Jury begins deliberations in skinhead murder case

Federal prosecutors urged a jury to hold two men accountable for planning and carrying out the 1998 shooting deaths of two men who supported racial unity.

“For 16 years these defendants have literally gotten away with murder,” said Julia Gegenheimer, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “They thought they’d never get caught.”

Jurors began deliberating after three hours of closing arguments Tuesday in the case against Ross Hack, 42, and Leland Jones, 33.

Gegenheimer said the pair “plotted those murders along with four other white-supremacist, neo-Nazi skinheads.”

But defense lawyers argued that no physical evidence links their clients to the killings, which occurred on federal land in northwest Las Vegas.

“Yes, Ross Hack was a skinhead,” Assistant Federal Public Defender Michael Kennedy said. “Yes, he was.”

The term “skinhead” may be synonymous with “racist,” Kennedy argued, “but it doesn’t mean you’re violent.”

“Ross Hack didn’t plan; Ross Hack didn’t participate in it; Ross Hack killed no one;” the defendant’s attorney argued. “Ross Hack was never at the scene.”

Authorities have said Lin “Spit” Newborn, 25, and Daniel Shersty, 20, were killed because they were members of a skinhead group that opposed racial prejudice. Newborn was black, and Shersty was white.

“These were callous, deliberate executions,” Gegenheimer argued.

Newborn worked at a body-piercing salon. Shersty, his friend, was an airman at Nellis Air Force Base, where he serviced fighter jets.

Three people, including one of Hack’s sisters, admitted their involvement in the killings and testified for the government during the trial.

Hack’s sister, Melissa Hack, and his former girlfriend, Mandie Abels, have pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit murder. Both women said they were following Ross Hack’s instructions when they lured the victims to the desert area where they were ambushed and killed.

“Dan Shersty and Lin Newborn thought they were going to meet up with two girls, go out to the desert and party together at the start of the Fourth of July weekend,” Gegenheimer said.

John “Polar Bear” Butler, Melissa Hack’s former boyfriend, was convicted of both murders in 2000 in Clark County District Court but continued to profess his innocence until a 2011 meeting with federal authorities.

At the federal trial, Butler publicly admitted his involvement in the deaths for the first time while also pointing the finger at Ross Hack, Jones, Melissa Hack, Abels and Daniel Hartung.

Hartung died in a traffic accident in 2012.

Gegenheimer told jurors they had the benefit of hearing from three people who participated in the killings.

“Each of those people gave you valuable information,” the prosecutor said.

Kennedy argued that all three witnesses are hoping to regain their freedom by testifying for the government.

Both Melissa Hack and Abels described how Shersty begged for mercy after being shot.

“Melissa told you she can’t get that voice out of her head, even to this day,” Gegenheimer told jurors.

But Kennedy argued that Shersty had been shot in the larynx and could not have uttered a word.

The lawyer also noted that Ross Hack’s two other siblings, Janessa Wilson and Shahn Hack, testified for the defense and described Melissa Hack as untruthful.

Two other witnesses said Jones told them he participated in the killings. The defendant’s “own admissions tell you that he’s guilty,” Gegenheimer argued.

Ross Hack flew to Germany on Aug. 5, 1998, six days after Las Vegas police searched his home. Prosecutors said his decision to flee the country provides further evidence of his guilt.

Kennedy said Ross Hack attended an American university in Prague under his own name, graduated, got married, had a daughter and wrote a book during his years in Europe.

Ross Hack was arrested in 2008 in a passport fraud case after returning to the United States.

He later pleaded guilty to making a false statement on a passport application, and a federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced him in 2009 to three years in prison.

Ross Hack was on the verge of being released when he was indicted in the federal murder case in 2012.

Kennedy said his client had no criminal record before his arrest in the passport case.

Senior U.S. District Judge Philip Pro is presiding over the murder trial, which began two weeks ago. Jurors are expected to continue deliberations Wednesday morning.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @CarriGeer.