Insane Throttle News | November 6, 2026

Three men charged in the fatal shooting of a War Dogs motorcycle club member in White Oak have entered guilty pleas in Allegheny County court. The October 12, 2025 attack that killed Kenneth Hayman, 33, of McKeesport, was linked by authorities to an earlier bar brawl between War Dogs and Pagans members in Washington County. Jacob Baker, 34, of Mount Pleasant, pleaded guilty to third-degree homicide and will serve 15 to 30 years in state prison. Victor Cruz, 28, of Jeannette, and Albert Renchko, 38, of Wilmerding, pleaded guilty to lesser offenses. Judge Simquita Bridges sentenced all three as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Prosecutors described a coordinated effort in which the three men tracked Hayman, switched license plates, and destroyed evidence afterward. Court documents and intercepted communications identified Baker, Renchko, and Cruz as members of the Pagans. Cruz was listed as president of the club’s Irwin chapter. Investigators said the men were looking to retaliate against Hayman for his role in a fight weeks earlier. On the night of the shooting, Hayman was stopped on his motorcycle at an intersection outside a Wendy’s in White Oak when a Chevrolet Silverado pulled up behind him. The three men got out wearing masks. Surveillance video captured Hayman and Baker exchanging gunfire. Hayman got off his bike, tried to take cover, then made it inside the Wendy’s seeking help. He died at a hospital a short time later. Baker was recorded on intercepted calls admitting he shot Hayman and believed he hit him multiple times.

The White Oak shooting followed a violent confrontation on August 17, 2025, at 40 Bar and Grille in North Franklin Township, Washington County. Prosecutors said Hayman was an “aggressor” in that incident. After midnight, at least 10 members of the War Dogs motorcycle club attacked Jordan Henderson, a Pagans member who was already inside the bar. The beating involved bottles, bats, and axe handles. Henderson’s face was left swollen and bloody. Another Pagans member, Corey Palmer, arrived with a bat and an axe handle, was attacked, then retrieved a gun from a vehicle and fired a shot into the air before leaving. Ten people were held for trial after a preliminary hearing in the bar case. A judge later dropped some of the more serious charges, including felony corrupt organizations and robbery counts, after testimony indicated the victim’s gun was thrown behind the bar rather than stolen. Defense attorneys argued the fight began between two men and that other club members were trying to disarm the Pagans member rather than join a group assault. They also claimed a racial slur started the confrontation.

Authorities treated the White Oak killing as possible retribution for the bar attack. The three men who pleaded guilty this week were charged in November 2025 after weeks of surveillance and intercepted calls. Baker, Renchko, and Cruz remained the focus of the homicide case while the larger group of defendants from the Washington County brawl faced their own proceedings. The plea deal resolves the murder case against the three Pagans members without a trial. It does not resolve the separate charges still pending against others involved in the August bar fight.

In the broader western Pennsylvania motorcycle club landscape, the War Dogs and Pagans have a history of friction. Investigators have noted that War Dogs chapters in the region have ties to the Outlaws, long-standing rivals of the Pagans. A bar that both groups treated as contested ground produced a mass assault, followed months later by a targeted shooting of the man prosecutors called the aggressor. The guilty pleas close the criminal case against Baker, Cruz, and Renchko for Hayman’s death. The 15-to-30-year sentence for Baker reflects the third-degree homicide conviction. The lesser pleas for Cruz and Renchko leave them with shorter exposure under the agreement. What remains is the unfinished business of the original bar brawl and whatever other fallout continues between the two clubs.

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