Laguna Attack : No Leniency in Terms for Gay-Bashing

A judge in Santa Ana today 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 seven years in prison. John M. Moore, 23, received four years and eight months for assault and attempted robbery, and Stephen Walther, 18, was sentenced to four years.

The three men, all from Huntington Beach, screamed “kill the faggot” when they attacked 48-year-old Robert Joyce as he walked along the coastal cliffs in Heisler Park. Despite that, the jury that convicted them of assault charges two months ago rejected prosecutors’ claims that the crime was attempted murder, which could have carried a 15-year sentence.

At a sentencing hearing this morning before Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner in Santa Ana, defense attorneys claimed 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 talks with his client, “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.”

‘Especially Offensive’

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

The judge said, however, that he found the crime “especially offensive because of its wolf pack modus operandi . . . beating (the victim) seriously for no comprehensible reason.”

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,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Avdeef. “He was the one with the pipe.”

Also noted at the sentencing hearing was a letter Walther had written from the 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. “

Afterwards, Walther’s mother, Barbara Walther, said she thinks that it was a fair trial and that the judge is a fair man.

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

Her former husband, the defendant’s stepfather David Walther, said he still cannot believe the teen-ager has such racist beliefs.

“He certainly wasn’t raised that way; I think sometimes it’s an act on his part.”

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.

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 is exactly where they are going.

Sweeney later said his client does not want to go the Youth Authority because it has 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.