Skinhead is found guilty of murder

Prosecutors will argue next week that white supremacist gang member and Costa Mesa-native Billy Joe Johnson deserves the death penalty after a jury convicted him Wednesday of helping kill a man in 2002.

The jury found Johnson, 46, guilty of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and a list of other enhancements that highlighted the planning behind the March 8, 2002, slaying of fellow skinhead gang member Scott Miller. The dozen jurors deliberated for about three hours at the Orange County Superior courthouse in Santa Ana before returning with their verdict.

The Orange County district attorney’s office is seeking the death penalty. Prosecutors will begin arguing Monday that the jurors should recommend the ultimate punishment.

The final decision will be up to Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel. Fasel sentenced two men to death earlier this year for the high-profile murders of Newport Beach couple Tom and Jackie Hawks.

While Johnson did not pull the trigger on the .9 mm-caliber handgun that killed his fellow gang member, he claimed to have done so during his accomplices’ 2007 murder trial. It was a bid to save them and gain status in his gang. In fact, Johnson lured Miller to an Anaheim alley from a Costa Mesa party under the guise of buying drugs that night. The gang, Public Enemy Number One, of which Miller was a founding member, approved the hit because Miller had spoken to the media a year earlier about life in the gang.

Miller was shot in the back of the head at close range. Johnson and his accomplices left the body to be found.

During the trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ebrahim Baytieh argued that Johnson has aspirations of rising to the gang’s highest ranks, and that can only be accomplished through continual violence. Johnson’s defense attorney, Michael Molfetta, told the jury that his client was guilty, but Molfetta laid the foundation for his argument next week that Johnson is the product of a violent prison system.

During closing statements Wednesday, Molfetta tried to mitigate the nature of Miller’s killing by stating that Johnson wanted Miller facing his executioner, instead of shot from the back.

The penalty phase of the trial will begin at 9 a.m. Monday in Santa Ana’s Central Justice Center, Department C-35.