Supremacist Is Sentenced In Shooting
Judge gives shooter a 30-year prison term for injuring black girl, 13, in a crime inspired by hate.
By Vic Ryckaert
Originally published in The Indianapolis Star, May 25, 2002
Marion Superior Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt sentenced a white supremacist to 30 years in prison for shooting a black teen-ager.
"It was a horrible and senseless crime," the judge told Trevor D. Thompson during a sentencing Friday. "Mr. Thompson, you shot a child—regardless of her race."
Thompson, 21, pleaded guilty to attempted murder on April 29 after admitting he shot 14-year-old shot Ashley McNeil in June. Police say the .25-caliber handgun he used had a swastika-engraved handle.
Even though the bullet nearly killed his daughter, the victim's father called Thompson "misguided." However, he did not believe the man deserves to go to prison for life.
The bullet stopped a half-inch short of a major artery in the victim's leg. In a letter to the court, Ashley said she lives in fear and can no longer run track or play basketball.
"I'm glad I'm alive, but I still wonder why me?" Ashley wrote. "I heard that after Mr. Thompson's girlfriend turned him in she was found dead. I really hope nothing else bad happens to me."
The body of Jamie D. Weeks, 23, was found Dec. 14 in a muddy field along Hancock County Road 100 North near Charlottesville. About 32 weeks pregnant at the time, Weeks was shot twice with a shotgun.
Karen L. Helton was charged with murder in Hancock County Court.
Investigators believe the slaying might have been related to Thompson's romantic involvement with both women.
Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman said Thompson cruised the Southside of Indianapolis in search of a random black victim on June 21.
Ashley, then 13, and two of her cousins had just left a Village Pantry in the 2200 block of East Hanna Avenue when Thompson fired out of the passenger window of a white 1988 Oldsmobile, police said.
After the shooting, police say, Thompson used a racial slur and told Weeks, the driver, that he hoped the girl would die.
Newman said he was pleased with the 30-year prison sentence and hopes it gives Thompson time to "grow up" and change his racist beliefs.
"It's sad that we still have to fight these battles of old ethnic racial prejudice," Newman said.
Thompson's body is covered in racist tattoos, including the word "skinhead" on his stomach and "PURE HATE" across his knuckles.
Defense attorney Mark Inman said Thompson was a lost soul who was high on drugs at the time of the shooting. In court, Thompson apologized for shooting Ashley.
After the hearing, the victim's father called Thompson young and misguided and he did not think the apology was sincere.
"In this world we live in, as long as there are people of different races there's always going to be prejudice," Willmore McNeil Jr. said. "That's just something society's going to have to deal with."
