Hells Angel Gets Potential Life Sentence for Ocean Beach Hate Crime

By Paul Krueger / June 8, 2025

A Hells Angel convicted of brutally stabbing a black man two years ago on Newport Avenue will serve 14 years-to-life in state prison for that crime, plus seven more years for related felonies.

Prosecutors said Troy Scholder has a history of violence marked by racial hatred, and was an “proud, continuous and unrepentant” member of the violent motorcycle gang.

A jury convicted Scholder of multiple felonies for his role in the June 6, 2023 attack on three black men. Prosecutor Miriam Hemming said the attack was prompted by a complaint by one of the gang member’s girlfriends that one of the victims made inappropriate comments to her outside a Newport Avenue bar.

Seventeen Hells Angels were charged with various crimes related to the attack, but the prosecutor said Scholder was the “predator” whose single stab wound shattered the victim’s breast bone, pierced vital organs, and came within “a millimeter” of killing him.

At Friday’s sentencing hearing, Scholder’s attorney Mark Kohnen downplayed his client’s history of violence and argued that “the victims, to some degree, provoked the incident… by not taking care to avoid the situation.” But in response to skeptical questions from Judge Francis Devaney, the defense attorney acknowledged that “in no way am I arguing that they deserved what happened.”

Defense attorney Kohnen recommended a six year sentence for his client, citing his documented history of “childhood trauma” and drug dependence worsened by depression “at not being able to see his twin daughters” due to a custody dispute with their mother.

But the prosecutor forcefully rejected those factors and denounced the defense’s attempt to “victim blame and victim shame.”

Judge Devany also said “it sounds like victim blaming… and I don’t buy that.” But the judge agreed that Scholder’s history of childhood trauma warranted some leniency in the sentencing.

The victims were not in court for the sentencing, and the prosecutor did not read a statement on their behalf. Scholder did not speak at his sentencing or offer an apology for his actions. But as bailiffs led him from the courtroom, Judge Devany thanked him for his courteous and polite behavior during his trial.