Feds arrest double homicide suspect in Aryan Brotherhood RICO case

Evan "Soldier" Perkins, 38, was charged with participating in a 2022 double homicide to benefit the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang.

FRESNO — Federal authorities have arrested a new suspect in a Los Angeles County double homicide that prosecutors contend was carried out by aspiring members of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang.

Evan “Soldier” Perkins, 38, was arrested May 24 and booked into the Fresno County Jail, where he faces charges of participating in a racketeering conspiracy involving the notorious prison gang. In an indictment unsealed Thursday, Perkins is charged with assisting Brandon “Bam Bam” Bannick in carrying out a March 2022 double homicide allegedly ordered by Aryan Brotherhood member Francis Clement.

The victims of the double homicide are not named in the indictment, but the date corresponds with the killings of two men gunned down in a Los Angeles County city.

At around 10 p.m. on March 8, 2022, Ronnie Paul Ennis Jr., 47, and James Yagle, 44, were killed on the 200 block of Ridgeway Street in Pomona, authorities say. They were the only double homicide victims on that day in Los Angeles County, according to media reports. That date and location corresponds with the information in the indictment.

Perkins has not yet entered a plea, and is being held without bail.

The indictment charges various alleged gang members and associates with a total of six murder counts, including an October 2020 double homicide in Southern California that was similar to the March 2022 crime.