, was sentenced today to 20 years in prison for his guilty plea to committing a violent crime in aid of a racketeering offense, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.

Sellers, 43,was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kent J. Dawson, who ordered that the federal term of imprisonment be served consecutively to the life sentence that Sellers is already serving in Nevada for the 1990 murder of a 7-11 store clerk in Reno.

Sellers and 13 other defendants were originally charged in 2007 with federal racketeering and drug conspiracy offenses related to their membership in the Aryan Warriors race-based gang, which operated both inside and outside the Nevada prison system. The gang offered protection to white inmates if they joined, and asserted control over other prisoners through violence and extortion. Gang members corrupted guards, extorted money and favors from prisoners’ family members, distributed illegal drugs, and ran extensive illegal gambling operations.

On November 20, 2007, Sellers and co-defendant James Wallis attacked co-defendant Guy Almony with a knife while they were in federal custody at the North Las Vegas Detention Center. Sellers believed that Almony might undermine him and other Aryan Warriors defendants by cooperating with the government and testifying against them. Sellers stabbed Almony in the neck, causing life-threatening injuries to him. At today’s sentencing hearing, Sellers stated that he was not remorseful for the attack on Almony, and declined any decrease in his sentence for pleading guilty.

Thirteen of the gang members charged in the 2007 case either pleaded guilty or were convicted following a seven-week trial in 2009. Two others pleaded guilty in related cases. All 15 of these defendants were sentenced to lengthy prison sentences on racketeering, drug, or assault charges.

The cases were investigated by the FBI and Nevada Department of Corrections Inspector General’s Office, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kathleen Bliss and Nicholas D. Dickinson, and Thom Gover of the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. Other agencies that have contributed to the investigated include the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Nye County Sheriff’s Department.