The Waco Biker Shootout Left Nine Dead. Why Was No One Convicted? How 177 arrests led to no convictions — a tangled, seven-year tale of prosecutorial hubris and tenacious defense.

If you ask Paul Looney, a Houston defense attorney, about the Twin Peaks biker case, he’ll tell you there’s one person who knows more about it than anyone else alive: his trial-preparation specialist, Roxanne Avery. An entire wall of her home office in Norman, Okla., is covered with wallet-size mug shots of the nearly 200 bikers arrested, as well as photographs of the nine men who died that day, seven years ago, after a violent brawl in a Waco parking lot. Each picture is layered with Post-it Notes and details about the subjects: ages, road names (Cheech, Chain, Drama, Sidetrack, Saint, Mad Dog, Pee Paw, Bubba, Bubba Earl, Bashful, Yogi, Reno, Creeper, Grumpy Dan), club affiliations, ranks, descriptions of injuries (“Bullet entered neck, partially exited”; “Paralyzed from the waist down”; “DEAD”) and any other pertinent information (“I met him March 2018”; “9mm Glock”; “U.S. Army — 2 tours Iraq”; “Convicted felon”; “Shot dog?”; “Did not see anything”; “Graduate Baylor University w/ English degree”). Point to a random photograph, and Avery will generally be able to squint and tell you something about the biker in question.

“There’s a rumor that he killed somebody,” she said one morning two years ago, tapping a face. “I don’t think it’s true. I know these guys.” She wore a large black onyx ring and brilliant cherry red lipstick; one of her Chihuahuas, Bonnie, padded by in a white dress with a red bow. Moving to a large computer monitor, Avery began to click through crime-scene photographs, many of them graphic close-ups of dead bodies. “So he’s got a gunshot wound that you see is in his face and his eye,” she noted, pausing at a particularly grisly image. “The other one entered through his back and exited out.”

If the first shot was fired by police the target was Cossack Wayne Lee Campbell. Campbell was leaning against the balcony of the Twin Peaks patio with his hands in his pockets when he was shot in the chin. The bullet and his face both fragmented. A bullet fragment and a bullet jacket fragment were removed from the front of his neck near his esophagus.
Ballistics tests on the fragments performed at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas conclude that the bullet that killed Campbell was fired from a “Bushmaster, model XM 15-E25, 5.56 x 45mm caliber select-fire rifle, serial number BF1470811.”

The rifle was one of three turned over to the forensic institute by the Waco police. Three Waco Swat officers, Andy O’Neal, Michael Bucher and Heath Jackson admitted that they had “engaged” bikers. The chain of evidence for their rifles seems impeccable and all three were briefed by police union representative before talking to detectives. All three were “no billed,” or cleared, by a Waco grand jury in September 2016. The serial numbers of the guns each officer was issued have never been made public.

Cossack Daniel Raymond “Diesel” Boyett was shot in the head as he crawled toward police. He was shot with two rifles and one of them was the same rifle that killed Campbell. Tests on two bullet fragments revealed that one fragment, “removed from right neck was identified as having been fired by the item One Bushmaster. model XM 15-E2S, 5.56 x 45mm caliberselect-flre rifle, serial number BF1470811.” Additional fragments “removed from left abdomen wall” and Boyett’s “head and left face” were conclusively identified “as having been fired by the item One Bushmaster, model XM 15-E2S, 5.56 x 45mm ealiber select-fire rifle, serial number L372190.”

Someone shot Cossack Richard Vincent “Bear” Kirschner, Jr. with a .38 caliber pistol in the leg as he attacked a Bandido with a length of steel chain. Someone else ran up to Kirschner while he was down and hit him in the head with what looks like a wrench. Kirschner rose again and fell near the pole camera police had installed that morning to memorialize the anticipated violence. He appeared to have been shot just before he fell a second time which would be consistent with his autopsy report. The bullet that dropped him the final time and left a large hole in his leg has never been recovered. Kirschner died at a Waco hospital. Only the .38 caliber bullet was recovered.

A Cossack named Jacob Lee “Rattlecan” Rhyne, executed Jesus Delgado “Jesse” “Mohawk” Rodriguez, who was unaffiliated with any club, by shooting him the head at close range as Rodriguez fought with Cossack Jacob Cody “J” Reese.

After he killed Rodriguez, Rhyne was shot and killed by “One Bushmaster. model XM 15-E2S, 5.56 x 45mm caliber select•fire rifle, serial number L372190, which was one of the guns used to kill Boyett. Ryhne was also shot by a projectile fired from an unidentified ,22 caliber rifle.

The lone Bandido to die, Manuel Isaac “Candy Man” Rodriguez died from two gunshots, He was struck in the head by a significantly deformed .38 caliber bullet that was recovered from his neck and he was also shot in the back where a less deformed .38 caliber bullet was recovered. It is possible that Rodriguez was shot by one of the four undercover cops in the crowd but unlikely.

Cossack regional sergeant at arms Charles Wayne “Dog” Russell was shot by a small caliber round to the chest. He had numerous abrasions as if he had been in a fight or an accident. He had a large, star shaped wound on his shaved head. The path of the bullet that killed him was from his front to his back and slightly downward. The path of the bullet makes it unlikely that he was shot by an elevated sniper. A minimally deformed, approximately 15 mm long, small caliber, jacketed bullet was recovered from his vest. Russell appears to have been shot with a .22 caliber pistol. Many bikers carry either .22 caliber derringers or .22 caliber revolvers as emergency guns. Police never do.

Richard Matthew “Chain” Jordan, III, the stepson of Cossacks Nomad Owen Reeves another club regional sergeant at arms, died of gunshot wounds to the head. Two bullet fragments, identified by the forensics lab as having been fired from a .38 caliber weapon, were recovered during his autopsy.

Matthew Mark Smith was killed by one of two Bandidos using a .45 caliber pistol. Smith had a pistol in his hand when he was shot. There is significant evidence that the Bandido who killed Smith, warned him to stop and fired only after Smith fired at him.

Ballistics evidence indicates that at least four of the wounded were shot by police riflemen. One of them was Christopher Julian Carrizal, the father of Christopher Jacob Carrizal, who will be the first Twin Peaks defendant to stand trial. Among the victims Jake Carrizal is accused of assaulting, is his father.

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