Retrial begins for neo-Nazi charged in racial killing

The case of a neo-Nazi charged with shooting at an interracial couple, killing the woman, was back before a jury Monday for a second time more than nine years after the attack.

Travis Ricci is charged with murder in the October 2009 shooting death of Kelly Ann Jaeger.

This is the second time Ricci has been tried for Jaeger’s death. The first trial ended in a mistrial earlier this year after a witness, in response to a prosecutor’s question, revealed that Ricci spent time in prison.

Ricci could face the death penalty if convicted.

The trial started in the shadow of a racially motivated mass shooting in Pittsburgh, in which 11 worshipers were killed at a synagogue. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Dean Fink started the day by asking the jurors whether the news of the shooting would affect their ability to be impartial. They all said it wouldn’t.

There was no attempt during Monday’s opening arguments to minimize Ricci’s involvement with the white supremacist movement. A small rectangular tattoo could be seen under his grown-in hair, but a neatly pressed gray button-down shirt hid tattoos of swastikas, Nazi symbols and the words “white pride” from the jury.

Ricci had devoted his life to the skinhead movement, prosecutor Ryan Green told the jury. At the time of the killing, Ricci was trying to join the Vinlanders Social Club, a neo-Nazi group known for violence. He presented a colorful cast of characters full of skinheads with extensive criminal histories and their girlfriends, known as “skinbyrds,” to the nearly all-white jury.

“He chose hatred,” Green told the jury. “He chose a belief system of white supremacy — a belief system of racial bigotry. He chose his friends — a group of guys who shared his beliefs and admired people like (Adolf) Hitler and the Nazis.”

Ricci was drinking at the home of another known skinhead on the night of the murder, Green said. Around 1 a.m., he walked out of the house and wandered the streets shirtless.

He crossed paths with Jaeger and her boyfriend, Jeffrey Wellmaker, outside of a nearby park. Ricci was enraged by the sight of a black man with a white woman, Green said, and began hurling racial insults at the couple, harassing Wellmaker for dating a white woman.

Wellmaker wanted to fight Ricci, but Jaeger pulled him back and the couple walked away, Green said.

Ricci was fuming as he returned to the house, Green said. Fueled by alcohol and anger, Ricci and his co-defendant Aaron Schmidt drove off with a loaded shotgun in a white Chevy Malibu in search of the couple, which they found.

Ricci fired two shots from the car’s passenger seat while Schmidt drove, Green said. The shots meant for Wellmaker hit and killed Jaeger.

Wellmaker was the shooting’s only witness. He told police they were attacked by a stocky shirtless man. Another witness who had driven by the earlier encounter gave police the same description.

Eventually, the close-knit and closed-mouth group of skinheads cracked, linking Ricci and Schmidt to the shooting, Green said.

The shotgun and shells never were found, Green acknowledged. Schmidt’s wife allegedly buried the weapon in the desert and tried unsuccessfully to leverage the information for a better deal for her husband.

There’s no physical evidence to prove Jaeger was the one who pulled the trigger, which defense attorney Bruce Blumberg said was the case’s biggest flaw.

The state’s entire argument was based on testimony from known white supremacists who Blumberg said were interested only in self-protection.