LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A federal jury recommended Friday that a white supremacist be executed for the murders of an Arkansas family, returning its verdict four days after sparing the life of his co-defendant.
The panel said Danny Lee, 26, of Yukon, Okla., should be put to death for killing Arkansas gun dealer William Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell. The three were bound in plastic and tape and dumped into a bayou.Prosecutors had said throughout the 11-week trial that Lee's co-defendant, Chevie Kehoe, directed a plot to set up a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest and that Lee was one of his henchmen.
But when jurors considered a penalty for the Muellers' murders, they apparently were convinced by defense arguments that Kehoe was a bright, loving father who could still do some good, even if in prison. Monday, the jury recommended a sentence of life without parole for Kehoe, who had been captured by federal authorites in Beryl, Utah.
In Lee's case, jurors found reason to recommend his execution. In forms completed by the jurors, all cited Lee's participation in the 1990 slaying of Joseph John "Joey" Wavra in Oklahoma City as a factor in considering Lee a danger to society.
Prosecution witnesses said Lee helped beat Wavra and supplied the knife that one of his cousins used to kill the man. Defense lawyers argued that Lee had been abused and neglected as a child and that his life should be spared.
Lee attorney Jack Lassiter said the defense would appeal. "In light of the sentencing that Chevie Kehoe received, I'm struggling to understand the verdict," Lassiter said.