Dallas Morning News
Feb. 2, 1990 (33A)

Witness says Jews targeted

By Tracy Everbach, Staff Writer of the  Dallas Morning News

Ex-skinhead tells of vandalism plans

A former skinhead testified Friday that he and four white
supremacists on trial in federal court plotted to "smash
Jewish businesses" in Dallas on the 50th anniversary of
Kristallnacht.

Christ Schutza, a former member of the Confederate
Hammerskins, testified that in October 1988 defendant Daniel
Alvis Wood showed him a list of businesses supposedly owned by
Jews. That occurred about two weeks before the anniversary of
the night Nazis vandalized and looted Jewish property in
Germany, he said.

"I saw Daniel Wood with a list," Mr. Schutza testified. "It
said 'Kuppenheimer' and, I believe, (other) Jewish
businesses."

Mr. Wood and four others are being tried on charges of
violating the civil rights of African-Americans, Hispanics and
Jews in a series of assaults and vandalism.

Mr. Schutza, 18, told jurors that on Nov. 9, 1988 -- the night
of the anniversary -- he, Mr. Wood, and defendants Jon Lance
Jordan, 19, Christopher Greer, 25, and Michael Lawrence, 22,
discussed the Nazi actions of 1938.

"They were talking about the old Kristallnacht -- how to do
it, break windows," Mr. Schutza said. "He (Mr. Wood) said,
'You're not a real Nazi if you don't do that."

Later that night, Mr. Schutza said, he, Mr. Wood, Mr. Jordan
and another skinhead not on trial got into a pickup truck
loaded with spray pain, concrete blocks and Nazi flags.

"We were going to smash Jewish businesses," Mr. Schutza
testified. They never made it to their destination because
they were stopped by Dallas police. An officer testified
earlier this week that undercover officers -- as part of an
investigation of skinheads -- had been watching a house in
Garland where some of the Confederate Hammerskins lived and
held regular meetings.

The five defendants -- including Sean Tarrant, a 20-year-old
who allegedly founded and led the Hammerskins -- are charged
with conspiring to violate the civil rights of Jews in August
and October 1988 by vandalizing a Jewish temple and community
center in Dallas. They are also charged with conspiring to
violate the civil rights of African-Americans and Hispanics in
Dallas between June and September 1988 by chasing and
assaulting minorities in Robert E. Lee Park.

Mr. Wood, Mr. Jordan, Mr. Greer and Mr. Lawrence are accused
of using a firearm in the vandalisms. If convicted, they could
be sentenced to 25 years in a federal prison and ordered to
pay a $500,000 fine. Mr. Tarrant could be sentenced to 20
years in prison and ordered to pay a $500,000 fine.

Mr. Schutza and six other former skinheads testified Friday.
All but one -- Christopher Evans, 18, or Dallas -- had made
agreements with prosecutors that allowed them to plead guilty
to lesser charges in exchange for their testimony. Mr. Evans
never was changed.

The seven former skinheads testified that they witnessed an
assault on an Anglo man the skinheads believed was gay.

David Hoover, 18, of Oklahoma, said that while on a skinhead
patrol of the park on Fourth of July weekend 1988, he chased
the unidentified man.

"I kicked him because I suspected him of being a homosexual,"
Mr. Hoover said.

Mr. Evans and Lyle Darrin, 18, of Grand Prairie, said they saw
Mr. Hoover harassing the man.

Several former Hammerskins testified that Mr. Tarrant formed,
led and named the group. Mr. Tarrant decided who would be
admitted as members and taught the group neo-Nazi
philosophies, they testified.

"Sean Tarrant said blacks were inferior to whites," Mr. Evans
said.

The Hammerskins met regularly at Mr. Tarrant's former
residence in Garland during the summer and fall of 1988 to
discuss strategies and philosophies, witnesses testified.

Andrew Flowers, 20, of Waco, a former Hammerskin, testified
that in one of the discussions, members outlined the groups'
beliefs: "Christianity, patriotism, anti-drugs, anti-abortion
and racial separatism."

Bart Jordan, 17, or Dallas, a former member of the
Hammerskins, testified that in October 1988 he watched a
television news report of the temple vandalism with Mr. Wood,
Jon Lance Jorday and Mr. Schutza. Bart Jordan and Jon Lance
Jordan are not related.

After the newscast, Mr. Wood sold him a .25-caliber
semiautomatic pistol that Jon Lance Jordan later implied he
had used to shoot out windwos of the temple and community
center, Bart Jordan said.

About a month later, Bart Jordan cleaned fingerprints off the
pistol and gave it away, he said.

"Daniel Wood said he was glad I got rid of it because he can
be linked in with it," Bart Jordan said.

Also testifying Friday was former skinhead Jack Ervin, 18, who
lives in a city outside Texas that was not named in court.

Testimony will resume Monday when prosecutors are expected to
conclude their case.

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