St. Louis man was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison and a Chicago man got 11 years for crimes connected to a nationwide “...
St. Louis man was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison and a Chicago man got 11 years for crimes connected to a nationwide “outlaw” motorcycle gang indicted in a racketeering conspiracy last year. Carlyle “Thundercat” Fleming, 33, got more time because of his involvement in a shooting outside a Chicago nightclub and the near-scalping of another man in a stabbing incident. Prosecutors said that Fleming was hoping to increase his status in the gang, the Wheels of Soul, through the acts of violence, and that he could have been responsible for a fatality in the Chicago shooting and another fatality in an incident in Indianapolis had his gun not jammed. Fleming and his lawyer said that he suffered from a troubled upbringing, drug and alcohol use and PTSD brought on by his military service in Iraq. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sirena Wissler replied that Fleming returned from Iraq in 2003 and only started committing crimes once he joined the Wheels in 2009. Prosecutors say former St. Louis chapter vice president Lawrence “Pac” Pinkston, 42, participated in the robbery of members of a rival motorcycle club in August 2009 and was present during a murder of a rival club member that same month, but did not fire a shot. He told fellow club members that he tried to shoot but his gun jammed. Pinkston received a sentence of 63 months in federal prison. The Wheels investigation, which resulted in charges against 18 people connected to the gang, began in St. Louis after an armed robbery and murder in 2009 and expanded nationwide, involving both the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and local police. Gang members are accused of drug dealing and gun running, kidnapping and multiple murders and attempted murders, prosecutors say.
