Brother gives defendant alibi in double murder case

Kim Smith

Friday, Dec. 15, 2000 | 10:18 a.m.

The brother of an admitted racist who faces the death penalty in the slayings of two men two years ago provided him an alibi on the stand Thursday, but admitted he never told police what he knew.

"I didn't know exactly what to do, who to go to or anything," said Gregory Glosson, 19.

Glosson said John Edward Butler was visiting him and another brother at the precise time prosecutors allege he shot Daniel Shersty, 20, and Lin Newborn, 25, to death.

Glosson testified that Butler, 28, showed up at his brother Lonnie's North Las Vegas home between 11 p.m. and midnight July 3 and was still there when he went to bed between 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. July 4.

Prosecutors Bill Kephart and Robert Daskas believe that Butler's girlfriend, who has never been charged, lured the two anti-racist activists to the desert west of town and that Butler shot them to death.

By piecing together the men's last known movements and telephone calls they made, the prosecutors think they died around 1:30 a.m.

Kephart asked Glosson why he didn't go to the police, knowing his brother was a suspect in a double homicide.

"I figured if it was serious they would contact me," Glosson said.

Also testifying Thursday were two former cellmates of Butler's who insisted they never heard Butler confess to the crime. Another cellmate, who has since died, testified at an earlier hearing that Butler told him on his first day in the jail that he had "off'd" two Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice members.

Both men, Kevin English and Steve Barlow, said it would be difficult not to overhear such a confession in a 10-feet by 15-feet cell.