October 3, 2019 — The trial was supposed to be in full swing by now. Instead, it never happened. Just 72 hours before they were set to stand trial for the gangland execution of a rival biker boss on September 23, two members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club in Ocala, Florida and their two co-defendants, had their murder charges dropped by state prosecutors for lack of credible witnesses.
Ocala Outlaws Mark (Not Quite) Knotts, Greg (Stinky) Umphress, Jesus (Ace) Marrero and Miguel (Toe Jam) Torres were charged in the first degree murder of Kingsmen Motorcycle Club vice president David (Gutter) Donovan, who was slain April 29, 2017 at a well-lit and video-surveilled gas station on the last night of the annual Leesburg Bikerfest. Knotts, 50, and Marrero, 38, were arrested almost immediately. Umphress, 34, was a fugitive for two months prior to being apprehended that summer in East Naples, Florida. Torres, 39, avoided arrest for a month following the indictment landing in May.
Knotts and Torres were headed to trial first. Marrero and Umphress had been scheduled to start their trial in early 2020.
Donovan, 41, was second-in-command in the Kingsmen’s Lake County, Florida chapter. The Outlaws launched an offensive on other biker clubs operating in Florida at some point in late 2016, per an internal memo circulated throughout multiple law enforcement agencies during that time.
According to a police report from the April 2017 incident, Umphress, Marrerro and Torres put a knife to Gutter Donovan’s throat as he exited a Circle K gas station in Leesburg, Florida and forced him to his knees on the side of the building facing Knotts. When Donovan refused to remove his Kingsmen colors and “cut” (his “rocker” vest), Knotts ordered him to be executed. Per the report, Knotts instructed his fellow Outlaws to “shoot that motherfucker.”
Donovan was shot in the head and the back. He died after a two-week fight for his life in the hospital. Although the 2017 indictment named Knotts the ring leader of the murder plot, it didn’t name a shooter.
The scraggly-bearded Knotts, sometimes referred to as “Knothead,” was shot three times in the back after the attack on Donovan. One of Donovan’s Kingsmen brothers, Justin Milicic, opened fire on Knotts from the doorway of the Circle K as Knotts went to get on his bike and flee the scene.
The Kingsmen are a club out of New York trying to establish a foothold in Florida. The Outlaws headquarter out of the Midwest but have long been the premier biker gang power in the American southeast as well, taking over large swaths of territory in and around several major regions of Florida since the 1970s.
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