The fate of a Danville man on trial on federal racketeering and drug conspiracy charges was handed over to a jury Thursday afternoon to begin deliberations this morning after just over two weeks of testimony at the federal courthouse in Little Rock.
Marcus Millsap, 53, was indicted in 2019 by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, aiding and abetting attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Millsap was the next-to-last of 55 defendants named in two indictments handed up in 2017 and 2019 based on investigations into drug trafficking in Pope County that was tied to a white-supremacist group that got its start as a jailhouse gang in the 1990s in the Pope County jail called the New Aryan Empire.
On Thursday, Millsap's defense attorney, Tre Kitchens, called only one witness, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives who testified last week regarding a number of tattoos Millsap has. Kenny Maddox had testified to various symbols used by the New Aryan Empire, including the iron cross and other Nazi imagery. Kitchens called into question Maddox's expertise in symbology, noting the ATF agent had testified that although he had become familiar with New Aryan Empire symbols, he was not an expert on the subject.
Millsap has a large tattoo of an iron cross on his back with a skull inset and the logo, "Hellanbach" inscribed below it.
"How much research have you done into Mr. Millsap's tattoo?" Kitchens asked.
"Just a review of [Arkansas Department of Corrections] documents, sir," Maddox answered.
"You've done no research into the actual images, right?" Kitchens asked.
"Correct," Maddox answered.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the origin of the iron cross was as a Prussian military medal in the 19th century that was adopted by the Nazis in the 1930s and was later adopted by hate groups. However, it said, in the U.S. the symbol is more often associated with outlaw bikers to signify rebellion or for shock value, and had been taken up by skateboarders and extreme sports enthusiasts to become "part of the logo of several different companies producing equipment and clothing for this audience.".
Hellanbach Inc. in Farmers Branch, Texas, bills itself as "an apparel company that caters to enthusiasts of all interests." Much of its catalog features T-shirts and caps with variations of the cross and skull insignia emblazoned with the company name.
The tattoo on Millsap's back is a copy of an image the company uses on one of its T-shirt designs.
"When the government put up [a New Aryan Empire] alleged tattoo next to Marc's tattoo," Kitchens said, gesturing toward the jury box, "you were not suggesting to these people he has any affiliation with them, were you?"
"No sir," Maddox replied.
In closing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Mazzanti went back over the previous 12 days of testimony, in which jurors heard from some 35 witnesses and reviewed dozens of exhibits placed into evidence, all of which, she said, established Millsap's involvement in the racketeering conspiracy, the violent acts in aid of racketeering, and the drug conspiracy.
Over nearly two hours, Mazzanti reviewed statements from witnesses who said they heard Millsap trying to solicit New Aryan Empire members to kill Bruce Hurley, a cooperative informant who was found with a fatal gunshot wound at his home two years later. She outlined numerous statements from witnesses who testified to having transported drugs or money for Millsap or Wesley Gullett, and she described Millsap as a major source of money and drugs for Gullett, who used the gang for muscle when needed.
"Marcus Millsap was a drug dealer," Mazzanti said, "and he used Wesley Gullett and the [New Aryan Empire] to solicit the murder of Bruce Hurley."
She recounted how Russellville auto repair shop owner and co-defendant Robert Chandler had testified to hearing Gullett, the gang president, and Millsap discussing Hurley in February 2016.
"Chandler overhears Millsap say, 'this motherf * * * *r needs to die,'" Mazzanti said.
On May 2, 2016, Mazzanti said, Hurley was killed.
"What this organization is about," she said. "What the associates of [the New Aryan Empire] are about, you snitch, you get stitches, right? Snitches get stitches or end up in a ditch. ... This organization retaliates against you if you cooperate with law enforcement."
Kitchens began with one of the jury instructions laying out what constitutes the associate of a criminal enterprise.
"A person is associated with an enterprise if he knowingly participates, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of the affairs of the enterprise," Kitchens said, saying the association could be formal or informal, extensive or casual, and sometimes described as a "partner, fellow worker, colleague, friend, opinion or ally."
"Pursuant to that definition," he said, "the prosecution is an associate of [the New Aryan Empire]."
Kitchens said government investigators provided gang members with money, set up business deals with them and cut deals with a number of members and associates under indictment to get reduced sentences in exchange for testimony, a practice that Mazzanti defended during her rebuttal as a routine tactic to gather information.
"To be a confidential informant," Mazzanti countered, "you have to be in the mix."
Throughout his closing statement, Kitchens pounded on that theme at every juncture, saying of 35 witnesses, "21 are convicted felons."
He said one of the government's own witnesses, Arkansas State Police drug investigator Tony Haley, had testified that the word of such witnesses could not be trusted.
"He said when you talk to criminals, to jailhouse snitches," Kitchens said, "85% of what they say to you is bull crap."
After giving the jury a few last minute instructions, U.S. District Judge Brian Miller told the jury of seven men and five women to return to the courthouse this morning at 9 to begin deliberations.
After court was adjourned for the day, Kitchens expressed cautious optimism as he prepared to await the jury's decision.
"I've done too many jury trials to attempt to predict what a jury is going to do," he said. "We have given our client the best defense possible, we've held the government meet their burden and I don't believe they've done it.
"Now we'll wait for the decision of the jury," he continued, "we'll listen to the verdict, we'll respect it and we'll make decisions from there."