News / Comments / (USA) Two motorcycle gang members from Eustis sentenced to life in execution-style slayings in New York state

A federal judge in Buffalo, N.Y., on Thursday sentenced two outlaw motorcycle gang members from Eustis to three consecutive life sentences in the execution-style murders of two men in 2014, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

David Pirk, 68, the Kingsmen Motorcycle Club national president, and Andre Jenkins, 40, a club “enforcer,” were found guilty in May for their roles in a major racketeering operation involving violence and murder, the prosecutor’s office said.

On Sept. 6, 2014, authorities said Pirk ordered Jenkins, who was called “Little Bear,” to kill Daniel "DJ" Szymanski, 31, and Paul Maue, 38, in the Buffalo area.

“It took nothing for him to kill two people execution style,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph M. Tripi said, according to the Buffalo News. “And he was damn proud of it. He's proud to be a killer.”

In a statement, U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy Jr. said, “Through this prosecution, both the national president, who ordered the executions, as well as the trigger pulling member of an outlaw motorcycle club were finally brought to justice and held accountable for two senseless murders.”

He added that the murders, “together with numerous depraved and heinous acts of violence committed by defendants and others in the club, justify the sentences imposed and fittingly demonstrate that the defendants’ quest to become ‘1 percenters’ ultimately cost them 100 percent of their freedom for 100 percent of the rest of their lives.”

The “1 percenter” term refers to the small number of “outlaw” motorcycle clubs involved with crimes such as drug and firearm trafficking.

After last year’s verdict, a Justice Department official called the Kingsmen club “a vicious gang that terrorized the Buffalo area, engaging in senseless murders, brutal violence, robberies, and drug trafficking” and that with the convictions the club’s “reign of terror is coming to an end.”

Jenkins already is serving a life sentence for his conviction in 2015 for the killings.

Another Lake County resident, Timothy Enix, 59, of Tavares, known as “Blaze,” also was convicted last year — at the same time as Pirk and Jenkins — of RICO conspiracy, possession of firearms, using and maintaining premises for drug dealing and possession of firearms while drug trafficking. He is due to be sentenced April 17 in Buffalo, records show.

He was in charge of the club’s Florida and Tennessee chapters, according to federal officials.

In Lake County, Kingsmen Motorcycle Club members were involved in a 2017 shooting following an argument with members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club at a gas station about three miles west of where thousands of bikers had gathered for the annual Leesburg Bikefest.

Bikers David Donovan and Marc Knotts were hit in the flurry of bullets. Donovan, 41, whose Facebook pictures showed him donning Kingsmen Motorcycle Club gear, died a few weeks later.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/lake/os-ne-lake-county-motorcycle-gang-members-sentenced-20190228-story.html