A suspected member of the Gilbert Goons was arrested again just hours after he was sentenced to three years’ probation for an assault linked to the Arizona teen gang.
Jacob Pennington, 20, was arrested on suspicion of underage drinking the same day he was convicted of an assault in Gilbert.
Pennington is believed to be part of the Gilbert Goons – the name given to a group of teenagers and young adults who have terrorized suburban Phoenix for the past two years.
The teens’ alleged violence, which included armed robberies and dozens of attacks at parties and parking lots — some involving brass knuckles — culminated in the fatal beating of 16-year-old Preston Lord during a Halloween party on Oct. 28, 2022.
Pennington has not been charged in connection with Preston Lord’s death.
Jacob Pennington, 20, was arrested on suspicion of underage drinking on June 13, the same day he was convicted of a 2022 assault in Gilbert
This month, Pennington has appeared in court twice in two different cases: one on June 10 for an assault related to a 2023 incident.
Three days later, on June 13, Pennington was sentenced to three years of supervised probation for a 2022 assault and later that day was arrested for underage drinking.
He was in a car stopped for a criminal traffic violation near Lindsay and Elliot roads around 10:45 p.m.
Gilbert police told Fox10, “Evidence was observed indicating that Pennington had consumed an alcoholic beverage.
“Upon completion of the investigation, Jacob Pennington was arrested and booked into the Gilbert-Chandler Unified Holding Facility for ARS 4-244.41, minor in alcohol consumption, a class 2 misdemeanor.”
Following his latest arrest, the Maricopa County Prosecutor’s Office filed a petition to revoke his probation sentence.
The construction cases against him come after the Chandler Unified school district in Arizona was sued dozens of parents who claim that their children have been harassed by the gang, seriously injured, deported and even committed suicide.
Pennington’s mother Alisha Tidwell denied that her sons, Jacob and his younger brother Noah, were involved in teen violence when contacted by DailyMail.com, saying: ‘None of this is true.’
“I’m not worried,” she added. “If I didn’t know who my child was, it would be me.”
DailyMail.com revealed how the gang of youths ran amok in the Arizona town before the death of Preston Lord in October
It’s heralded as one of America’s best places to raise children, but the murder of 16-year-old Preston Lord highlighted a troubling issue of teen violence in suburban Arizona.
However, Jacob admitted to police that he was part of the Goons in January and claimed the name came from a Snapchat group, according to police documents.
The group was not officially classified as a gang until May.
After a months-long investigation sparked by the murder of 16-year-old Preston Lord, Gilbert’s embattled police chief, Michael Soelberg, confirmed that the group functions as an organized criminal entity.
The chief explained that the Goons were classified as a ‘hybrid gang’ because they rely on social media, the members are not of the same race and have a ‘lax or absent’ code of conduct.
The Goons have been involved in at least 95 attacks in 18 attacks, most of them in Gilbert, as reported by the Arizona Republic.
Soelberg previously told DailyMail.com that his department has made 29 arrests in connection with the attacks.
Lord’s murder suspects from top left to right: Jacob Meisner, Talan Renner, Taylor Sherman, Treston Biley, Talyn Vigil, Dominic Turner and William ‘Owen’ Hines
It is believed the Gilbert Goons were behind an August 2023 attack on Rick Kuehner’s 16-year-old son in an In-N-Out parking lot in Gilbert
Kuehner claims he has been trying to get Gilbert police and school officials to protect his son from the Goons since last summer after the attack
Gilbert, a wealthy Phoenix suburb once heralded as the second-safest city in the country, has been in the national news over the teen delinquents who have allegedly terrorized the community since 2022.
But Soelberg has said the videos of teenage attacks and alleged victims’ claims about their reign of terror were only shared with police after the fatal beating of Lord 16 during an October Halloween party in nearby Queen Creek.
Seven teenagers and young men, including several Goons suspects, have been charged with his murder, prompting accusations from some in the community who believe the alleged killers should have been removed from the streets long ago.
One father, Rick Kuehner, claims he has been trying to get Gilbert police and school officials to protect his son from the Goons since last summer, when his child was first threatened and then brutally beaten at an In -N-Out Parking Lot. was a go-to spot for teenage delinquents.
In a lawsuit against Goon suspects, their parents and Arizona officials, Kuehner claims authorities failed to protect his son and subsequently failed to punish the Goons.