BIKER NEWS: Kingsmen murder trial: emotions run high on day two

BN- The family and friends of two members of the Kingsmen Motorcycle Club, who were shot and killed last September, struggled to compose themselves Tuesday during the ongoing Niagara County Court murder trial of Andre Jenkins.

Jenkins, who lived in Florida before his arrest last fall, is charged with one count of first degree murder and two counts of second degree murder in the deaths fellow Kingsmen Daniel 'D-J' Szymanski, 31, and Paul Maue, 38.

Both suffered single gunshot wounds while inside a car parked in back of the Kingsmen club on Oliver Street in what police described as execution style slayings.

Some close to the victims wept and consoled each other during the testimony of the medical examiner who conducted autopsies on both victims.

The testimony featured photos from the autopsy of Maue, who was shot in the back of the head, and Szymanski, who the medical examiner noted had been shot in the neck with the bullet perforating his Harley Davidson tattoo.

However, despite the recovery of bullet fragments, the medical examiner offered no opinion on the weapon used in the slayings.

Prosecutors allege that Jenkins took apart his gun and tossed it along Rt. 219, following the shootings, as he made his way to the Kingsmen club house in Olean where he had been staying at the time of the shootings. Days after the murders, a gun was recovered by law enforcement officials which they later identified through shell casings left at the crime scene as being the murder weapon. Jenkins' lawyers contend there is no evidence linking their client to that particular gun.

Roger Albright, who described himself as the NYS Secretary for the Kingsmen, concluded his testimony which began on Monday afternoon.He testified that prior to the killings, while reacting to reports that Szymanski and Maue were about to leave the Kingsmen and join a rival motorcycle group, Jenkins told him the two instead would "be buried as Kingsmen".

Albright also testified that just hours after the killings, Jenkins arrived at the Kingsmen's clubhouse in Olean and asked him to get rid of the clothes he had been wearing. Albright said he burned the clothes and that Jenkins also admitted to him that he had committed the slayings of Szymanski and Maue.

At the conclusion of his testimony, while leaving the courtroom, Albright extended his middle finger toward the lens of a television news camera.

Jimmy Ray Fritz of Lenoir City, Tennessee was next to take the stand. Speaking with a heavy southern drawl, Fritz, an elderly man who could pass as a store Santa Claus were he not so slight of build, identified himself as the Vice President of the Tennessee chapter of the Kingsmen.

He testified that days before the murders, Jenkins, who had traveled from Florida, visited him and asked to borrow his motorcycle for "a trip up north." Fritz said he never inquired about the nature of Jenkins' travel, and loaned him the bike which was returned to him several days later dirty but otherwise in good shape.

He said he only heard about the murders a week or so after that.

The next witness was Leslie Maziarz, the manager of Betty's Bar, which is about a block from the Kingsmen's club house in North Tonawanda.

In their opening statement, prosecutors alleged Jenkins had been at Betty's before the killings, before heading to the clubhouse where he was denied entrance by Szymanski and Maue.

They allege further that he returned to Betty's, before returning to the club house when the victims were leaving, then got into their car and shot them both from point blank range before heading back to Betty's once again.

They intend to produce witnesses to testify that Jenkins' clothes were blood covered, before he picked up a female friend and took off for the Olean clubhouse where he stayed the night and Albright burned his clothes.

Maziarz testified at length about her close relationships with members of both the Kingsmen and the Nickel City Nomads, a rival club to which many Kingsmen had been jumping to in the weeks and months leading up to the murders.

Though prosecutors have no burden to prove a motive, witness testimony thus far indicates the belief among some that Szymanski and Maue were also about to jump ship and that Jenkins, described by some as an enforcer among Kingsmen, had come to stop them from joining the rival group.

Maziarz contested this. "They were not intending to leave. Those two were as loyal as they come," she said while on the stand. She also testified that Jenkins, upon his first return to Betty's on the night of the slayings, had told her that Szymanski had "mistreated him" when he went to speak with him earlier.

Though she had a long association with the Kingsmen, Maziarz says their members are no longer allowed to congregate at Betty's.

Jurors spent a good deal of the afternoon watching some video tape entered into evidence, which prosecutors claim places the defendant at the scene of the murders, but which his defense lawyers counter is “inconclusive”.

The video was obtained from security cameras installed outside the Kingsmen clubhouse and shows a motorcycle enter the driveway of the club house in the early morning hours of last September 6th, and then leave approximately 3 minutes later…all at the precise time the two men were shot.

Minutes later it shows the area crawling with police.

But while the prosecution insists the man on the motorcycle was Jenkins, his lawyers were quick to claim there’s no way to tell who was on the bike…and there’s certainly no video tape of the men actually being shot.

Prosecutors did, however, produce video surveillance from security cameras at Betty’s Bar, which more clearly shows Jenkins arriving at and leaving from the establishment before and after the shootings, in line with the narrative they set forth in their opening statement.

Although there are no known eyewitnesses to the shootings, fellow Kingsmen Paul Gilmore, testified on Monday that he saw a man he identified in court as Jenkins, drive from the scene shouting LKDK-which he said stood for “Live as Kingsmen, Die as Kingsmen”.

The trial is expected to last at least another week.

More: http://www.wgrz.com/story/news/2015/08/11/kingsmen-biker-north-tonawanda-murder-trial/31469029/