Aryan Brotherhood trio sentenced to prison for roles in 2011 murder
Three members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas — one of the country most violent, racist gangs — have received lengthy prison sentences for their roles in the 2011 murder of a fellow gang member.
Brian Thomas “Country” Green, 45, of Mount Pleasant, Texas, was sentenced to 25 years in prison last week at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Richard A. White in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
White had pleaded guilty last May to a federal charge of using of a firearm during a crime of violence, causing death, court records show. Other federal charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
Co-defendant Kalvin Kyle McCown, 44, of Longview, Texas, was sentenced to 20 years following his guilty plea to a federal kidnapping charge. Travis Lee Hill, 28, of Ore City, Texas, who also pleaded guilty to kidnapping, received 15 years.
Court records say the three men were members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT), described as a “business enterprise engaged in interstate racketeering activity in the form of dealing in stolen property and the distribution of illegal controlled substances.”
In his guilty plea, Green admitted participating with McCown, Hill and unnamed others in the July 2011 kidnapping in Texas of fellow ABT gang member Kenneth Earl Ayres.
The victim was beaten, shot in the hand and foot, then “taken against his will” across the Red River from Texas into Oklahoma where he was fatally shot in the head, the court records say.
Two months later, Ayres’ skeletal remains were discovered by farmers cutting hay. Medical examiners used a DNA sample to positively match the victim with a DNA sample previously collected from him by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
The kidnap-murder was to punish Ayres for taking stolen property from Aryan Brotherhood of Texas members “for his own benefit. The kidnapping and shooting were “necessary to maintain discipline with the ABT,” the court documents say.
It is the latest in a string of murders and other violent crimes attributed to the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, considered the largest white supremacy gang. It operates in and outside of the Texas prison system, and elsewhere.
In the past decade, scores of its members have been convicted of murders, robberies, arsons and kidnappings, along with extensive narcotics trafficking and other crimes.
