Stepmom of Boy Accused of Shooting Neo-Nazi Dad Faces Gun Charges

Prosecutors Tuesday charged the widow of Jeffrey Hall, the California neo-Nazi who allegedly was shot to death by his 10-year-old son on May 1, with five counts of child endangerment and four counts of criminal storage of a firearm.

Krista McCary, 26, the boy's stepmother and Hall's widow, is accused of leaving the loaded pistol used to kill Hall on a shelf where the five children in the house had easy access to it.

In the meantime, the boy, who is being charged as a juvenile with the murder of his father, was expected to appear in court today to enter a plea. His attorney told reporters he is considering an insanity defense.

Hall, 32, advocated for a "white nation" and often led rallies of white supremacists giving stiff-armed Nazi salutes and waving swastika-adorned flags amid hundreds of angry counter-protesters. He was considered something of a rising star in the neo-Nazi universe. Hall made news last fall when he quietly submitted his name as a candidate for the Western Municipal Water District board of directors in Riverside County. He affirmed his neo-Nazi beliefs when confronted by the media as the election approached. Hall lost the race by a wide margin but still received almost 28 percent of the vote – more than a self-avowed Nazi might be expected to receive.

Evidence suggests that Hall involved the 10-year-old in the activities of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), the neo-Nazi group whose Southwest chapter he headed. Along with using his home as headquarters, he gave the child a belt bearing the SS insignia and was teaching him to shoot a gun. The NSM is notorious for drawing children in at a very young age, with organizations like the Viking Youth Corps, which is open to children of "European descent."

The NSM, currently the largest neo-Nazi group in America with 50 chapters in 32 states, has its roots in the original American Nazi Party, which was founded in 1959 by former Navy Cmdr. George Lincoln Rockwell. Seven years after Rockwell was murdered by one of his followers in 1967, two of his chief lieutenants formed the National Socialist American Workers Freedom Movement in St. Paul, Minn. Leadership passed in 1994 to "Commander" Jeff Schoep, who gave the group its present name.