Aryan Brotherhood Prison Gang Issues ‘Bounty’ for Black Teens Accused of Killing White Veteran
The Aryan Brotherhood, a prison-based white supremacist gang, reportedly has issued a $10,000 reward for the killing of two black teenagers accused of beating to death a World War II veteran in Spokane, Wash.
Delbert “Shorty” Belton, an 88-year-old vet who fought in the battle of Okinawa, was attacked in his car at the Eagles Lodge parking lot in North Spokane on Aug. 21 and died the next day.
Demetruis Glenn and Kenan Adams-Kinard, both 16, were arrested separately and charged with what police described as a robbery-homicide in a case that has drawn national media attention.
The reported bounty posted by the Aryan Brotherhood is mentioned in court documents explaining why Superior Court Judge Debra Hayes ordered the suspects transferred from a juvenile detention facility to protective adult custody in the Spokane County Jail, The Spokesman-Review reported today. When suspects are led from the juvenile facility to court, they pass through an open courtyard accessible by the public, but the adult jail doesn’t allow that access.
In court documents, Hayes said she made the decision to avoid “tragic results.” Police told the judge about the threat prior to an Aug. 27 bond hearing, The Spokesman Review reported. Details of where, when or by whom the bounty was issued are not disclosed in public court filings.
The judge’s order to transfer the teens came over the objection of a defense attorney who claimed state law prevented housing juveniles with adults unless certain conditions were met.
Though jail records list both teens as being held in the adult jail, a lawyer for one of the suspects said they are back in the juvenile facility, where they are awaiting trial in March on robbery and murder.
Glenn surrendered after surveillance photos of the brutal beating were distributed by police. Adams-Kinard was found Aug. 26 hiding in an apartment where he had written a letter claiming that the elderly war veteran was a drug dealer who had shorted them in a crack cocaine deal. Belton’s family and friends called that allegation outrageous, and it was dismissed by police as unfounded.
