Hells Angels got rid of bodies at Fresno funeral home known as the ‘pizza oven,’ feds say
Merl Hefferman told the crematory manager of the funeral home that he wanted to make things disappear, prosecutors said.
The manager, Levi Phipps, thought Hefferman could only be talking about one thing: human bodies.
Federal prosecutors spelled out in the most graphic detail yet last week how Hefferman, a member of the Hells Angels of Sonoma County, used his connection at a Fresno funeral home to incinerate the body of Joel Silva, a murdered member of the biker gang, in the summer of 2014.
Those details included a new allegation: that Silva’s was one of four bodies Hefferman, 54, directed to be illegally cremated at the funeral home known to the Hells Angels as the “pizza oven,” prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum.
“Merl Hefferman arranged to have Joel Silva’s body illegally cremated. This was purposeful, premeditated conduct,” prosecutors wrote in court papers. “Hefferman obstructed justice. He also caused immense pain to Silva’s family: they had no body to mourn, no closure, and no certainty about what had happened to Silva until … nearly eight years after Silva disappeared.”
Detectives were pursuing a larger drug trafficking case when they zeroed in on a Riverside County deputy. Sheriff’s officials say he worked for a Mexican drug cartel
Hefferman pleaded guilty in December to obstructing justice by getting rid of Silva’s body, but he has not been charged or convicted of any of the other three alleged cremations that prosecutors tried to pin on him Thursday.
His plea came as part of a much larger racketeering takedown of 12 members of the Hells Angels of Sonoma County, a subset of the “transnational violent outlaw motorcycle gang,” prosecutors said.
As part of the same case, three other members of the gang were convicted of killing Silva. Brian Wendt was convicted of shooting Silva in the head, and two senior Hells Angels members — Jonathan Nelson and Russell Taylor Ott — were convicted of murder for orchestrating the killing.
Silva was not the only person killed by the Hells Angels and then disposed of at Yost & Webb Funeral Home in Fresno, federal prosecutors suggested in their sentencing memorandum for Hefferman.
A gang boss ordered the murder from a cellphone in prison, relying on foot soldiers who were eager to improve their status in the gang, prosecutors said.
Three other bodies were illegally cremated at the unassuming white-gabled funeral home on T Street, the funeral home’s crematory manager told prosecutors. Phipps, the manager, did not know whose bodies were incinerated but told prosecutors that Hefferman directed him to help dispose of the bodies.
The time the bodies were cremated lined up with the disappearances of Hells Angels members Robbie Huff and Art Carasis, who went missing in 2015 and 2016; Huff participated in the coverup of Silva’s murder, prosecutors said. Hefferman’s attorney identified the fourth missing person as Juan Guevara, also a Hells Angels member.
Phipps’ testimony was consistent with call records between him and Hefferman, which showed that he was contacted by the Hells Angels member right around the time of the disappearances, prosecutors said.
“The nearly identical pattern of contact between Hefferman and Phipps near the time of both the Silva murder and Huff disappearance is powerful corroboration for Phipps’ grand jury testimony,” prosecutors wrote.
In the June 6 assault in Ocean Beach, three men, ages 19, 20 and 21, were chased by members of the Hells Angels gang. Two were severely beaten.
But Hefferman’s attorney shot back at what they called prosecutors’ last-ditch attempt to tie Hefferman to additional body disposals he was not charged with.
“The bottom line is if it is information not credible or sufficient to indict by way of grand jury, then it is not sufficiently reliable to consider for sentencing,” Hefferman’s attorney, James Bustamante, wrote in a Friday sentencing memorandum. “Despite ample opportunities to do so, it is clear that the Government did not find Phipps credible enough to seek additional charges by way of the grand jury or for inclusion in the conspiracy charge.”
On top of that, Judge Edward Chen had declined to allow prosecutors to mention the three other cremations during the trials of other members of the motorcycle gang charged in Silva’s killing.
“The Court finds that the proffered testimony of Levi Phipps of the Silva cremation is admissible but will not admit evidence of other murders and cremations,” Chen wrote.
Hefferman’s sentencing is set for Thursday. Prosecutors have asked Chen to sentence him to more than seven years in prison, while Hefferman’s attorney asked for two and a half years.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
