CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A federal jury could not reach a verdict Friday in the case of a former prison guard accused of conspiring to retaliate against a member of the Pagans Motorcycle Club who was in prison.

Jurors deliberated for more than six hours before concluding that they were deadlocked.

Michael Lloyd Stevens, 38, of Huntington, admitted he talked with members of the Last Rebels Motorcycle Club and the Pagans about hiring another inmate to "shut up" the incarcerated Pagan.

But he maintained that he never knew that Vincent "Hot Rod" Morris, who was serving a 54-month prison sentence for robbing a bank, had provided information to federal law enforcement.

"The government was not able to provide any evidence ... that [Stevens] knew that 'Hot Rod' cooperated with a federal law enforcement officer," Jackie Hallinan, Stevens' defense attorney, said during her closing argument.

Without that element of the crime, the jury could not convict him of conspiring to retaliate against a government witness, she said.

"He may be guilty of a crime. He's probably guilty of a crime," she conceded -- but not the crime the government had charged him with.

Stevens said he wanted to quiet Morris because he had been talking with members of the Outlaws, a rival to the Pagans. Stevens said he was concerned his brother, who was president of the Huntington chapter of the Last Rebels, a smaller club affiliated with the Pagans, might get hurt or killed in a turf war between the Outlaws and the Pagans.

During the two-day trial, the jury heard surreptitious recordings of Stevens, David "Kicker" Cremeans and Ron "Pagan Ronnie" Howerton discussing a plan to hire a Tim "Tiny" Sizemore, a 350-pound, 6-feet-6-inches tall member of the Brothers of the Wheel Motorcycle Club, to take care of Morris.

"[Sizemore] asked me already, how do you want him shut up? I said, I want him shut up," Stevens said on the recording. "His face needs to quit talking."

The three also discussed how to put money onto Sizemore's account at the prison commissary, and Stevens said he had already given Sizemore several packs of cigarettes, which sold for $150 each inside the prison.

Sizemore intended to make the incident seem like self-defense by stabbing himself, Stevens said.

"I think Tiny's planning on sticking himself and then stomping [Morris'] guts out," he said on the recording.

Stevens can also be heard on the recording saying he didn't like how Morris treated "Pauley," the biker name of fellow Pagan Paul Hysell, who helped Morris rob a Big Chimney bank in 2004. After Morris was arrested, he identified Hysell as his accomplice, and told FBI investigators where to find him, Hysell testified.

"To me, a snitch is the worst thing that's walking," Stevens said on the recording.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Loew said that the recording proved that Stevens wanted to punish Morris for talking to law enforcement.

Stevens may also have been motivated by a desire to join the Last Rebels alongside his brother, Loew said. Stevens said that he often hung out at the Last Rebels' clubhouse in Huntington, but his job as a quasi-law enforcement officer banned him from membership.

It was widely discussed within the Pagans that Morris had "ratted out" Hysell, and investigators found copies of reports about FBI interviews with Morris in Pagans national vice president Floyd "Jesse" Moore's house when they searched it in April 2008, Loew said.

In addition, Stevens signed a stipulation of facts detailing his role in the conspiracy to retaliate against Morris as part of a plea deal he struck with prosecutors in March, Loew said. Stevens signed a plea agreement, but backed out of the deal before U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston could accept the agreement.

Stevens testified that he felt pressured by prosecutors and agents to take the deal, although prosecutors maintained that he had almost two weeks to consider an earlier offer, which they sweetened on March 16 to appease Stevens.

Stevens was one of 55 defendants named in a racketeering indictment against members and associates of the Pagans. He has been in custody since the indictment was unsealed in October.

Cremeans and Moore have both pleaded guilty to racketeering charges. Howerton, who was an informant working with the FBI, was not charged.

Only a handful of the 55 defendants in the Pagans case still have charges pending. Most have entered plea deals to lesser charges, and several have entered pre-trial diversions in which prosecutors agreed to drop the charges against them if they stay out of trouble for a year.

Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.