Thursday, Dec. 31, 1998 | 11:32 a.m.
John Edward Butler, in jail on charges he murdered two anti-racist skinheads, confessed those crimes to a fellow prisoner, according to the testimony at a Justice Court preliminary hearing.
That testimony, plus evidence that Butler was seen near the victims' bodies and that his pistol was used to kill one victim, was sufficient for Justice of the Peace Debbie Lippis to order that he be held for trial in District Court.
Arraignment is set for Jan. 7 in District Judge Michael Douglas's courtroom.
Richard Fishburn, a 48-year-old, gravel-voiced cook who spent several weeks behind bars with Butler from July to September, was the star witness at Wednesday's hearing.
He testified that shortly after he met Butler in a Las Vegas jail, the defendant confessed that he had committed the July 4 murders and, over the course of several days, gave details of the events.
Fishburn quoted Butler as saying he "off'd the two sharps...he killed them."
"Sharps" is the term for those who have some skinhead beliefs but do not embrace the racial prejudice that permeates many skinhead groups, according to Metro Police Sgt. James Owens.
Fishburn said Butler described himself as the president of the Independent Nazi Skins gang and explained the slayings were the result of "some long-running feud over some girl."
The heavily tattooed 26-year-old defendant stared defiantly at witnesses throughout the day-long preliminary hearing.
Butler's neo-Nazi group has been known to rival a group to which the shooting victims belonged.
Police have said that Daniel Shersty, 20, and Lin Newborn, 25, were targeted and not killed at random. Both Shersty, who was white, and Newborn, who was black, were known within the Las Vegas community for their outspoken ways to end racism.
Butler initially was linked to the slayings when three men riding all-terrain vehicles came across him and two others at the scene of the murders along a power line road west of Las Vegas.
One of those was James Harris, who testified that when he, his son and a friend approached a car parked on the road he thought it was disabled. Then they spotted the nearby body of one of the victims and a moment later Butler and two others walked up to him from the desert and asked him to call police.
He noted that Butler said he wasn't going to wait because he knew there were outstanding warrants for his arrest and he and his companions drove off in the car.
But Harris said the license number was noted and police indicated the vehicle belonged to the mother of Butler's girlfriend, Melissa Hack, 22.
While police originally treated the murder as a single slaying, the investigation revealed that a second man also was missing and police again searched the remote area two days later, finally finding the second body.
Owens said he tracked down Butler on July 14 on Nellis Boulevard but lost him after a brief foot chase when the defendant vaulted a wooden fence. A Metro K-9 unit, however, apprehended Butler about two blocks away.
Owens testified that when he began walking back to his unmarked police car, he found a .32-caliber semiautomatic pistol lying on the ground. A ballistics check of the weapon later showed it had been the weapon that killed Shersty.
Newburn had been shot with a .38-caliber pistol and both victims also had been shotgunned. But Fishburn said that Butler never mentioned that anyone else was involved in the murders.
Fishburn said that in jail Butler lamented the loss of "his favorite gun" and commented that he had written poems about it.
Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent, the witness said he told Butler it was "stupid" to keep a murder weapon.
Fishburn, who is on probation for attempted embezzlement of an automobile, said he eventually came forward to testify "because it was the right thing to do" and no deals were made with prosecutors for his story.
The pair alleged to have been in the desert with Butler were Hack and the couple's friend, Joseph Michael Justin, 19.
Justin told police he had been summoned to help clean up the scene of an accident and that there would be dead bodies there, but in court he denied ever mentioning knowledge of bodies.
Justin also said that testimony from Harris was "inaccurate" if it indicated he, Butler and Hack were seen walking from the area where the second body eventually was found.
SUN REPORTER Karen Zekan contributed to this story.
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