Neo-Nazi heads to trial in 2009 killing

Travis Ricci, 36, faces death if convicted in drive-by attack on an interracial couple.

PHOENIX — An interracial couple was walking near a Phoenix park when, authorities say, a shirtless neo-Nazi began yelling a racial slur and harassing the black man over dating a white woman.

Authorities say the men exchanged tense words before Travis Ricci rushed back to a home where other white supremacists were partying, grabbed a shotgun and returned in a sedan driven by an associate.

Ricci leaned out the car and fired two blasts, missing the black man — his target — and killing his girlfriend, investigators said.

Lawyers are picking a jury to decide whether Ricci should be convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the 2009 attack, which prosecutors say was a hate crime. Opening statements are scheduled for June 6.

The case has offered several unexpected turns.

Ricci claims his greatgrandfather was a member of the French Resistance killed by Nazis during World War II.

Authorities are seeking the death penalty, saying 39year-old Kelly Ann Jaeger’s killing was meant to further the interests of the Vinlanders Social Club, a neo-Nazi group with a reputation for violence that was later targeted in a law enforcement crackdown.

Because prosecutors have called the attack a hate crime, they can seek as many as 11 additional years in prison — above the maximum penalty — if Ricci is convicted of other charges, such as attempted murder, driveby shooting, aggravated assault and assistance to a criminal gang.

Ricci pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have raised questions about the ability of Jaeger’s boyfriend, Jeffery Wellmaker, to identify him as the shooter. They note that nearly two years after the attack, Wellmaker was jailed in an unrelated case and played chess with Ricci behind bars without recognizing him.

Aaron Levi Schmidt, who authorities say was driving the car used in the shooting, pleaded guilty to murder in Jaeger’s death. He is already serving 11 years for assisting a criminal gang. It’s unclear whether he’s been sentenced on the murder conviction.

Lawyers for Ricci and Schmidt, both 36, have said their clients weren’t members of the Vinlanders.

Police reports say Ricci told associates before the attack that he saw black men hitting a white woman, though it’s unclear if that claim was accurate.

Rebecca Wilder, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Ricci, declined to comment on the case. The Phoenix Police Department, which investigated the attack, also declined to comment.

Prosecutors said in court records that Wellmaker, who was unarmed, tried to help his girlfriend after she was shot. They say Wellmaker didn’t provoke the attack and tried to push Jaeger out of the path of the shotgun blast, according to court records.

Ricci’s attorneys declined to answer questions about the allegations.

“He is a very sensitive person who cares about people in general,” lawyer Jennifer Willmott said.

Bruce Blumberg, another attorney for Ricci, said his client’s team has records that document the arrest and execution of Ricci’s great-grandfather during his involvement with the French Resistance. Blumberg said the relative’s experience may be brought up during trial, but it’s unclear what it would demonstrate.

The attack started after Ricci left his friend’s home angry and drunk, making his way into the neighborhood where he noticed Jaeger and Wellmaker, according to a police report.

Prosecutors say Ricci hurled a racial slur at Wellmaker and yelled, “What are you doing with a white girl?”

He also told Wellmaker he was going to get “something for him,” prosecutors said.

Sometime later, Jaeger and Wellmaker were near a pay phone when the sedan pulled up. Ricci fired two shells, hitting Jaeger in the stomach, prosecutors said.

Ricci’s attorneys have said Wellmaker could not identify Ricci in a photo lineup after the shooting, and he failed to recognize their client in 2011 when the two served time in the same Maricopa County jail pod. Court records filed in Ricci’s case didn’t specify the charge on which Wellmaker was jailed, and a records check didn’t provide a definitive answer.

Ricci ended up telling Wellmaker he was the person accused of killing his girlfriend, a judge wrote in a pretrial ruling.

The judge said Wellmaker’s identification of the shooter was reliable because he would have been able to identify Ricci independent of the jail encounter. While working with a police artist after the shooting, Wellmaker described a unique tattoo across the attacker’s stomach, the judge wrote.

Months after Jaeger’s death, police say, Ricci stabbed two men who tried to stop him from attacking his girlfriend. He is serving a 22-year sentence for assault and weapons misconduct convictions.