BIKER NEWS: Hells Angels MC biker urges man who nearly killed him to change his ways

BN- Former biker Diamond Ialenti only wanted to read a short piece of his victim impact statement to the man who almost killed him.

The former high-ranking member of the local Hells Angels had made his way to the front of the courtroom using a cane to support him. He looked directly at Andre Williams, the muscular man in the prisoner’s box, who pleaded guilty to attempted murder for shooting Ialenti almost four years ago.

“I want you to know that good things can come out of bad situations,” he began.

“Although it has been a struggle for me, I am trying to bring out the positive and let go of the negativity in order to move forward in my life. I hope you can do the same with the remaining time you have left to serve in jail.

“Change can happen but it’s up to you to make it happen.”

It was a speech from a former biker that no one would have ever expected given Ialenti’s long criminal history.

But at 38, and far away from a night of sheer terror outside the Hell Angels clubhouse on Grey Street that left him with nerve damage in his leg and a bullet still lodged between his chest wall and his heart, Ialenti is a different man.

“Three and a half years ago, I would just think of revenge,” Ialenti said outside the courtroom after Williams, 30, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. “Today I’m thinking of changing . . . . What I said to him might have changed (him).”

Ialenti no longer lives in London. He goes to school, made the honour roll and does volunteer work with kids.

“I left the name ‘Diamond’ here,” he said referring to his birth name that he no longer uses.

Diamond was the biker shot on Jan. 12, 2012.

He was well-versed in the criminal life long before that. In 1995, he was a teenage punk swooped up on Devil’s Night and sent to jail for mischief and vandalism in south London. He became a fixture on the city’s court docket and in 2009 he was convicted on charges stemming from a hockey bag full of marijuana and a loaded handgun.

“You did a lot of reports on me. I remember reading them,” he said.

Ialenti became a well-known member of the local Hells Angels. At the time he was shot, sources said he was deep into the drug trade and leaning on local street gangs to sell them — and tensions were building.

While none of that was discussed before Superior Court Justice Kelly Gorman Thursday, she did hear what happened the night of the shooting through an agreed statement of facts read in by assistant Crown attorney Joe Perfetto.

By all accounts, Ialenti should be dead.

Ialenti and passenger Tricia Kernohan drove a Cadillac CTS into the parking lot of Aberdeen public school across from the biker clubhouse. Several unmarked police vehicles also were in the area.

Ialenti and Kernohan got out of the car and a white Chrysler 300 pulled up beside them. Ialenti, sensing danger, began to get back in the car and told Kernohan to get in, too.

Williams, one of four people in the white car, got out of the front passenger side and fired several shots at Ialenti with a .45 calibre handgun, striking the driver’s side front and rear doors. The bullets penetrated the car and hit Ialenti in the thigh, buttock and left upper chest. Kernohan was struck in left thigh and right calf.

Although seriously wounded, Ialenti tore out of the parking lot and headed south on William Street with the white car in pursuit, before it was chased by police to Highway 401.

The police intercepted the car in east London at a dead-end street near Admiral Drive. The four men in the car fled on foot. Williams dropped his cell phone and shed several layers of clothing before his arrest with three others. The gun, still with one bullet in the chamber, was found under the rear passenger seat cushion.

Ialenti was able to drive himself to the hospital and collapsed when he entered the ER. Kernohan’s injuries were minor, but Ialenti was admitted to hospital for several days.

“But for darkness, bad aim, miscalculation, you could be going down the 401 for a considerably longer time,” the judge told Williams.

Ialenti suffered permanent nerve damage in his leg. His lung collapsed. The bullet in his buttock was removed, but the round in his chest was in a place too dangerous to extract.

“It took a bit afterwards for me to really accept I was given a second chance in life and it was either be in jail and die or I can make a change in my life,” he said.

Change takes time. Physiotherapy continues on his legs and a drop foot has changed his gait. He’s in his second year of college in a manufacturing engineering technician course. “I made the dean’s list and I was voted class rep,” he said.

The biker life is gone. “I’ve walked away from everything, yes. . . . I’ve left all that behind.

“It’s a complete change,” he said. “I’m so much more happier with my life now. I’m doing a lot more with myself and I enjoy life a whole lot more from what I was used to.”

He said his two daughters and a baby boy on the way have helped. “It’s all about my kids now.”

Williams was the last of five people charged in the case. The backseat passengers had their charges withdrawn. Driver Nikota Martin, arrested days after the shooting, and Jason Greenwood, arrested months later and convicted of counselling to commit murder, received prison terms.

That left Ialenti to face the last man who tried to kill him. “This is my closure,” he said. “It’s a load off my shoulders for sure, just because he pleaded guilty and I guess I don’t know if it is the case but he is owning up to his responsibilities.

“As I saw today in the courtroom today, he had no family or friends.”

Ialenti’s speech continued as an impassioned plea to his shooter. “You’ll be given a second chance to make your life meaningful and I hope that is the path you choose,” he said. “Because the life you are living now is no life at all.

“No matter what you have done you can still move past it and make a difference for yourself and others and I truly hope you do. For what’s it’s worth you are forgiven. I know you’re not asking for forgiveness but it might help you move forward and in the right direction for the next phase of your life.”

Williams, who’s been in custody and has four years and five months left to serve on his sentence, had nothing to say when asked.

But the judge did.

“I agree with Mr. Ialenti,” Gorman said to Williams. “Now is the time for you to make changes in your life.”

Source: http://www.lfpress.com/2015/10/08/former-biker-urges-man-who-nearly-killed-him-to-change-his-ways