Aryan Circle Thug Pleads Guilty to Brutal Gang Assault

Daniel B. Jerome, 31, of Wentzville, Missouri, admitted in federal court today to a savage beating meant to enforce the brutal code of the Aryan Circle, a white supremacist prison gang with tendrils across state lines. On November 9, 2013, Jerome participated in a ritualized attack known as a ‘patch-burning’ against a fellow gang member in Jefferson County, Missouri — an assault so violent it left the victim with serious bodily injury.

According to the plea agreement, the assault involved more than fists and weapons: Jerome and others used a burning log to sear the victim’s gang tattoo from his flesh. The act was not just punishment — it was a message. The victim had violated gang rules, and Jerome’s role was to enforce discipline with fire and blood, a signature tactic of the Aryan Circle’s internal justice system.

The Aryan Circle, prosecutors say, is a race-based, multi-state criminal enterprise born in the Texas prison system in the mid-1980s. What began as a splinter group during internal strife within the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas has evolved into a feared organization operating both inside and outside prison walls. From Missouri to Louisiana, the gang has spread its influence through violence, intimidation, and absolute loyalty enforced by terror.

Jerome’s attack wasn’t an isolated act of rage — it was a calculated crime in aid of racketeering. The gang maintains control through murder, attempted murder, robbery, and brutal assaults like this one. Members are required to obey higher-ups without question, and failure to comply often ends in disfigurement — or death. The plea agreement makes clear: this was organized crime, not a street fight.

The investigation was led by a sprawling Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, pulling in agencies from across the country — including the ATF, DEA, FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and multiple local police and sheriff’s departments in Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, and beyond. The breadth of the probe underscores the national reach of prison-based gangs like the Aryan Circle.

Sentencing is set for August 7, 2019, before U.S. District Judge Ronnie L. White in the Eastern District of Missouri. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Bethany Lipman of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Angie Danis, with support from federal prosecutors in Louisiana and Texas. Jerome now faces years behind bars — not as a brother, but as a convict in the same system that birthed his gang.