Eight individuals with alleged ties to the Aryan Circle arrested and charged in connection with Evangeline Parish murder

LAFAYETTE, La. – Eight alleged members or associates of the Aryan Circle (AC) have been indicted and arrested for their alleged roles in the 2016 murder of an alleged fellow AC gang member in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana.

The indictments were announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Alexander Van Hook of the Western District of Louisiana.

The superseding indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on March 14, and unsealed today, charges seven defendants with being accessories-after-the fact in violent crimes in aid of racketeering murder of Clifton Hallmark.  The defendants charged in the superseding indictment are David Wayne Williams, aka Big Dave, 36, of Sulphur, Louisiana; Christina Marie Williams, 38, of Sulphur, Louisiana; Brian Elliot Granger, aka Sneak, 36, of Beaumont, Texas; Leland Edward Hamm, 43, of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Richard Alan Smith, 47, of Little Rock, Arkansas; Michael Paul Auxilien, 34, of Mamou, Louisiana; and Stone Haynes, 49, of Beaumont, Texas.  An indictment charging alleged AC gang member Jeremy Jordan, 38, of Orange, Texas, for the racketeering murder of Clifton Hallmark was returned by the federal grand jury on Dec. 14, 2017, and unsealed today.

According to the indictment, the AC is a powerful race-based, multi-state organization that operates inside and outside of state and federal prisons throughout Texas, Louisiana, and the United States.  The AC was established in the mid-1980s within the Texas prison system (TDCJ).  Recently, the AC’s structure and influence expanded to rural and suburban areas throughout Texas, Louisiana, and Missouri.  The AC emerged as an independent organization during a period of turmoil within the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT).  The AC was relatively small in comparison to other prison-based gangs, but grew in stature and influence within TDCJ in the 1990s, largely through violent conflict with other gangs, white and non-white alike.

The indictment further alleges that the AC enforces its rules and promotes discipline among its members, prospects and associates through murder, attempted murder, assault, robbery and threats against those who violate the rules or pose a threat to the organization.  Members, and oftentimes, associates, are required to follow the orders of higher-ranking members without question.

An indictment merely contains allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

This case is being investigated by a multi-agency task force consisting of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; Federal Bureau of Prisons; Louisiana State Police; Evangeline Parish, Louisiana Sheriff’s Office; Evangeline Parish District Attorney’s Office; Texas Department of Public Safety; Houston Police Department-Gang Division; Texas Department of Criminal Justice; the Carrollton, Texas, Police Department; and the Montgomery County Constable Precinct 1 in Texas.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney David Karpel of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dominic Rossetti of the Western District of Louisiana.