2 White Racists Found Guilty in 3 Murders
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Two white supremacists accused of plotting to set up a whites-only republic in the Pacific Northwest were convicted Tuesday of murder, conspiracy and racketeering.
Chevie Kehoe and Daniel Lee, both 26, could get the death penalty or life in prison without parole for killing an Arkansas gun dealer, his wife and her daughter in 1996.
The jury will return Thursday to begin hearing testimony in the sentencing phase.
Federal prosecutors said the men pursued their dream of an all-white republic by stockpiling military-style weapons, robbing several people and suffocating gun dealer William Mueller, his wife and her 8-year-old daughter.
The Aryan Peoples Republic was to have been perpetuated through polygamy, prosecutors said.
The conspiracy count charged that Kehoe and Lee also carried out crimes in other states, including two killings in Idaho and the 1996 bombing of City Hall in Spokane, Wash.
But defense lawyers said that, although Kehoe and Lee may have offensive beliefs, they did not act criminally on them.
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