Mongols motorcycle member gets 5 years in connection with California bar killing
A member of the Mongols Motorcycle Club was sentenced Friday, Feb. 6, to five years in federal prison in connection with the killing of a man at an Ontario bar last year, authorities announced.
Clifford “Buckshot” Michael Lavoy, a 52-year-old resident of Montclair and a Mongols Motorcycle Club member, pleaded guilty in October to one count of violent crime in aid of racketeering, specifically aiding and abetting assault resulting in serious bodily injury.
Lavoy and 35-year-old Upland resident Julian “Juls” Pulido violently attacked a member of a rival motorcycle gang Vagos at an Ontario bar last March, according to an affidavit attached to a criminal complaint. The victim is identified in court documents only as “V.S.”
Lavoy and Pulido inside the bar approached V.S., who was wearing clothing that showed his Vagos membership, authorities said. The defendants argued with the victim and told him he needed to show them respect as members of the Mongols Motorcycle Club, prosecutors said.
The defendants later assaulted and overpowered the victim by punching him in the face and choking him, resulting in injuries to his face, head and neck.
When V.S. was trying to run out of the bar, Pulido allegedly pulled out a gun and shot him several times in the back, authorities said. The victim fell through the door of the bar and bled out on the sidewalk. Pulido and Lavoy fled the area. V.S. died at the scene at 2:45 a.m.
Later that day, Pulido led police on a nine-hour pursuit across five California counties. He was arrested after crashing a black Dodge vehicle into a ditch during a high-speed chase along Highway 46 near Lost Hills in Kern County. At the time, he had the same Mongols-branded clothing he wore on the night V.S. was killed.
Pulido, charged with murdering a rival motorcycle club member, pleaded not guilty. He is in custody awaiting trial in November.