Racist Prison Gang Members Charged With Murder in Texas
Yet another murder is being attributed to the dangerous white supremacist gang known as the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT). But in this case, the alleged victim’s body has not been found.
Nicholas Ryan Acree, 33, and Charles James Garrett Jr., 30, both members of ABT, are being held on murder charges in jail in Mansfield, Texas, authorities say. Bond has been set for each of them at $75,000.
The two suspects, both arrested last Tuesday by Fort Worth police, are suspects in the disappearance of Bryan A. Childers, 39, also of Fort Worth, who has not been seen since May 29, when he was reported missing by his family, according to police.
As members of ABT, the suspects belong to one of the nation’s most violent, racist gangs, operating in and outside of Texas prisons. ABT has been blamed for multiple murders, robberies, arsons and kidnappings, along with extensive narcotics trafficking and other crimes.
Authorities aren’t saying if the Fort Worth case has any connection to the massive federal prosecution brought two years ago, resulting in guilty pleas and convictions of 73 ranking ABT members in five federal jurisdictions. In federal court in Houston, 36 ABT leaders have pleaded guilty this year, with most of those defendants scheduled to be sentenced next month.
Justice Department officials said in August that those cases “decimated” the ABT leadership. At about that same time, Fort Worth detectives began investigating Childers’ disappearance as a homicide after receiving information he “had been killed at a residence” in Fort Worth.
After Acree’s arrest last week, “he admitted to participating in the murder of the victim and also provided detailed information that corroborated information learned [by detectives] while interviewing Garrett and other individuals associated with this case,” police said Friday in a press release.
Since the two arrests, police have searched a residence in Fort Worth and a second in Haltom City, Texas, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in Friday’s editions.
Evidence discovered at those residences “was consistent with the information given to detectives by Acree and Garrett,” but police didn’t disclose the specifics, the newspaper reported.
Police also aren’t saying if they have any clues as to the whereabouts of Childers’ body, which still has not been found.
Acree and Garrett, charged in August with the aggravated kidnapping and stabbing of fellow gang member Lovick Stikeleather, were out on bail in that gang-infighting case when they were arrested in the Childers disappearance.
Two other ABT members, James Byrd, 44, and Michael Young, 47, are also charged in the Stikeleather assault and are in federal custody, the Fort Worth newspaper reported.
