Witnesses’ stories conflict in Butler’s trial in slayings

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2000 | 9:56 a.m.

One by one, John Edward Butler's defense witnesses testified he was with them in the hours before and during the slayings of two anti-racist skinhead activists.

One by one, they testified they remembered the evening -- July 3, 1998 -- because they watched fireworks being shot off at the Stratosphere hotel-casino.

But on Tuesday, Gerard Scott, a fire safety manager with the Stratosphere, testified the only fireworks from the Stratosphere in July 1998 were shot off the evening of July 4.

Scott ended up being the final witness in the capital murder trial of Butler, 28. Jurors were expected to hear closing arguments right before lunchtime today and begin their deliberations shortly thereafter.

If convicted, Butler could be sentenced to death.

Prosecutors believe Butler and Ross Hack shot and killed Daniel Shersty, 20, and Lin Newborn, 25, at around 1:30 a.m. July 4, 1998.

Deputy District Attorneys Robert Daskas and Bill Kephart allege that Butler, a leader in the Independent Nazi Skinheads group, hated the men because of their biracial friendship and anti-racist activities.

The prosecutors contend Butler convinced his girlfriend, Melissa Hack, and an unidentified girl to lure the victims to their deaths in the desert under the guise of a date.

According to court testimony, three men riding all-terrain vehicles found Shersty's body around 8 a.m. July 4 and saw Melissa Hack and Butler at the scene. Newborn's body was found two days later after a subsequent search by police.

Defense attorney Joseph Sciscento told jurors during opening arguments that the pair were at the scene at the behest of Ross Hack, who begged them to pick up evidence left by the true murderer -- his friend and roommate Danny Hartung.

Sciscento put several witnesses on the stand who testified that Melissa Hack, who is Ross Hack's sister, and Butler spent the evening and early morning hours between her parents' home and his brother's house.

Sciscento and fellow attorney Bret Whipple also questioned witnesses, who testified as to Hartung's racist beliefs and hatred for Newborn.

In addition to calling Scott as a rebuttal witness on Tuesday, Daskas also called Sherri Steiner-Isquith to the stand.

Steiner-Isquith testified that she saw Melissa Hack with Newborn and another girl at the body-piercing shop where Newborn was working on July 3, 1998.

Although she couldn't identify Hack during a photo lineup in July 1998, Steiner-Isquith said she knew the next day which of the women was the woman she saw with Newborn that night. It wasn't until Friday, however, that she formally made the identification while speaking with the prosecutors.

Steiner-Isquith said she had initially been called as a defense witness, but once she made the identification Friday, they told her her services were no longer needed.

It was then that prosecutors subpoenaed her, Steiner-Isquith told jurors.

The Hacks and Hartung have never been charged in connection with the case.