• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Prison gang stopped at nothing: prosecutor

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 July 2006, 14:44 CDT

By Tori Richards

SANTA ANA, Calif (Reuters) - The Aryan Brotherhood prison gang used intimidation and murder to control a vast criminal enterprise from inside America's toughest prisons, a federal prosecutor said in closing arguments on Tuesday.

As the four-month-old racketeering and conspiracy trial of four alleged leaders of the gang drew toward a conclusion, assistant U.S. Attorney Terri Flynn told jurors the gang's members risked death if they strayed from its rules.

"The Aryan Brotherhood will stop at nothing to maintain its power and control, and operating the criminal enterprise as it should. Even its own members weren't safe," Flynn said.

Pointing at the four middle-aged defendants, dressed in civilian clothes but shackled to the floor with chains, Flynn said: "These men ran the Aryan Brotherhood. They imposed murder when necessary to keep the goals of the Aryan Brotherhood operating as they should. How did they do that? By taking out anyone in their path."

Convicted killer and suspected Aryan Brotherhood chief Barry "The Baron" Mills, his alleged top lieutenant Tyler "the Hulk" Bingham, Christopher Gibson and Edgar "the Snail" Hevle went on trial in March in the government's first salvo in a legal war that prosecutors hope will break the gang.

Prosecutors in one of the largest death penalty cases in U.S. history have alleged that the Brotherhood orchestrated 32 murders or attempted murders over a 30-year period from behind the bars of some of America's maximum-security prisons.

The trial has focused heavily on testimony from former gang members, convicted killers and informants who have told chilling tales of death orders written in urine and weapons secreted in the genitals of prison visitors.

The prosecution case revolves around a 1997 race riot at a Pennsylvania prison that led to the deaths of two members of a rival prison gang -- the DC blacks.

Prosecutors say the murders were ordered by Mills and Bingham while they were behind bars at another prison. Flynn said the two rival gang members were stabbed 35 times.

The defense has argued that the government's case is built on evidence from convicts who testified in exchange for favors in the form of cash, Internet access and pornography.

Flynn showed the jury materials seized from prison cells, including a membership list and the Brotherhood code of conduct under which members were expected to generate income through drug trafficking and gambling both inside and outside prison.

Defense lawyers have argued that Brotherhood members were acting in self defense. Some black members of rival gangs have testified that the Aryan Brotherhood was too small and weak to have ordered the 1997 Pennsylvania prison murders.

The Aryan Brotherhood began as a mostly white group of inmates who banded together at California's San Quentin state prison in the 1960s to protect themselves against the larger populations of black and Hispanic prisoners.

Forty individuals were originally charged in the case in 2002. Up to 16 could face the death penalty if convicted. Nineteen have struck plea bargains, one defendant has died and trials are pending for the rest.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category