Another guilty plea in California racketeering murder case against Aryan Brotherhood prison gang

Sam Stanton
·2 min read
26

For the second time in two weeks, an accused Aryan Brotherhood member has pleaded guilty in a four-year-old case against the white supremacist California prison gang that is scheduled to go to trial in Sacramento in February.

Patrick “Big Pat” Brady, 53, pleaded guilty to murder in aid of racketeering Wednesday in a Sacramento courtroom and faces a mandatory life sentence.

Brady’s plea follows a Dec. 20 court hearing during which fellow Aryan Brotherhood member Brant Daniel, 49, pleaded guilty to murder in aid of racketeering and was immediately sentenced to life.

Brady was charged in 2019 with participating in a racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit murder in the 2018 slaying of inmate Donald Pequeen at High Desert State Prison near Susanville.

Court records say Brady and fellow Aryan Brotherhood member Jason Corbett repeatedly stabbed Pequeen in the prison yard “to increase their position” in the prison gang.

A court filing Wednesday says Brady killed Pequeen “because Pequeen had falsely claimed to be an AB member and had run up a significant drug debt at his previous prison — both clear violations of the AB’s expected codes of conduct.”

“Brady explained that members of the Aryan Brotherhood wanted to send a message to the rest of the white prison population that a false claim to AB membership would be punished by death,” court records say.

Brady was among 16 defendants originally charged in 2019 in a racketeering complaint that federal prosecutors said struck a blow at Aryan Brotherhood leaders orchestrating drug and cellphone sales and slayings from inside California prisons.

Trial in the case is scheduled to begin Feb. 26 and was expected to be a lengthy affair until last October, when federal prosecutors announced they would not seek a death penalty prosecution against Daniel, Brady, Corbett and fellow gang members Ronald Yandell and William Sylvester.

Yandell, Sylvester and inmate Danny Troxell still are scheduled to face trial in the case.

Brady faces sentencing March 25 before U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller.