3 Skinheads Get Maximum for ‘Gay-Bashing’

A judge in Santa Ana on Friday handed three young neo-Nazi skinheads the maximum possible sentences in a “gay-bashing” attack on a man in a Laguna Beach park last summer.

Accusing the three of a “wolf pack” mentality, Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner sentenced Aaron F. Compean, 18, who assaulted the victim with a lead pipe, to 7 years in prison. John M. Moore, 23, was sentenced to 4 years and 8 months for assault and attempted robbery, and Stephen Walther, 18, was sentenced to 4 years.

The three men, all from Huntington Beach, attacked 48-year-old Robert Joyce as he walked along the edge of the coastal cliffs in Heisler Park on July 15, 1988. Despite that, the jury that convicted them of assault 2 months ago rejected prosecutors’ allegations that the crime was attempted murder, which could have carried a 15-year sentence.

At Friday’s sentencing hearing, defense attorneys argued that the men were extremely remorseful and asked the judge for less than the maximum sentences.

Compean’s attorney, Gene E. Dorney, told the court that in his talks with Compean, “I see a glimmering of understanding of what he did to another human being, and a softening of the heart not only toward homosexuals, but others.”

Walther’s attorney, James S. Sweeney, argued that his client “now recognizes that random violence, even in a drunken state, is not something the courts can tolerate.”

But the judge said he found the crime “especially offensive because of its wolf-pack modus operandi . . . beating (the victim) seriously for no comprehensible reason.” Brickner told the three, “It’s not your politics that’s being punished here; it’s your behavior.”

Unsuspecting Victim

The judge said the victim was “middle-aged, unarmed, alone, unsuspecting, in the dark . . . and doing nothing more than simply minding his own business.”

Compean’s attorney asked the judge to consider that Compean was the only one of the three not wearing steel-pointed shoes.

“He didn’t have to,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Avdeef told the court. “He was the one with the pipe.”

Walther, in an interview at Orange County Jail after his conviction, said the three went to the park after a night of heavy drinking. Compean, Moore and Walther have admitted attacking two men in the park before Joyce was attacked. But those crimes were not brought to trial because one of the victims now lives out of state, and was unavailable to testify.

Joyce was knocked unconscious and required 70 stitches to his head and body. He identified all three of his attackers.

Attack Admitted

In statements to a probation officer, the three defendants admitted attacking Joyce but denied that they went to the park to attack gays. The judge, however, said in court that he believed that was why they took the lead pipe.

Included in court papers was a letter to the judge by the girlfriend of Moore’s father, who wrote of Moore:

“He is a time bomb of disappointments and unhappiness ready to explode. . . . It is my heartfelt fear that if he walks away from this without paying some sort of retribution, and without professional help . . . he may very well vent his anger in some other malicious way.”

Also noted at the sentencing hearing was a letter Walther had written from Orange County Jail in October just before his trial. It was filled with racial epithets and a drawing of a skinhead and the words: “Sieg Heil” and “Screwdriver Skinheads.”

The skinhead movement, which espouses a virulent hatred of homosexuals and non-whites, finds it roots in the music of British heavy metal bands like Screwdriver.

After the sentencing, Sweeney said his client, Walther, was not upset about receiving the maximum sentence.

“His comment to me was: ‘The system works,’ ” Sweeney said.

Walther’s mother, Barbara Walther, said she thought that it had been a fair trial and that the judge was a fair man.

“I think my son got what’s coming to him,” she said.

Prosecutor Avdeef called it “a political type of statement to (the defendants)). . . . These individuals are like a cancer: You have to remove (them) from society.”

Laguna Beach Mayor Robert F. Gentry, the first elected official in Orange County to openly declare he is gay, said Friday that he believes that the judge’s strong sentences send “an extremely positive signal to the gay community.”

Compean and Walther could have been eligible to serve their sentences at the California Youth Authority. Their attorneys said, however, that both wanted to go to state prison. Brickner said that was exactly where they were going.

Sweeney explained later that his client did not want to go to the Youth Authority because it had too many “blacks and other minorities.”

“I think they figure if they go to state prison they can get into the Aryan Brotherhood,” Sweeney said.

The Aryan Brotherhood is a white-racist prison organization.

Staff writer Eric Lichtblau contributed to this story.