FRESNO — A member of the Baby Blue Wrecking Crew gang was convicted of carrying out two murders on the orders of an Aryan Brotherhood gangster, highlighting the gang’s attempts to extort criminals local to the Los Angeles area in the early 2000s.
Justin Gray, 40, was convicted of murdering Allan Roshanski, 34, of Vista, and Ruslan Magomedgadzhiev, 40, of Tarzana, on Oct. 4, 2020, in the small Southern California city of Lomita. Prosecutors say another man, Brandon Bannick, lured both victims to the area from San Diego and that Gray shot them both in the head. The two suspects were reportedly hoping to be given entry into the notorious Aryan Brotherhood prison gang by carrying out the murders.
Bannick, a member of the skinhead gang known as Public Enemy Number One, or PENI, ended up testifying for the prosecution. So did another budding Aryan Brotherhood member, Robert “Rage” Eversole, who served as a liaison between the hitmen and California prisoners Kenneth Johnson and Francis Clement, the Aryan Brotherhood members who orchestrated the plot, according to authorities.
Roshanski, the primary target, was an EDD fraudster curing the COVID-19 pandemic who rejected Clement’s attempts to “tax” him prosecutors said in court records. Clement later successfully extorted one of Roshanki’s friends for $5,000 in drug proceeds, then insisted that Roshanski owed him money for drugs and fraud.
Read more What Macklin Celebrini said about his big contract, the Sharks’ captaincy and Will Smith
Bannick, who also allegedly owed money to the Aryan Brotherhood, was looped into the plot to help work off his death. Prosecutors say Roshanski didn’t tell the men he was bringing Magomedgadzhiev to the meeting, but that when he did, Magomedgadzhiev’s fate was sealed. After killing both men, Gray sent Eversole a text message to a prison contraband cellphone confirming he’d done the deed, prosecutors say.
The Baby Blue Wrecking Crew, like PENI, is an all-white gang based in Southern California. It is primarily active around Long Beach and the Los Angeles County region known as the South Bay. Like many all-white gangs in California, its members are expected to obey orders from the Aryan Brotherhood, a small prison gang that serves as the brain trust for so-called “peckerwood” gangs throughout the state.
The federal government has charged dozens of Aryan Brotherhood members and associates since 2019, for murders inside and outside of prison, kidnappings, arson, drug smuggling plots, and even an alleged plot to assassinate a Sacramento-based lawyer. Five men still face pending charges in the massive DEA and ATF-led probes.
Read more Oakley cancels November ballot council races that were uncontested
About the Author
