David P. Hartlaub, a 28-year-old music store manager, was shot and killed on February 27, 1988, in Perkins Township, Ohio, while making a night deposit at a bank near the Sandusky Mall. His yellow van was identified by the shooters as belonging to a rival gang member; prosecutors say the killers were members of the Hell’s Angels and that the shooting was part of an initiation ritual and a case of mistaken identity. The deposit bag, holding about $4,000, was left untouched in the van, and prosecutors argued robbery was not a motive.

Three men—Steven Wayne Yee, Mark Verdi, and John Ray Bonds—were indicted and convicted of aggravated murder and federal firearms offenses in connection with the killing. Convictions relied on circumstantial evidence and DNA presented at trial. One convicted defendant later sought to withdraw a plea, arguing he had not understood the mandatory sentence and parole conditions; the court denied that motion.