Investigation ties Aryan Brotherhood to murder By MICHAEL A. SALORIO, Staff Writer
Saturday, December 13, 2003 10:19 PM PST
Testimony given Friday in the capital murder trial of Calipatria State Prison inmate Joseph A. Barrett revealed the results of a prison investigation determined the victim's death was ordered by the Aryan Brotherhood.
According to information from the Southern Poverty Law Center's Web site, the Aryan Brotherhood is a white supremacist prison gang feared for its reputation of committing ruthless acts of violence.
Thomas Kent Richmond was a convicted robber allegedly murdered by Barrett, his cellmate, on April 9, 1996. Richmond died after receiving 13 stab wounds from an inmate-manufactured knife, or shank, apparently manufactured from a segment of steel sawed off from the desk in the cell shared by the men.
Barrett is serving a 26-year-to-life sentence for a previous first-degree murder conviction. He faces the death penalty sentence if found guilty of Richmond's murder.
Correctional counselor Michael Fisher, who at the time of the murder was a correctional officer with Calipatria State Prison's security and investigations unit, testified in the jury's absence Friday. Fisher's testimony was not heard by the jury because it indirectly dealt with the contents of a letter excluded from evidence in the trial and sealed by the court.
Fisher testified as to the findings of a prison murder investigation where the sealed letter played a crucial role in revealing the Aryan Brotherhood's involvement in the conspiracy to murder Richmond. Fisher said a handwriting analysis conducted on the letter determined its author was inmate Keith William Barnard.
Barnard was brought to the court Friday to testify about his role in the alleged conspiracy to murder Richmond. Barnard initially refused to give his name and repeatedly informed the court he had no desire to testify during his questioning by Deputy District Attorney Wayne Robinson.
Superior Court Judge Joseph Zimmerman found Barnard in contempt of court for refusing to testify despite being granted complete immunity from prosecution for his alleged role in the conspiracy.
"I'm not here to testify, your honor," said Barnard.
According to Fisher's testimony, the letter in question was written by Barnard in response to an inquiry made by Barrett concerning Richmond's standing in the Aryan Brotherhood.
"The letter that was written from Barnard to Barrett indicated his cellmate was no good," said Fisher.
Richmond fell out of favor with the Aryan Brotherhood because of money he owed to two "brothers" and two shanks (referred to as "beauties" in the letter) he had surrendered to correctional officers, said Fisher. Richmond was given a "thumbs down" by inmates "in the wood" (prison slang for being in good standing) with the Aryan Brotherhood and an attack on him was authorized, added Richmond.
Fisher said the following postscript message was included in the letter: "P.S. — Hug and squeeze your celly (cellmate) from everyone here."
A prison disciplinary hearing found Barnard guilty for his role in the conspiracy and he was given a 26-month sentence in administrative segregation, added Fisher.
Zimmerman ordered the prosecution and defense to prepare legal briefs concerning the admissibility of the letter under evidence code 1223, which deals with admissions made by co-conspirators. The letter was earlier excluded because no evidence existed proving it had been received by Barrett.
Prosecution testimony is set to resume Monday morning in the Imperial County Courthouse in El Centro.
If you have an account already, just enter your Member ID and Password to access this page.
If you're new to our site, please create a new account.
Register FREE
To use certain features of ivpressonline.com, you must register FREE on the form provided. The Imperial Valley Press’ use of any personally identifying information you provide as part of registration is governed by the following privacy policy:
ivpressonline.com does not, and will not, release your personal information to any third party without your consent. We may, however, share some of the information we gather, in aggregate or demographic form, with advertisers and other partners. That is, we may provide general information about ways people use our site without identifying any particular individuals.
The opinions above are from readers of ivpressonline.com and in no way represent the views of the Imperial Valley Press staff or Schurz Communications Inc.
ivpressonline.com encourages readers to offer their opinions on our local stories. We ask readers keep their comments on topic and avoid derogatory comments about fellow readers. Our goal is to promote a civil discussion about the news.
We will never edit or alter comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct. No comment may contain:
Subscribe Get the Imperial Valley Press every morning at your home or office. Start a subscription for your family, for yourself or give it to someone special. Click here.
Text Message AlertsReceive text message alerts on breaking news, latest updates, sports scores, offers and much more on your cellphone or PDA. Sign up here.
RegisterRegister free and start receiving email alerts on breaking news, a sneak preview of upcoming stories, reminders and much more. Click here to begin.
About UsWant to know more about the Imperial Valley Press? Want to contact us? Get general and contact information. Click here.
