Review: The Killer Chronicles Episode on FAIM

Perhaps the closest-to-the-truth account of a CoCo County mob story

YouTube Channel Killer Chronicles dropped an episode on the Coby Phillips and Family Affiliated Irish Mafia (FAIM) on Sunday, July 6, 2025. It has already amassed more than 70,000 views in less than half a day and one fully expects it to go viral.

Overall, it’s 99 percent correct and has a lot of exclusive content, including wiretaps and photos.

The episode, erroneously titled “Vallejo’s Secret Mafia and the Murders Behind It”—It should be called “CoCo County’s Not-So-Secret Mafia and the Murders Behind It”—prominently features Matt “Matty Boy” Donohue’s rap videos. Not coincidently, Matty Boy dropped a video on the Fourth of July called “Cream Puff” that may or may not be about Coby Phillips. He also dropped a video called “Kill The Irishman” days earlier that was filmed in Crockett (a/k/a Sugar City). Footage from both videos was used in the Killer Chronicles episodes.

I first became aware of the FAIM saga in May 2015 when I read Jose Vega-Robles appeal of his 2012 murder and attempted murder convictions. It was like reading the script for a mob movie. But instead of New York or Vegas, the story was set in CoCo County. After doing some research, I became aware that Coby Phillips had been tried in 2013, and the jury hung. He was scheduled to be retried in 2016.

Meanwhile, Joseph “Joe Rue” Verducci’s appeal dropped in January 2016. Verducci was tried four times—that’s right—four times before a Solano County jury convicted him in 2013 of the murder of Jose Corona at My Office Bar and Grill in Vallejo in 2007. (Double jeopardy anyone?).

Coby Phillips was retried in Fall 2016—right around the time the Drug Enforcement Administration was wiretapping Ronnie Yandell’s contraband cell phone—and he was convicted. The Killer Chronicles episode rightly notes that the case against Phillps relied almost exclusively on cooperating witnesses who had taken deals. No DNA. No fingerprints. No eyewitnesses. No murder weapon. No confession. Phillips was convicted and sentenced to 105 years to life in 2017. Since then, various changes to the Penal Code have allowed Phillips to be re-sentenced to 50 to life. He is incarcerated at San Quentin and has a parole eligibility date of September 2033.

The episode is 28 minutes and change long, which is barely enough time to scratch the surface of this saga. The thumbnail summary is that Coby Phillips, the Donohues, and Coveys—all affiliated by family ties and Irish American heritage—formed FAIM circa 1995 and, after some prison commitments, went big time into the meth game in the early 2000s. The Vega-Robles brothers had the plug and FAIM was moving major amounts of weight and making a lot of money.

Everything came crashing down in the late summer / early fall of 2004. Darrell Grokett robbed a FAIM-connected dealer in Sonoma County in August 2004. Grokett apparently did this at the behest of Ronnie Yandell, who was seeking to assert his influence over FAIM from his prison cell at Pelican Bay.

Some interesting tidbits I’ve picked up over the years researching the saga is that law enforcement consulted Paul “Cornfed” Schneider about Phillips at one point. Cornfed was the Aryan Brotherhood member who owned the presa canarios that mauled Dianne Whipple in San Francisco in 2001. I also heard that legendary Contra Costa criminalist Paul Holes worked the case. Perhaps Holes will elaborate in his next book.

There’s also a ton of dark humor associated with this case. Two shootings coincided with guys urinating on the side of building. Phillips’ first attorney, Colin Cambell, withdrew from his defense because he had previously represented Grokett. Clients killing each other is bad for business. Robert Lott’s interview with Detective Shawn Pate in which he references the infamous jet ski case. And of course, the burning van found at the murder scene the night after the murder.

I also noted that Killer Chronicles has Members Only content of Ralph Nash’s debrief at Corcoran State Prison in 2009. Nash testified in Phillips’ 2016 trial. By the time he took the witness stand, Nash had told four different stories of the events leading up to Grokett’s murder. Depending on what account you believe, Phillips recruited Nash to participate in the murder of Grokett. Nash testified he declined and warned Grokett on two different occasions. Nash was also Matty Boy’s cellie at San Quentin circa 1998.

So Who Is Killer Chronicles?

First off, it’s not me. According to the YouTube summary, the channel started in September 2021. It’s profiled—very accurately—several Contra Costa County murder cases, including Woodie The Rapper and the 2004 murder of Matthew Stephens in Antioch. A Contra Costa prosecutor made me aware of the channel circa 2022.

Whoever it is, I give Killer Chronicles credit: Unlike a lot of YouTube channels that fabricate, recycle, or steal content, they do their research. And obviously, much like myself, they’ve figured out Contra Costa County has a treasure trove of content.