Outcast leader calls fatal biker brawl, shootout ‘coincidence’

It was all a coincidence, Daginald Wheeler told jurors hearing the murder case against him and two others charged in a fatal shooting during a 2015 battle between two Columbus motorcycle clubs.

That brawl and shootout happened around 11:20 p.m. at the 4th Quarter Sports Bar & Grill, 6959 Macon Road, where the Strikers club was holding a meet-and-greet before eight to 10 Outcasts showed up and stole the Strikers president’s signature vest.

During the brawl inside the bar, Dominic Mitchell fatally was shot twice in the chest. Three others were wounded in the ensuing shootout outside, where more than 70 bullets were fired.

Prosecutors using bar surveillance video allege the Outcasts, led by Wheeler, invaded the bar using commando tactics, with the bikers meeting a scout outside before one contingent went in the front door as others approached from the rear, entering a side door.

Witnesses said three Outcasts jumped then-Strikers president Hilliard London inside, wrestling with him until they could pull off his vest and run. All the Outcasts then fled the bar under a hail of gunfire.

“It’s just a coincidence,” Wheeler said of the Outcasts winding up at the same bar as the Strikers. They didn’t plan it that way, he said. They didn’t know the Strikers were there, he said. They didn’t go there to take London’s vest, he said.

The Outcasts on Oct. 9, 2015, had some guests from out of town at their 480 Andrews Road clubhouse, where their kitchen wasn’t functional, he said. Their “probies,” meaning pledges still on probation, had been cleaning up the place so another club could use it the next day.

“These girls were the Boss Ladies,” Wheeler said of the other club. “They’re a female motorcycle club.”

That night the Outcasts working at the clubhouse decided to go out to eat, he said, so they took a ride.

‘Out for leisure’

Though surveillance video showed Wheeler, whose club members called him “Headquarters,” leading a single-file line of eight Harley-Davidson motorcycles into the bar parking lot, “we weren’t in any particular formation,” he said. He was in front only because the lead motorcyclists had stopped traffic out on the road so the others safely could pull into the parking lot, he said.

Asked if he’d given his subordinates any orders regarding the Strikers, he answered, “No, we were out for leisure.”

Surveillance video showed a white sport-utility vehicle and a dark-colored car following the Outcasts, and prosecutors allege gunmen who entered the bar’s side door were in those vehicles. Wheeler insisted those automobiles were not part of the Outcasts’ procession.

Though the video appears to show someone came from the bar to meet the Outcasts before they went inside, Wheeler said he recalled no such meeting.

He said he went inside to get a beer, but no bartender was there to serve him. He was telling a pledge to get him a drink when a fight broke out, he said.

When he headed for the door, someone swung at him, he said. He pushed that assailant aside and kept moving, he said. “Someone grabbed me by my locks,” he said in reference to his long dreadlocks. A second attacker grabbed at his legs, trying to upend him, he said.

Someone still was pulling on his shirt from behind as he struggled out the door and ran for his Harley, which he named “Maxine.” Looking back, he saw Edward Bush, a Strikers ally, firing an AR-15 rifle.

After that, “I went home,” he said, noting he lived only five minutes away.

He said he’d never met London, the Strikers president. He didn’t consider the Strikers a rival club, he said. He didn’t tell the Outcasts to take London’s vest, and he didn’t lead them there to start trouble, he said: “We were there for hot wings, beer and French fries.”

He dismissed the prosecution’s theory that the Outcasts were angered the Strikers held so public an event without the dominant club’s permission. “They don’t owe me anything,” he said of the Strikers.

Biker culture

Much of his other testimony was in regard to his background and Outcast culture.

He said he runs an auto shop, Headquarters Automotive, at 2626 N. Lumpkin Road, where he sometimes counsels troubled youth whose guardians bring them to him. “A lot of people have a lot of respect for me,” he testified.

He refuted earlier testimony about what it means to be in a “one-percenter” motorcycle club. A gang expert testified the term was derived from a quote following a 1947 biker riot, a remark that 99 percent of motorcyclists are law-abiding, but not the other 1 percent.

That’s not what it means, Wheeler said: “A one-percenter is one who dares to exert his own individuality,” he said, later adding, “It’s one who doesn’t live like an ant. An ant has no individuality.”

He said Outcasts aren’t allowed to break the law: “You can’t do anything to bring discredit to the club.”

Daniel asked him about an Outcast saying: “We ride for pride and we ride for piece.” The gang expert said “piece” is not spelled “peace” because it’s sexual innuendo.

It means a “piece of America,” Wheeler said: “If you’ve ever ridden a Harley-Davidson on the highways of America, you’re riding for a piece of America.”

Daniel also delved into how the club treats women, as the gang expert said they were viewed as property of the male members.

“We don’t have properties in Muscogee,” Wheeler told Daniel, saying the local chapter isn’t that large. He acknowledged that the letters “PO” in club writings stand for “property of.”

“This sounds like a derogatory term, but these are properties of the club. ... They add atmosphere at parties,” he said, adding the women are like “sisters.”

Wheeler, 53, was the only witness to testify Friday. All sides rested their cases afterward.

Wheeler’s codefendants are James Daniel Jr. and Demark Ponder, each of whom witnesses identified as being among the Outcasts, though Wheeler said the other two were “probates” or pledges.

Ponder, whose 9mm has been matched to a bullet recovered from Mitchell’s body, took the stand Thursday to testify he fired in self-defense after someone he didn’t know pointed a gun at him and threatened to kill him.

James Daniel, who’s not related to prosecutor Ray Daniel, chose not to testify.

With the testimony over, attorneys Monday are expected to give their closing arguments in Judge Bobby Peters’ Government Center courtroom, starting at 9 a.m.

Each defendant is charged with murder, robbery, aggravated assault, using a gun to commit a crime and three counts of violating Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act. Wheeler faces an additional count of violating the gang prevention act, and Ponder is charged also with lying to police.

This story was originally published May 12, 2017 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Outcast leader calls fatal biker brawl, shootout ‘coincidence’."