Prisoner pleads to reduced charge in 1995 slaying at Leavenworth

Tuesday, May 20, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Gregory G. Storey, 34, who was serving time for bank robberies in Nevada and Colorado, entered his plea to the second-degree murder charge Monday before U.S. District Judge Dale Saffels.

He will be sentenced Aug. 18, and faces a maximum of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. Had he gone to trial and been convicted of the premeditated first-degree murder charge against him, Storey could have been sentenced to death.

Storey was accused of stabbing Charles "Bubba" Leger to death at the Leavenworth prison on Aug. 25, 1995. In return for his guilty plea prosecutors agreed to dismiss not only the first-degree murder charge but also one of unlawful possession of a prison-made 10-inch sharpened metal "shank" and of conspiracy with at least six other inmates.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Luedke said prosecutors were prepared to present evidence that Storey stabbed Leger in the chest several times while they were in a recreation area at a special housing unit in the prison.

He said Leger tapped on a window to get the attention of authorities, and that two corrections officers saw Storey stab him, back away, then stab him again. Three inmates told investigators the attack was unprovoked.

Leger suffocated because of internal bleeding caused by a stab wound to the neck, Luedke said.

Asked by Saffels whether Storey thought prosecutors had that evidence against him, Storey answered, "Yes, sir."

FBI Special Agent Eric Gerstein, one of the agents who investigated Leger's slaying, testified during a hearing Friday that the stabbing resulted from a conspiracy between members of a white prison gang.

Gerstein said a series of notes identifying Leger as an informant and ordering his slaying as part of a conspiracy were exchanged by inmates before Leger was killed.

Many inmates mentioned at Friday's hearing were either members or "associates" of the Aryan Brotherhood, which traffics narcotics inside the prison, authorities say.

Gerstein characterized Leger as an Aryan Brotherhood associate who hung out with gang members and tattooed some of them, and said Storey was seeking full membership in the gang.

A document filed by the government said Storey had been bringing drugs into the penitentiary on behalf of the Aryan Brotherhood, but a package was missing 2 grams of drug when Storey delivered it.

To divert suspicion from himself, Storey fabricated a story Leger had informed authorities about the drug delivery and that another inmate had taken the 2 grams, prosecutors said.

Storey pleaded guilty in October 1991 to armed bank robbery in Nevada, and was convicted of a Colorado bank robbery that same year. He also had convictions for robberies in Las Vegas in 1983 and 1985, as well as for an escape there in 1985, and for another escape from federal custody in Nevada in 1991.