White supremacist gang leader and members convicted on murder charges
Five people associated with a violent white supremacist gang in Alaska were convicted on federal murder charges Monday in connection with the grisly kidnapping, assault and killing of a man in 2017, the Department of Justice announced.
Leader “Filthy Fuhrer,” 45, formerly known as Timothy Lobdell, and four other men — Roy Naughton, 43, Glen Baldwin, 40, Colter O’Dell, 29, and Craig King, 56 — were convicted of murder, racketeering, kidnapping and assault related to the killing of Michael Staton, which occurred on Aug. 3, 2017. Staton had allegedly stolen from the gang.
All five defendants face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole for the murder, according to the DOJ release. The sentencing hearings will take place in October.
Fuhrer founded the 1488 white supremacist gang, which operates inside of state prisons in Alaska, while serving a 19-year-sentence at Spring Creek Correctional Center for the attempted murder of an Alaska State Trooper.
From behind bars, Fuhrer instructed the four men to kidnap and assault two low-level members on April 2 and July 20, 2017, and kidnap, assault and murder Staton on Aug. 3, 2017. According to court records, the men beat and tortured Staton in a duplex in Wasila before taking him to the woods and shooting him. The group then burned his body. The gruesome murder earned O’Dell his membership into the gang, the release stated.
The gang has written rules and a code of conduct, including the belief that “the only currency we recognize is violence and unquestionable loyalty,” according to the DOJ release.
“The guilty verdicts today strike a significant blow to the highest levels of the 1488 gang,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Department of Justice and our law enforcement partners remain committed to combating and dismantling violent white supremacist gangs.”
Attorney Jeremy Franker of the Criminal Division’s OCGS and Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Taylor, James Klugman and Chris Schroeder prosecuted the case.
Five members and associates of a violent white supremacist gang, the 1488s, were convicted today in Alaska by a federal jury of RICO conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping, and assault.
www.justice.gov