Eric Ellis (ex-Bury Your Dead) on trial in Florida for racketeering

Former Bury Your Dead guitarist Eric Ellis in on trial in Florida on gang-related charges stemming from an initial racketeering charge last year. Via the Florida Times-Union:

“Prosecutors said Godwin, 32, and Eric Steven Ellis, 27, are the last men standing of a group of violent robbers and drug dealers who terrorized residents in home invasions from Ponte Vedra Beach to Beauclerc, robbed banks and beat people. Four of the defendants have already pleaded guilty.

Some victims were targeted through Internet property record searches of high-dollar homeowners who had paid off their homes. One attack led to the theft of $600,000 in money and jewelry.
Among the many twists in the case is how the idea of forming a gang evolved. Prosecutors said that occurred as Godwin and others were watching the cable-based “Sons of Anarchy,” a show about an outlaw California motorcycle gang. Defense attorneys argued there was no such influence and that no gang existed.

The primary charge Godwin and Ellis face is racketeering, where they are accused of being involved in a criminal enterprise that shared in the proceeds of multiple criminal acts that benefited the group. Prosecutor Jay Taylor rattled off a series of violent crimes he said tied the group of “thieves and drug dealers” together, including:

– In May 2009, Godwin and Ellis were on hand for the brutal beating of a man who was paying his rent in a trailer park with counterfeit money.
– In June 2009, Ellis, joined by two other men, broke into the home of a Ponte Vedra Beach businessman and stole $300,000 in cash and $300,000 in jewelry, guns and clothes after tying a woman up at gunpoint.
– In October 2009, two gang members robbed a Wachovia bank on Baymeadows Road, stealing nearly $5,400.
– In November 2009, two gang members committed a home invasion in Beauclerc,
robbing two occupants and stealing a Lexus that was later recovered.
– In August 2010, two men burst into a Westside home and held the occupants at gunpoint while robbing them. Strangely, a third gang member said he couldn’t make it because he couldn’t find a baby sitter.”

Ellis performed with Bury Your Dead from 2004-2008.