Jury still deliberating fate of accused killer

Kim Smith

Thursday, Dec. 21, 2000 | 10:19 a.m.

Jurors resumed their deliberations today in the trial of a Nazi skinhead accused of ambushing and killing two anti-racist activists in July 1998.

The jurors deliberated about two hours Wednesday without reaching a decision in the John Edward Butler case.

Prosecutors believe Butler, 28, and Ross Hack shot and killed Daniel Shersty, 20, and Lin Newborn, 25, in the desert northwest of Las Vegas in the early morning hours of July 4, 1998.

Deputy District Attorneys Bill Kephart and Robert Daskas told jurors that Hack's sister and Butler's girlfriend, Melissa Hack, lured the men to their deaths with the help of an unidentified girl.

Butler, a woman believed to be Melissa Hack and Joseph Justin were seen at the murder scene by all-terrain vehicle riders at about 8 a.m. that day and Butler was later found in possession of a weapon that proved to be one of the murder weapons.

Justin testified against Butler, saying that Butler enlisted his aid in picking up evidence left at the scene the morning of the slayings. Among the evidence they picked up, Justin said, were shotgun shells and a beer bottle with Melissa Hack's fingerprints on it.

Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas told the jurors "if you believe the testimony of Joey Justin, the discussion ends there. You must convict the defendant."

Other state witnesses included former cellmates of Butler's who testified he confessed to them and two women who claim they saw Melissa Hack with Newborn the night of July 3.

Deputy Special Public Defender Joseph Sciscento reminded jurors during his closing arguments Wednesday that in exchange for his testimony Justin received probation, credit for time served or outright dismissals on five, unrelated felony charges.

"Joey Justin gave one, two, three, four separate accounts of what happened, four separate accounts," Sciscento said. "The first three made sense."

In the first three accounts, Justin said Butler was asked to pick up the evidence by Ross Hack, who Sciscento believes actually committed the murders with the help of his roommate, Danny Hartung.

"Do you really believe that if he stuck to the first three stories, that Ross Hack did it....he still would've gotten the same deal (from prosecutors)?" Sciscento asked jurors.

As for the former cellmates, Sciscento reminded the jurors that he put on other cellmates who testified they did not hear the alleged confessions.

Sciscento also urged the jurors to recall the testimony of several witnesses who testified that Butler was with them in the hours before and during the slayings.

The police never bothered to interview those close to Butler about possible alibis, nor did they check out information they received about others, including Hartung, who may have had a motive to kill Newborn, Sciscento said.

Ross Hack has been on a "two-year vacation in Europe" courtesy of a rich father, but "John Butler gets a public defender who has to do an investigation that should've been done two and a half years ago," Sciscento said.

Sciscento suggested Butler may have wanted to fit in with the nice, rich Hack family and that's why he went to the murder scene that morning.

"Even if he's stupid enough to go out afterward and be an aider and an abettor, that doesn't make him a murderer," Sciscento said.

The defense attorney pleaded with the jurors not to base their decision on Butler's racist beliefs.

"They (prosecutors) want you to hate him. When you hate someone, when you don't like someone or their beliefs, it's easy to convict them," Sciscento said.

Neither the Hacks nor Hartung have ever been charged in connection with the case.