Prosecutors notch another guilty plea in feds’ Aryan Brotherhood prison gang case

Sam Stanton
·2 min read
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Another Aryan Brotherhood prison gang member facing trial next month in Sacramento on racketeering and conspiracy charges pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder in aid of racketeering and now faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Jason Corbett, 51, entered the plea before Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller and faces sentencing April 8.

Corbett is the third Aryan Brotherhood member to plead guilty in recent weeks as the February trial approaches.

Patrick “Big Pat” Brady, 53, pleaded guilty to murder in aid of racketeering on Jan. 3 faces a mandatory life sentence.

That plea followed 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.

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

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

Corbett’s plea involves the July 18, 2018, slaying — with help from Brady — of High Desert State Prison inmate Donald Pequeen, who was killed because he had falsely claimed to be an Aryan Brotherhoood member “in violation of the Aryan Brotherhood’s code of conduct,” court papers say.

“The murder was the result of a planned, coordinated hit targeting Pequeen,” court papers say.

Court papers say Brady struck up a conversation with Pequeen while Corbett slipped up behind him, pulled out a handmade weapon and began stabbing him in the back.

Pequeen tried to run, but court documents say Corbett and Brady chased him down and continued stabbing him in the head, neck and torso before dropping their weapons and walking away as prison guards closed in.