White Supremacists Plead Guilty to Shooting at Blacks

Admitting they were motivated by racial hatred, three white supremacists pleaded guilty Monday to attempted murder and assault for firing six shots at blacks in a car leaving the drive-thru lane of a fast-food restaurant.

The defendants flashed Ku Klux Klan and white supremacist gang signs before firing on the car at a Lancaster Taco Bell in October, authorities said.

Michael Bryant and Jason and Thomas Deal all entered guilty pleas, and were sentenced to between five and 15 years in prison.

Jason Deal’s defense lawyer, Bob Horner, said victims and defendants exchanged words, and the confrontation deteriorated into shouts and racial slurs on both sides before his client went home to get his gun.

“There was a serious back-and-forth exchange of insults and name-calling,” Horner said. “I’m not saying that was any kind of defense at all, but obviously it got to the point where somebody got angry enough to shoot at people.”

He said his client’s motivation was not any kind of “philosophical” Aryan belief, but simple “racially intolerant stupidity.

“He’s a racist, but white supremacist, to me, would be a promotion,” Horner said. “All of our enemies should be as dangerous as this bunch of clowns.”

Police said the defendants were in line when an African American who thought he knew someone in the defendants’ car asked for his acquaintance by name. He was mistaken.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Todd Rubenstein said the victims were goofing off and playing loud music, and the defendants took offense and drove a few blocks home to fetch a gun.

When they returned, the victims were waiting to pull out of the parking lot in their sports utility vehicle. Rubenstein said the defendants rolled up in their Geo Metro, flashed the KKK and white supremacist gang signs, and Jason Deal fired six shots.

Three of them hit the vehicle, but no one was hurt.

“There’s not a whole lot of logic to it,” Rubenstein acknowledged.

He said Jason Deal, who went by the nickname “Trigger,” later bragged about the shooting to friends.

The young men were caught after an anonymous tipster called sheriff’s deputies and identified them as the shooters.

Jason Deal, 22, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in Los Angeles Municipal Court on Monday after entering guilty pleas on two counts of attempted murder for firing at the two African Americans in the front seat.

His brother, Thomas Deal, 19, who was driving the Geo, was sentenced to seven years for attempted murder.

Bryant, 19, pleaded guilty to lesser charges of assault with a firearm and was sentenced to five years. He was sitting in the back seat along with a female friend who was not charged.

All three admitted in court that the crimes were motivated by racial hatred.

In exchange for their pleas, prosecutors dropped three additional charges of attempted murder against the trio.

Those charges related to three other people who were in the back seat of the victims’ vehicle, Rubenstein said. He said that because the windows were tinted and the shooting occurred at night, it would be difficult to prove that the defendants knew they were there.

Also dropped was a charge of threatening witnesses that had been filed against Jason Deal after his arrest for allegedly calling a witness from jail.