Insane Throttle News | November 2, 2026

Five men connected to the Hells Angels and Red Devils motorcycle clubs have been sentenced to jail for assaulting another biker and stealing his probationary vest inside a Hamilton bar. Ontario Court Justice Amanda Camara imposed custodial sentences on Monday, November 2, 2026, describing the July 4, 2024 incident at Cadillac Jax as “a co-ordinated and violent robbery carried out against a vulnerable victim.” The court rejected the Crown’s request to treat the men as acting on behalf of a criminal organization.

The attack happened early in the evening of July 4, 2024, at Cadillac Jax on Main Street East near Wentworth Street. People were on the outdoor patio, at the bar, and playing pool when the group confronted a man wearing a Rock Machine prospect vest. The five men assaulted him and took the vest. Four of the accused were identified in earlier proceedings as members of the Hells Angels Hamilton chapter; one was a member of the Red Devils, a Hells Angels support club. They were Joel Rollin, 41, of Grimsby; Trevor Pittman, 34, of Ancaster; Daniel Fish, 36, of Brantford; William Ashford-Smith, 36, of Hamilton; and Jason Hall, 51, of York. All five were convicted of assault and robbery.

During the investigation, the OPP-led Biker Enforcement Unit and Hamilton Police executed search warrants at the men’s residences and at the Hells Angels and Red Devils clubhouses in Hamilton. Officers seized four shotguns, three rifles, a shotgun barrel, ammunition, body armor, and a Possession and Acquisition Licence. Those seizures occurred in August 2024, weeks after the bar incident.

At sentencing, the Crown had argued that the men were operating as part of a criminal organization and sought penitentiary terms in the four-to-six-year range. Justice Camara rejected that framing for the purpose of sentence. While Hells Angels chapters have been found to be criminal organizations in other cases, the Crown in this matter did not call evidence about the internal workings, structure, or activities of the Hamilton chapter. Without that evidence, the court declined to apply the organized-crime aggravating factor. Defense lawyers had previously argued that the Crown was presenting a “fantastical story” more suited to television than a courtroom. The judge still found the coordinated nature of the assault and the theft of the vest serious enough to require jail time rather than a non-custodial sentence.

The victim was described as vulnerable in the sense that he was alone, outnumbered, and wearing colors associated with a rival club. Stealing a probationary vest is a direct challenge to the wearer’s status inside his own club and a public statement by the attackers. In outlaw motorcycle club culture, such a move is rarely treated as a simple bar fight. It is an assertion of territory and hierarchy. The fact that the court declined to label the act as organized-crime activity does not erase the coordinated character of the assault or the significance of the vest itself.

The sentences close the criminal case against the five men for the Cadillac Jax incident. Exact lengths of the jail terms were not detailed in the initial reporting of Monday’s decision. The underlying investigation that produced the firearms seizures remains separate from the assault and robbery convictions. For the local motorcycle scene, the outcome is a reminder that bar confrontations involving colors can move from street-level violence to multi-year court proceedings, even when the Crown cannot prove the broader criminal-organization element. The Rock Machine prospect lost his vest and sustained an assault. The five men from the Hells Angels and Red Devils side are now serving jail time for it.

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