White supremacist sentenced in beating, maintains he's not a criminal

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695236184,00.html

The last of three men convicted in taking part in a racist campaign to assault minorities to intimidate them said he had aspired to be a high school English teacher when he was arrested and charged in connection with two assaults.

Travis Massey told a federal judge Friday that hatred and bigotry have never been a motivating factor in his life and maintained that he was not a criminal and will not allow prison to make him a criminal.

Despite that claim, a federal judge sentenced Massey to serve close to five years in federal prison for assaulting two men based on their race.

Massey, along with Shaun Walker and Eric Egbert were found guilty by a federal jury last April in the beatings of two men outside of two Salt Lake City bars as part of a conspiracy to spread fear among Utah minorities and to spark a "race war." snip

Federal prosecutors claim that Massey was present at two beatings, the first at the O'Shucks bar on New Year's Eve in 2002 in which the bartender, of Hispanic descent, was dragged out of the bar and beaten by at least four men. The second was the March 2002 brutal beating of a Native American man outside Port O'Call. Both men were beaten unconscious.