Former Hells Angels boss accused of disposing of bodies in ‘the pizza oven’

Federal prosecutors say a former Hells Angels boss disposed of the bodies of up to four of the group’s members at a northern California funeral home, known to the gang as “the pizza oven”.

US prosecutors set out in gruesome detail last week how they believe members of the gang used the Yost and Webb funeral home in Fresno, California, to cremate four men.

The allegations came in the sentencing of Merl Hefferman (54), a former member of the Fresno county Hells Angels chapter, who in December had pleaded guilty to disposing of the body of Joel Silva.

Mr Silva, a member of the Sonoma county Hells Angels, had been killed by another member in 2014.

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Crematory manager Levi Phipps had testified at trial he had received a call from Mr Hefferman on July 16th, 2014, instructing him to be at the funeral home and leave the “hangar door open”, prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum.

There, Mr Phipps said, he was threatened at gunpoint by two men while they loaded a body into the incinerator.

Shortly after, prosecutors said, Mr Phipps received another call from Mr Hefferman, this time telling him to keep quiet. According to prosecutors, Mr Phipps’s testimony is corroborated by cellphone records.

“The only reason Hefferman wanted that access was to make bodies disappear without a trace,” prosecutors wrote. “Merl Hefferman arranged to have Joel Silva’s body illegally cremated.”

But prosecutors last week also said Mr Silva’s was just one of four bodies Mr Hefferman appears to have helped disappear.

Prosecutors allege Mr Phipps told a federal grand jury that several months after the disposal of Mr Silva’s body, Mr Hefferman contacted him again to arrange yet another cremation. Prosecutors believe that the second body was that of Robbie Huff, a Hells Angels member who went missing in 2015 and, according to prosecutors, colluded in Mr Silva’s murder and cover-up.

The pattern repeated itself on a third occasion, prosecutors say, this time to dispose of a body they believe to be of Art Carasis, a Hells Angels member who went missing in 2016. Phone records between Mr Hefferman and Mr Phipps corroborate Mr Phipps’s testimony, prosecutors say.

The prosecution did not name the fourth alleged victim, though Mr Hefferman’s attorney, James Bustamante, identified him as Hells Angels member Juan Guevara.

Mr Hefferman has not been charged in connection with the cases of Mr Huff, Mr Carasis and the fourth alleged victim. In his sentencing memorandum, Mr Bustamante wrote that “despite ample opportunities to do so, it is clear that the government did not find Phipps credible enough to seek additional charges”.

Mr Hefferman’s case is part of a larger racketeering investigation into the Sonoma and Fresno Hells Angels.

The murder of Mr Silva occurred on July 15th, 2014. Prosecutors say he was lured to the biker gang’s Fresno club headquarters and shot by Brian Wayne Wendt after running afoul of other Hells Angels. A jury in June 2022 found three members of the gang responsible for the murder: Wendt, Jonathan Nelson and Russell Taylor Ott. Mr Hefferman was accused of disposing of the body, not of killing Mr Silva.

Mr Silva’s family said in a victims’ statement last week that not having a body to mourn over had impacted their grieving process. “Not knowing where our son was for years was difficult and extremely emotional,” they wrote. “The Hells Angels are all cowards. They took Joel’s life over somebody’s ego and no one has a right to take anyone’s life.”

Mr Hefferman was sentenced to four years in prison on October 19th on the obstruction of justice charges relating to Mr Silva, according to the Fresno Bee. – Guardian