A member of the Thug Rider motorcycle gang held a secret clearance to work on a Navy submarine. He was granted a $75,000 bond Friday in the May 13 shootout that left two dead in East Augusta.
Matthew Perry Willis, 28, was among seven Thug Riders who traveled from Camden County, home of Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, to Augusta May 13.
Prosecutors said the purpose was to have a showdown with rivals the Outcasts Motorcycle Club, at the Augusta Outcast clubhouse.
Camden is where 16 members of the Outcast gang were indicted last week.
The Augusta gunfight left two dead and four injured, only one of them an Outcast. All 12 who were arrested are charged with murder and aggravated assault.
Friday bond hearings presided over by Richmond County Superior Court Judge Ashley Wright provided insight into the incident and those who participated. Wright denied a bond for two other Thug Rider defendants who had hearings Friday.
Augusta Circuit Major Crimes Assistant District Attorney Keagan Waystack said investigators are still gathering information. More than 150 shell casings were found, and bullets flew as far as one striking a home across the Savannah River in South Carolina, she said.
While investigators found at the scene or removed from defendants 10 guns, many other of the guns fired have not been found, she said. “We’re missing at least 25 guns at this point,” Waystack said.
Killed in the gunfire were Thug Riders Germayne Ferrell, 51, of Daytona Beach, and Keith Coates, 30, of Valdosta. The families of both oppose bond, Waystack said.
The pair were part of Thug Rider group that drove “the wrong way down a one-way street” to form a “very pretty line” in front of the Outcast clubhouse, Waystack said.
The incident followed similar confrontations at Outcast clubhouses in Florida, North Carolina and Kentucky, she said.
“Pretty Boy”
Known as “Pretty Boy,” Willis had a weapon and drew it but tested negative for gun residue, Waystack said. He’d had at least two opportunities to wash his hands before being tested, she said.
Willis was represented by attorney Alexia Davis Payne, who presented a different version of events partially shared by other Thug Rider defendants Friday.
Payne said Willis and others had attended Mayfest, the festival at nearby May Park, and were seeking help from the Outcasts after one of the motorcycles caught on fire.
“The persons that actually died were his friends,” she said.
Willis is the son of military veterans who has worked at Kings Bay since 2018 as a diesel mechanic, she said.
“He has transferrable skills,” a significant work history and no criminal record, Payne said.
Willis’ father, Perry Willis, told the court his son had the clearance and recently expressed a desire to advance his career and propose to his girlfriend.
“When he gets home, I doubt he has a job,” Wright said.
She set Willis’ bond with strict conditions. He is to have no contact with other Thug Riders or Outcasts and make no presentation or communication regarding the clubs, “at the global level,” Wright said. He’s to wear no gear, pay dues or otherwise make contact, nor can he leave the state of Georgia, or come to Augusta except for legal proceedings, she said.
Freddie Crosson
Freddie Crosson, 39, was a sergeant at arms for the Thug Riders, third in charge of its Georgia division, Waystack said. His phone contained the locations of other Outcast clubhouses as well as the Thug Rider creed. Crosson also tested positive for gunshot residue, she said.
Attorney Lydia Schlitt said an Outcast member had offered to help extinguish the fire outside the club before the incident. Crosson “did not fire any shots” and his weapon was found fully loaded, she said.
Originally from the Bronx, Crosson can’t read or write due to a brain injury, she said. He’s been married for 10 years and has three children, including a daughter with special needs who spent several months in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Supporters, including ministers in the Bronx and St. Marys, sent “a dozen or more letters” of support for him, Schlitt said.
The mother of a fellow NICU baby wrote of his “upstanding moral character.” His wife, Patricia, called him a “big, goofy teddy bear” who completed a police auxiliary program in St. Marys.
Wright said no to the bond request. “Gun battle” is an appropriate description of the incident, that’s complicated by there being “an ongoing conflict between multiple groups.”
McKayla Rickett
Wright also denied a bond for McKayla Renee Rickett. Rickett, 26, had bonded another suspect, her boyfriend Jonathan Keaton, out of jail in Camden County that morning.
Keaton, a Thug Rider, was known as “Vendetta,” Waystack said. He was shot in the head during the incident but has had no bond set.
Rickett, who tested positive for gun residue, was riding with Jessica Sapp, the wife of Cory Sapp, who was the vice president of the Kingsland Thug Riders, Waystack said.
Attorney Ryne Cox said Rickett “was not a member of the Thug Riders” and it was her first time hanging out with them.
Rickett knew Sapp through Keaton and the group “came up here to go to Mayfest,” Cox said. “She was following behind a bad crowd,” he said.
The manager of a Dollar General, she is the daughter of Kings Bay employees who appeared Friday in support, Cox said.
Waystack said police said Rickett had been “rude” and not forthcoming, refusing to identify her boyfriend other than as Vendetta.
Who’s left
Two other defendants, Thug Rider Larry Ross, 44, and Outcast Larry Sutton, 42, were granted $75,000 bonds by Judge John Flythe May 26. Ross, of Hephzibah, was shot three times, Waystack said.
Deja Dominique Dotson, 30, a Thug Rider from St. Marys, was shot in the arm and leg, she said. He’s expected to have a bond hearing next week.
Kenneth Lamar Taylor, 43, an Outcast from Boynton Beach, Fla., was also shot and had no bond set as of Friday. Outcasts Tysen Harper, 38, of Lumberton, N.C. and James Bryant, 31, of Fayetteville N.C., remain jailed without bond.
Thug Riders Keaton, 31, Jessica Sapp, 30, and Cory Sapp, 30, also remain jailed without bond.
