One of three men in motorcycle club shootings takes plea deal
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
One of the three men charged in a June 18, 2016, gunfight between two area motorcycle clubs has pleaded guilty to reduced charges and agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of his co-defendants.
James Gardner, 48, of Iowa Avenue Northwest, appeared before Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Andrew Logan on Tuesday, pleading guilty to two counts of complicity to involuntary manslaughter, two counts of complicity to felonious assault and single counts of obstructing justice and falsification.
He could still get more than 50 years in prison and will serve at least some prison time, Judge Logan said. He will be sentenced after cases are resolved involving his co-defendants.
In exchange for his plea and cooperation with prosecutors, he no longer faces two counts of aggravated murder.
Gunfire between Forever Two Wheelz, of which Gardner was a member, and the Brothers Regime club at Shorty’s Place tavern in Warren Township left two members of the Brothers Regime dead and three other men wounded.
Gardner and his co-defendants were indicted in March, but his attorney, David Rouzzo of the Ohio Public Defender’s Office, told court officials in April that Gardner “never shot anyone that day, and he wants the world to know it.”
Gardner later took a lie-detector test hoping to prove his innocence. The results of the test have not been revealed.
His Forever Two Wheelz co-defendants are David H. Bailes Jr., 45, and Charles Dellapenna III, 47, both of Warren. They are charged with two counts each of aggravated murder and two counts of felonious assault.
Gardner, Dellapenna and Bailes are accused of killing Brothers Regime members Jason Moore, 41, of Bristolville and Robert Marto, 54, of Cortland, and wounding two others, Andrew Claypool, 50, of Girard and Walter Hughes, 41, of Warren.
Bailes was the fifth person hit by gunfire. He was badly injured and is brought to court from the county jail in a wheelchair.
After Tuesday’s hearing, Gardner’s wife, Giva Gardner, revealed that she is also mother of Bailes and aunt of Dellapenna, meaning her husband has agreed to testify against two of her relatives.
But the focus of her comments was what she considers to be the unfairness of her husband and the two others being charged when it’s her belief that her son was only defending himself from shots fired by members of the other motorcycle club.
“They went down there to kill David,” she said of her son. She wonders why nothing is being done to the members of the other club.
Mike Burnett, assistant county prosecutor, said he cannot comment on her remarks.
She added that Forever Two Wheelz was organizing a fundraiser for children the day of the gunfight. She said the group had raised money for that cause for six years and also done many other things to help people.