Joshua Mark Bodine, Assault with a Dangerous Weapon, Texas 2011

A 32-year-old member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the 2009 shooting of a man in Jefferson County, Texas.

Joshua Mark Bodine, aka ‘Desperado,’ of Vidor, Texas, was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Marcia A. Crone to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.

Bodine pleaded guilty on October 11, 2011, to assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering activity.

The evidence at trial established that on September 7, 2009, Bodine ordered John Oliver Manning, aka ‘Fish,’ to shoot and wound ABT associate Matthew Fails in Nederland, Texas, on the orders of Bodine. Manning approached Fails with a firearm and a pair of handcuffs in an attempt to collect a debt on Bodine’s behalf and ultimately shot Fails.

Fails was declared brain-dead, but later regained consciousness after emergency surgery. A surgeon testified that the wound Fails received caused ‘agonizing pain’ and that Fails ‘would not ever be the same.’

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Nederland Police Department; Orange County, Texas, Constable’s Office, Precinct 2; Jefferson County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office; Williamson County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office; Chambers County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office; Alvin, Texas, Police Department; Mont Belvieu, Texas, Police Department; and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Baylor Wortham of the Eastern District of Texas and Trial Attorney Cody L. Skipper of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section.

Bodine has been in custody since his arrest on February 24, 2011. His co-defendant, Manning, was convicted on December 1, 2011, of racketeering and firearms charges. A sentencing date for Manning has not yet been set by the court.

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas is a race-based, state-wide organization that operates inside and outside of state and federal prisons throughout the United States. The ABT was established in the early 1980s within the Texas prison system and modeled itself after and adopted many of the teachings and writings of the Aryan Brotherhood, a California-based prison gang that was formed in the California prison system during the 1960s.

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