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| Former Aryan Member says Mafia Sought Hit |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/20/2006 |
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A former California member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang testified that alleged gang kingpin Barry "The Baron" Mills told him he had ordered the killings of at least four gang members who had violated the group's rules. Glen West, a member of the white supremacist gang from 1981 to 2003, said Mills told him about the murders when the two were housed in the same cell block in a prison in Marion, Ill. Mills also told him he had killed a fifth inmate himself for cheating the gang on a drug deal, West said. West, who began his testimony last week, was expected to take the stand for a third day. Mills is among four members of the Aryan Brotherhood on trial on federal racketeering charges in the case that alleges a web of conspiracies and killings in the gang's efforts to sell drugs and conduct other criminal activities in prisons across the nation. It's the first of several trials comprising one of the largest death penalty cases in U.S. history. Prosecutors said Mills had a hand in all but one of the crimes in the indictment that includes 32 murders and attempted murders. Mills and another man on trial, T.D. "The Hulk" Bingham, could face the death penalty. West testified that Mills also ordered a killing at the request of the late Mafia don John Gotti after another inmate jumped Gotti in a prison yard. Another gang member had sent a message to Mills, who was in a different prison, requesting permission to carry out the hit on inmate Walter Johnson, West said. "He'd sent it to Barry, and Barry sent word back that we were to get Johnson killed at all costs," West said. Prosecutors have said the killing was never carried out. During cross-examination, attorney H. Dean Steward, who represents Mills, asked if West was testifying to avoid a life sentence. Steward noted that West didn't come forward until 2003, when he was trying to strike a deal with prosecutors. West, 52, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the current case, but he said that count will be dismissed in exchange for his testimony and a guilty plea in a separate attempted murder case from 1980. He is now in the witness protection program. Under earlier questioning, West said he had lied at another trial in the early 1990s to support an Aryan Brotherhood member. Later, he said he didn't testify at all in the case. Mills, 57, is already serving two life terms for a 1979 murder. In the current trial, he faces a possible death sentence for allegedly orchestrating the 1997 killings of two black inmates in Pennsylvania. Bingham, 58, is currently serving time on robbery and drug charges. Also on trial are Edgar Wesley Hevle, 54, and Christopher Overton Gibson, 46. If convicted, both could face life in prison. Authorities arrested 40 alleged Aryan Brotherhood members in 2002 after a six-year investigation that aimed to dismantle the gang's leadership. Nineteen defendants struck plea bargains and one has died. If convicted, 16 of the remaining defendants could face the death penalty. |
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