3 with alleged Skinhead ties indicted in 1998 slayings of anti-racists

By Jackie Valley

Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012 | 4:02 p.m.

Three people with alleged Skinhead affiliations have been charged in connection with two 1998 Las Vegas homicides, according to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed Wednesday.

The indictment charges Ross Hack, 40, Leland Jones, 31, and Melissa Hack, 37, with first-degree murder and firearms offenses related to the deaths of Lin Newborn and Daniel Shersty, who were shot to death July 3 or July 4, 1998, on federal land in the northwest valley.

The trio allegedly aided and abetted each other in the premeditated shooting and killings of the victims, both of whom were in their 20s, according to the indictment.

The government plans to introduce evidence that the defendants were affiliated with racist, neo-Nazi — or “Skinhead” — groups at the time of the homicides, Justice Department officials said.

Newborn, who was black, and Shersty, who was white, were members of the Anti-Racist Action Group, otherwise known as the Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARPS), officials said.

The deaths drew national attention to a subculture of moderates within a group considered extremist and united by hatred of non-whites.

A fourth person, John Butler, was convicted of the murders of Newborn and Shersty by a Clark County District Court in 2000, officials said. Butler is serving two consecutive life sentences in a Nevada prison.

Federal officials said Ross Hack and Melissa Hack could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted. Jones, who was a minor at the time of the homicides, faces a potential penalty of life in prison.

The FBI’s Las Vegas Division and Metro Police have been investigating the case, which is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Bliss of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada and Trial Attorney Patricia Sumner of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.