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  1. #1
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    Neo-Nazi John Ditullio Sentenced to LWOP in 2006 FL Stabbing Death



    Makeup hides neo-Nazi's swastika in Florida court

    ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) – A neo-Nazi gang member went on trial for murder Monday with his swastika and other tattoos covered by makeup on the order of a Florida judge who thought they could prejudice jurors.

    The judge ordered the state to pay for a cosmetologist to apply makeup before trial each day to cover up the tattoos on John Ditullio's face and neck, which include a swastika, barbed wire and an obscene word.

    Ditullio, 23, is charged with stabbing to death 17-year-old Kristofer King in 2006 in New Port Richey, north of St. Petersburg.

    His lawyer argued in a pretrial motion that the tattoos, which Ditullio acquired after his arrest, could prejudice a jury. The judge agreed but ruled that any tattoos Ditullio had before his arrest should not be covered.

    Ditullio could face the death penalty if convicted.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091207/us_nm/us_usa_nazi_1

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    Fellow neo-Nazi recounts 2006 stabbing in Pasco trial

    NEW PORT RICHEY — Cory Patnode still bears the markings on his skin of the years he spent as an American Nazi. He has since left the group that adhered to the principle of "whites only," but his tattoos of a rebel flag and swastika remain.

    Patnode, 30, took the stand Wednesday in the murder trial of John Allen Ditullio, who was a prospective member of the neo-Nazi group living on Teak Street. He told jurors that early on March 23, 2006, he saw a masked man run into the neo-Nazi compound as a woman ran out of the house next door, bloodied and screaming.

    Patnode said he went inside the compound and found Ditullio holding a knife.

    "I basically cussed a storm and said, 'What the hell did you do now? Now the cops are definitely coming,' " Patnode testified. "Basically he told me, word for word, 'I killed them, I killed them both, stabbed them in the face.' "

    But Patricia Wells, now 48, had actually survived the attack, but her son's friend, 17-year-old Kristofer King, died. Ditullio, 23, could face the death penalty if he is convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder, which authorities say was fueled by bigotry.

    Patnode, who is serving time in the Pasco County jail for violating his probation on unrelated charges, talked jurors through the night of the attack. He also described the neo-Nazis' beliefs and lifestyle.

    Defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand pressed Patnode about his decision to testify against Ditullio. He also wanted to know why, if Patnode was no longer a neo-Nazi, he still has racist and anti-Semitic tattoos.

    "I always assumed tattoos are permanent," Patnode said.

    "They can be covered up, can they not?" Brunvand asked.

    "Yes," Patnode said.

    That prompted prosecutor Mike Halkitis to ask: "Did you have the money to hire a makeup artist?"

    Brunvand swiftly objected, and Circuit Judge Michael Andrews had the jury removed from the courtroom.

    The issues of tattoos and makeup have dominated news coverage of the case since last week, when Andrews allowed the defense to have a taxpayer-funded cosmetologist apply makeup to tattoos on Ditullio's face and neck each morning so the jury won't see them. The tattoos are a barbed wire running down his face, a swastika and the words "f--- you" on his neck.

    During jury selection, potential jurors were asked what they knew of the makeup issue. The ones who had heard about it promised to put it out of their minds.

    Now, Brunvand said, he feared the jury would be influenced by Halkitis' question.

    But Andrews disagreed, saying it didn't reveal anything new.

    "The ones who didn't know still don't know," the judge said.

    He brought the jury back, and Halkitis asked Patnode again: Did he have money to pay to have his tattoos concealed?

    "No," Patnode answered.

    Jurors also heard Wednesday from a DNA analyst, who analyzed blood samples from Ditullio's clothes, the gas mask and the fence. Several samples matched Ditullio and Wells. But Brunvand noted that some samples were contaminated with the analyst's DNA, and one item may have contained the DNA of Shawn Plott, another neo-Nazi.

    Earlier in his testimony, Patnode described the night of the stabbing. Wells, who lived next to the neo-Nazi compound, had a black friend and a gay son with openly gay friends, all of which sparked the ire of her neighbors.

    Patnode said he came home from work to the compound about 5 p.m. March 22. He, Ditullio and a few others began listening to loud music and drinking whiskey.

    Patnode said he and member John Berry went outside into the fenced yard. As they stood talking, they heard a popping sound come from next door — the neighbor's tires being slashed. Patnode said he angrily confronted Ditullio about it, fearing it might draw police to the house. Sheriff's deputies were constantly harassing them, he said.

    About 20 minutes later, Patnode said, he saw a man wearing a gas mask hop the fence between the two houses and run into the neo-Nazi house. Then Wells ran out of her home, wounded and screaming.

    Brunvand questioned Patnode about his motive for testifying.

    "You didn't go to law enforcement and provide them with a statement because you had a change of heart?" Brunvand asked.

    "No," Patnode said.

    "It was only because you were arrested that you gave a statement?" Brunvand asked.

    "Yes," Patnode said.

    He acknowledged that when he talked to detectives, he was in the presence of Brian "Zero" Buckley, the Nazi group's president whom Patnode had idolized for years.

    Brunvand asked about the group's code of silence, which forbade the members, who thought of each other as brothers, from ratting on each other.

    Buckley, Plott, Patnode and Berry were considered brothers; Ditullio, merely a prospect who had to guard the fence and take out the trash, was not.

    "To this day, you're not ratting on your brethren, are you?" said Brunvand, who has speculated that Ditullio was made to be the fall guy for the crime.

    "No, sir," Patnode said.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/fellow-neo-nazi-recounts-2006-stabbing-in-pasco-trial/1057612

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    Jail informant says neo-Nazi confessed to 2006 stabbings

    A man who lived for years in the same jail pods with neo-Nazi John Ditullio says Ditullio told him he was guilty of stabbing a woman and a teenager in 2006, and that his only hope was a life sentence over the death penalty.

    Kraig Constantino, a felon with a long history of arrests, said during Ditullio's trial Tuesday that he felt compelled to come forward with what he knew after witnessing something disturbing in jail this year: Ditullio reaching through his cell bars and cutting another young man with a razor blade.

    "It showed me that he had a proclivity for stabbing young boys," Constantino, 41, said.

    Ditullio, now 24, was living with an American Nazi group near Hudson in 2006 as a prospect vying for full membership. They adhered to white supremacist beliefs and hated the neighbors next door. Patricia Wells had an African-American friend who visited her, and her son was gay.

    After weeks of harassing Wells and her family, shouting slurs and threats, authorities say, Ditullio covered his face with a gas mask, broke into Wells' home and stabbed her. Kristofer King, a 17-year-old friend of her son, was in the house and was stabbed to death. Wells recovered. Her son was not at home.

    Ditullio went to trial last year, but the jury deadlocked, leaning 10-2 for acquittal. He again faces a possible death sentence if convicted of murder and attempted murder.

    Constantino said he and Ditullio became friendly in jail when Ditullio first asked Constantino about body building.

    "He asked me if I would teach him how to put on muscle," Constantino said. "He just wanted to be muscular, and later he told me he needed to add size to his frame because the suspect in this case… he wanted to outwit the description. He wanted to add 30 or 40 pounds."

    Ditullio's attorneys have blamed the stabbings on another former neo-Nazi, Shawn Plott. Plott, who is a fugitive, has a smaller frame and is several inches shorter than Ditullio, which fits the description Wells gave investigators of her attacker.

    Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis asked if Ditullio offered any specifics about the stabbings.

    "At first he pretty much just said that he was guilty. They had him dead to rights," Constantino said. "He was just fighting for his life."

    How had he stabbed Wells, Halkitis asked.

    "He said he stabbed her in the face and arms," Constantino said.

    And King?

    "He told me that he stabbed him in the head," Constantino said. "He said that he was amazed how easy it was for a knife to penetrate a human skull."

    He also said Ditullio had crime scene photographs "proudly displayed" in his jail cell.

    Constantino currently faces his own charges of aggravated battery. After he came forward in September with Ditullio's alleged confession, prosecutors agreed to let him be released from jail on his own recognizance. He had been held on a $50,013 bond.

    "That was a surprise. I had no idea," Constantino said under cross-examination by Ditullio's attorney, Bjorn Brunvand.

    In turn for the weight-lifting advice, Constantino said Ditullio gave him legal advice.

    But Constantino has often represented himself in court, going back to 1996, writing long legal pleadings in his cases and accusing court officials of misconduct.

    Brunvand also got Constantino to reveal that he has, on numerous occasions, given a false name and birth date to law enforcement officers.

    Constantino several times came dangerously close to telling jurors about Ditullio's mistrial last year, which could be potentially damaging to this trial. He sat with a smirk on his face and frequently argued with Brunvand, prompting Circuit Judge Michael Andrews to remove the jury from the room again and again.

    Both sides are nearly finished presenting their cases, and the jury could begin deliberating later today.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...bbings/1139943

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    Closing arguments are expected today in the trial against self-proclaimed neo-Nazi John Ditullio.

    Thursday the prosecution rested its case, and Ditullio took the stand in his own defense.

    He says he became close with several members of a Pasco neo-Nazi group, but he was not the one who viciously attacked Patricia Wells and killed Kristofer King.

    Earlier, a former member of the group testified against Ditullio. Cory Patnode said Ditullio told him "word for word" that he committed the crime.

    Brandon Wininger, Wells' son and a friend of King's, also testified in the case, saying that the men who lived in the neo-Nazi compound shouted slurs at him because he is gay.

    If convicted, Ditullio could face the death penalty.

    http://www.abcactionnews.com/content/news/local/pasco/story/Closing-arguments-expected-in-trial-of-self/ycI0b-9LnEmt5JHRrhceAA.cspx?rss=794

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    Jurors begin deliberating in Neo-Nazi murder case

    Jurors hearing the murder case of John Ditullio now know all about his white supremacist beliefs, his racist writings and his outlaw lifestyle while living with a group of American Nazis.

    The only thing left is to determine his guilt or innocence.

    Did he put on a gas mask on March 23, 2006, go to the next-door neighbor's house and stab two people? Or is he being framed by the neo-Nazis he thought were his brothers?

    Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis, in his closing argument Tuesday, said that for Ditullio, 24, to not be guilty, jurors would have to believe an incredible series of coincidences.

    That when Ditullio composed numerous letters about shooting police, taking responsibility for his actions and even hiding a knife, he wasn't talking about this case.

    That when a knife was found in a location Ditullio had described, it wasn't the murder weapon.

    That the victim's blood found on his boot was a result of contamination by a DNA analyst.

    "It's just one coincidence after another after another," Halkitis said.

    Ditullio's attorney, on the other hand, said the evidence in the case was peppered with "snapshots of innocence" that give rise to reasonable doubt.

    The lack of Ditullio's DNA in the victim's house. The tainted blood evidence. The victim's description of her attacker — blond and 5 feet 8 vs. the brown-haired, 6-foot-tall Ditullio.

    "The description doesn't match. Never will, never did," Bjorn Brunvand said.

    Ditullio was vying for full membership in the American Nazi group on Teak Street near Hudson in 2006. They hated next-door neighbor Patricia Wells, who had an African-American friend who visited her and a gay son.

    After weeks of harassing Wells and her family, shouting slurs and threats, authorities say, Ditullio put on a gas mask, broke into Wells' home and stabbed her. Kristofer King, a 17-year-old friend of her son, was in the house and was stabbed to death. Wells recovered. Her son was not at home.

    Ditullio went on trial last year, but the jury deadlocked, leaning 10-2 for acquittal. He could be given a death sentence if convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

    Jurors are set to begin deliberating this morning.

    One of the last witnesses called to testify against him was a man who lived for years in the same jail pods with Ditullio.

    Kraig Constantino said that while incarcerated, Ditullio told him he committed the murder and that his only hope was a life sentence over the death penalty.

    Constantino, a felon with a long history of arrests, said he felt compelled to come forward with what he knew after witnessing something disturbing in jail this year: Ditullio reaching through his cell bars and cutting another young man with a razor blade.

    "It showed me that he had a proclivity for stabbing young boys," said Constantino, 41, although he acknowledged he never reported the attack. Ditullio was never charged with that alleged incident.

    Halkitis asked if Ditullio offered any specifics about the Teak Street stabbings.

    "At first he pretty much just said that he was guilty. They had him dead to rights," Constantino said. "He was just fighting for his life."

    He said Ditullio later described the stabbings in more detail, and even had the crime scene photographs "proudly displayed" in his jail cell.

    Constantino currently faces his own charges of aggravated battery. After he came forward in September with Ditullio's alleged confession, prosecutors agreed to let him be released from jail on his own recognizance. He had been held on $50,013 bail.

    Before jurors left for the night, Halkitis and Brunvand both made a final remark about the thing that makes Ditullio, who has a swastika tattooed on his neck, so different from most defendants: his beliefs.

    Said Halkitis: "I don't want you to convict the defendant because of his beliefs. I want you to convict the defendant because his beliefs give (him) the motivation of why he would do in Kris King and why he would attempt to do in Patricia Wells."

    Said Brunvand: "If there is a reasonable doubt, despite the fact that you may dislike my client for the letters that he wrote … that does not make him a murderer."

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/...r-case/1139943

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    When neo-Nazi John Ditullio took the stand in his own murder trial last month, first his lawyer questioned him. The prosecutor had his shot, and the defense attorney stood again to follow up.

    Then the lawyers sat back and listened as the 12 members of the jury became the questioners.

    In January 2008, changes adopted by the state Supreme Court gave jurors a more active role in trials. They are now allowed to take notes and, in all civil cases, question witnesses. With disagreement about the practice still lingering, it's left to judges' discretion in criminal cases.

    Circuit Judge Michael Andrews, who presided in Ditullio's case, routinely allows it. He, prosecutor Mike Halkitis and Bjorn Brunvand, Ditullio's lead attorney, huddled at the bench and read through more than 40 questions submitted by jurors to decide which could be asked.

    Ditullio had joined a small clan of American Nazis living in a single-wide mobile home in the Griffin Park area of west Pasco. On March 23, 2006, authorities say, Ditullio put on a gas mask, broke into the home of a next-door neighbor and stabbed two people. Patricia Wells, who suffered injuries to her face and arms, had an openly gay son and a black friend who visited. Kristofer King, a friend of Wells' son who was also gay, died in the attack.

    Some of the jurors' questions to Ditullio reflected their curiosity about his lifestyle. How did the group pay its bills? How long had Ditullio held neo-Nazi beliefs? Does he still consider the other members his brothers?

    Other questions zeroed in on the evidence. Why was Ditullio's DNA found on the gas mask, if he was innocent as he claimed? What were he and the others in the neo-Nazi compound wearing that night?

    One question provided a window into a juror's mind-set. It began, "Do you really expect us to believe …"

    Brunvand said he didn't think the jurors' questions threw an advantage to either side. But he said their questioning may have helped his client a little because of the evidence the defense used to try to poke holes in the state's case.

    Foremost, there was an unresolved issue about what Ditullio had on that night and the next morning when he was arrested — a red T-shirt and black pants — and what another neo-Nazi had been seen in. Shawn Plott, several witnesses said, had on a white T-shirt and khaki pants, which matched what Wells said her attacker wore.

    "It's helpful that I had some good facts to deal with," Brunvand said.

    What sometimes concerns him about the practice in general is the questions that don't get asked.

    "Jurors are curious about all kinds of things that they can't know about," said Circuit Judge Lowell Bray, who hears civil cases in Pasco County.

    He once had a juror ask how much money a plaintiff's lawyer would keep if monetary damages were awarded.

    In Ditullio's case, Brunvand said one juror wanted to know if Ditullio had any prior convictions. He didn't, but procedural rules prohibit such questions from being asked.

    "My concern is then there's this lingering doubt: 'Are they hiding something?' " Brunvand said.

    The jury ended up deadlocked after deliberating for almost 10 hours. Ten of the 12 voted for acquittal.

    Ditullio, 23, will be retried in March. The state is seeking the death penalty.

    Circuit Judge Pat Siracusa, who hears criminal cases in Dade City, does not generally allow jurors to ask questions of witnesses during trials.

    His reason: Jurors shouldn't take on the job of the prosecutors.

    "They're searching for evidence rather than neutrally observing the evidence that's being presented," Siracusa said. "They're not the investigators, they're not the prosecutors. If the state doesn't meet its burden (of proof), then it's not for them to fill in the gaps."

    But he sees the other side of the argument.

    "I certainly understand the allure of allowing them to ask questions and getting them to participate in that way," he said.

    Mike Kenny, a former prosecutor who recently switched to doing private defense, tried several cases in front of Judge Andrews in which jurors asked questions.

    As a prosecutor, he said, the jurors' questions sometimes helped him identify what issues they wanted to know more about.

    "I knew there were unanswered areas that I needed to fill in," he said. "We think that we know exactly what the issues are. The problem is we think too much like lawyers sometimes."

    For the most part, through depositions and pretrial investigation, prosecutors know what defense attorneys will ask of witnesses, and what the answers will be, and vice versa.

    That's how both sides like it — no surprises.

    "We're always a little bit afraid of the unknown," said Brunvand, Ditullio's attorney. "We like to know what the question is and what the answer is, and so from that perspective it's a little scary to have jurors ask questions."

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/jurors-questions-revealed-evidence-insight-in-pasco-neo-nazi-trial/1063041

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    Guilty verdict in Pasco neo-Nazi's murder trial

    Neo-Nazi John Ditullio Jr. is guilty of murder and attempted murder in a double stabbing almost five years ago, a Pasco County jury found tonight.

    Ditullio, 24, could face the death penalty. The penalty phase will begin Thursday.

    The jury of six men and six women deliberated for about 11 hours, including about two hours of listening to the testimony of two DNA experts being read back to them.

    Ditullio's first trial ended in a hung jury, with jurors leaning 10-2 toward acquittal after almost 10 hours of deliberations.

    Ditullio was charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing of Kristofer King and attempted first-degree murder in the stabbing of Patricia Wells. Jurors found him guilty as charged in King's death and guilty of attempted second-degree murder in the attack on Wells.

    King's mother broke into tears as the verdict was read about 7:25 p.m.

    Wells also cried.

    Ditullio showed no emotion.

    Ditullio was a prospective member of a white supremacist group that congregated in a trailer in Griffin Park. Wells lived next door to the compound.

    A man wearing a gas mask barged into Wells' mobile home on March 23, 2006. He slashed Wells with a knife before killing King, 17, who was a friend of Wells' son.

    Prosecutors contend Wells was attacked because she associated with a black man and that King was a target because he was gay.

    In his closing arguments, Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis focused on incriminating letters, telling jurors they could find Ditullio guilty on the strength of his writings alone.

    Defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand pointed to Wells' inconsistent testimony and the contamination of DNA evidence that appeared to point to Ditullio as the perpetrator.

    Brunvand said his client was made a scapegoat by other members of the American Nazis.

    http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/dec...news-breaking/

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    Court pays for makeup in Pasco neo-Nazi's retrial

    With the retrial of neo-Nazi John Ditullio looming, his court-appointed attorney asked a judge Thursday for approval of money to defend his client in this hate-crime homicide.

    The requested funds included, as they typically do, the costs of traveling to take witness depositions — airfare, hotels, rental cars.

    But in this case, the expenses go beyond the typical. Other costs the judge approved are a makeup artist to cover up the tattoos on Ditullio's face, neck and hands each day of the trial; and three life-sized cardboard cutouts to portray the height and build of some key figures in the case.

    Cost of the makeup artist: $125 a day for up to three weeks.

    Cardboard cutouts: $2,175.

    "In our country we appoint attorneys" for poor defendants, said Circuit Judge Thomas McGrady, in approving the use of public funds for other defense costs. "Certainly we should have the same due process whether they're indigent or not."

    Pasco authorities say that on March 23, 2006, Ditullio donned a gas mask and broke into a neighbor's New Port Richey home, where he stabbed a woman in the face and neck, then attacked a teenager. Patricia Wells was slashed in the face and hands but recovered. Kristofer King, who was 17, died.

    Ditullio was a recruit in a small neo-Nazi clan that outfitted a single-wide mobile home like a heavily guarded compound. Wells told authorities that the neo-Nazis harassed her for weeks before the stabbing. She had a black friend who sometimes visited her home, and her son is gay. Authorities think King might have been mistaken for Wells' son.

    Ditullio went to trial last December, but the case ended with a jury deadlocked at 10-2 for acquittal. Ditullio, now 24, was facing the death penalty, as he will again when his retrial begins Sept. 27.

    He took the stand in his own defense last year, saying that he spent hours that day doing yard work, then came inside and drank something given to him by the other members that was laced with tranquilizers. Outside, he said, he saw Shawn Plott, another member of the group, carrying a bundled-up sweatshirt and looking like "he had seen a ghost."

    When he took the stand, the jury then saw a made-up Ditullio — no sign of his tattoos of barbed wire along his face, no swastika and the words "f--- you" weren't visible on his neck.

    A judge then also allowed court money to be spent on the makeup artist, and the trial judge, Circuit Judge Michael Andrews, approved the request.

    Bjorn Brunvand, Ditullio's attorney, argued that the tattoos were so offensive that they — instead of the evidence — could sway jurors toward a guilty verdict.

    The tattoos "have nothing to do with the facts of the case," Brunvand said last year.

    The judge's ruling upset King's mother, Charlene Bricken.

    "This is part of who he is. This is what the jury should see," Bricken said before last year's trial. "And if the jury is afraid, they should be."

    • • •

    In another high-profile murder trial this year, a cardboard cutout was used to show the victim's size to the jury.

    Max Horn was charged with second-degree murder for shooting Joseph Martell after the 2008 Chasco parade. Horn claimed self-defense, saying the 6-feet-6, 328-pound Martell had charged him.

    Horn, who was shorter and overweight, was found not guilty.

    In Ditullio's case, Brunvand hopes to use the cardboard figures to illustrate a murky identity issue. Because her attacker wore a gas mask, Patricia Wells never saw his face and can identify him only by size. She insists, though, that she had seen Ditullio enough times to know he was the one who stabbed her.

    Brunvand — who must still get the trial judge's approval to use the cutout — wants to bring in three of them to depict, with accurate size and height, Ditullio, Shawn Plott and a man named Ron James, an acquaintance of Wells'.

    Plott is now a fugitive, and Brunvand said James cannot be located.

    Ditullio is 6 feet 1 and 230 pounds, according to Pasco County jail records.

    James, Brunvand said, is the same height as Ditullio. In a recorded interview of Wells where James was present, Brunvand said Wells told him the stabber was "a lot shorter than you, Ron."

    Plott is listed in jail records as 5 feet 8, 150 pounds.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/court-pays-for-makeup-in-pasco-neo-nazis-retrial/1121946

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    Sentencing today for neo-Nazi found guilty of killing gay teen


    New Port Richey, Florida -- Sentencing is expected to begin at 8 a.m. Thursday for the neo-Nazi found guilty of killing a gay man and stabbing a woman in New Port Richey.

    John Ditullio, 24, could face the death penalty.


    Late Wednesday night, Ditullio was found guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder.


    Prosecutors say he broke into a mobile home in 2006 and fatally stabbed Kristofer King, 17, because he was gay, and injured Patricia Wells because she was friends with a black man.


    'I'm in favor of the death penalty,' Wells told 10 News Wednesday night.


    Leaving the courthouse after the verdict, King's mother told 10 News, "It was a long time coming."


    Ditullio has a large swastika, barbed wire and a vulgarity tattooed on his face and neck. The judge ruled the tattoos could sway a jury's opinion and ordered them covered.


    The state paid a cosmetologist up to $150 a day during Ditullio's trial to cover the tattoos.


    Regardless of the sentencing, Ditullio's attorneys vowed to appeal the guilty verdict.

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    http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story...162652&catid=8

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    Neo-Nazi murder trial postponed after new jailhouse informant steps forward

    Prosecutors in the death-penalty murder case against John Ditullio plan to call a new witness who claims Ditullio made admissions to him in jail in the last two years about stabbing two people in a hate-fueled rampage.

    Kraig Constantino is representing himself on charges of aggravated battery. He was in jail until last week, when he agreed to testify and prosecutors agreed to let him out on his own recognizance.

    During his time in lock-up, he filed numerous hand-written motions and made hundreds of phone calls, all of which Ditullio's attorney plans to use to indict Constantino's credibility.

    The 11th-hour information prompted Circuit Judge Michael Andrews to delay the retrial, which had been set for next week. Ditullio was tried last December but it ended with a deadlocked jury.

    Ditullio, 24, was a member of a small neo-Nazi clan that lived in a mobile home on Teak Street in Griffin Park. On March 23, 2006, prosecutors say, he donned a gas mask and broke into the home next door where a woman lived with her son. They say the neo-Nazis hated Patricia Wells because she had black friends and her son is gay. Ditullio charged at her with a knife, stabbing her in the face and hands, then went after Kristofer King, a friend of Wells' son. King, 17, died a day after the attack.

    According to defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand and Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis, Constantino will testify that:

    • Ditullio had three or four conversations with him before last year's trial and one after in which he admitted doing the stabbings.

    • Ditullio said he stabbed Wells because she was dating an African-American man and they sold crack cocaine.

    • Ditullio said he turned the knife on Kristofer King as he was coming to the aid of Wells.

    • Ditullio said Shawn Plott, another member of the neo-Nazis who Brunvand has painted as the real killer but who is currently on the run, won't ever be found because he "had friends who did him in."

    When Halkitis repeated that in court Wednesday morning, Ditullio tipped his head back, crinkled his face and shook his head.

    Constantino, 40, has been involved in the court system for more than 20 years. He often chooses to represent himself, filling volumes of files with handwritten motions. He has accused judges, court reporters and attorneys of committing fraud and falsifying records.

    In his current case, he is accused of beating and stabbing a man he suspected of trying to hit on Constantino's girlfriend. The man was beaten with a wooden board and stabbed with a pocket knife.

    In the case file, Constantino wrote a brief titled "Anatomy of a Crime" in which he discussed the origins of the Moon Lake neighborhood.

    "Early on, the peace and public interest were preserved by members of the Ku Klux Klan," he wrote. "A gradual mingling of Klansmen and outlaw bikers policed the area into the late 1980s."

    Halkitis said Constantino wanted to be released from jail in exchange for providing testimony against Ditullio because he feared for his safety. He has no other deal with prosecutors in his own case.

    Constantino claims that Ditullio has "tremendous influence" over other inmates at the Pasco County jail, including various ethnic gangs. He also said there are jail guards who support Ditullio and might harm Constantino if he was in lockup.

    Brunvand called the assertions "ludicrous."

    "Over the past 20 years, this particular witness has manipulated the court system and he will say whatever he has to," Brunvand said.

    He maintains that Ditullio is innocent of the crime and Plott is more likely the killer.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/neo-nazi-murder-trial-postponed-after-new-jailhouse-informant-steps-forward/1123265

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