A high-profile trial is underway in Fort Worth with lots of extra security. An accused Bandidos gang leader is charged with killing a member of a rival group in 2014.
No one is allowed in the courtroom without a full pat-down, and there are extra officers all over the Tarrant County Courthouse, including Texas state troopers. They say this is just a precaution given the high-profile defendant.
Prosecutors say Howard Wayne Baker is the president of the Fort Worth chapter of the Bandidos – what they're calling an outlaw criminal motorcycle gang that claims to run Texas.
In their opening statements Monday, prosecutors said that in December 2014, Baker and about 30 other Bandidos members swarmed into a Fort Worth bar to retaliate against members of rival motorcycle groups, including the Ghost Riders.
They started shooting, and 41-year-old Geoffrey Brady, of Arlington, was shot and killed in front of his wife. Two others were injured.
Prosecutors say that Baker orchestrated it all to get other motorcycle groups off the Bandidos's turf.
"What is most important to him is that you will respect his position here in this town, you will answer to him, you will pay homage to him and you will do the things that you are told," prosecutor Allenna Bangs said in her opening statement. "The Ghost Riders didn't want to do that, so they executed Geoffrey Brady for that."
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Baker faces 10 counts – including of murder, aggravated assault and organized crime – in this case. His attorneys are waiting to deliver their opening statements until they start presenting their defense.
Two other Bandidos members were also charged in the case. Nicholas Povendo and Robert Stover will stand trial later.
NBC 5's Tim Ciesco contributed to this report.
