By Keith Coffman
DENVER, Feb 10 (Reuters) – A neo-Nazi parolee murdered
Colorado’s prison chief last year after forcing a pizza delivery
man whom he kidnapped and later killed to record a message
denouncing the prison system, federal prosecutors said in a
court filing released on Monday.
The disclosure is the first time authorities have publicly
stated that ex-convict Evan Spencer Ebel killed the head of the
Colorado Department of Corrections, Tom Clements, and
27-year-old pizza delivery driver Nathan Leon.
Previously, investigators stopped short of calling Ebel the
trigger man in the two murders, saying only that the weapon used
to kill the two men matched the handgun Ebel used when he was
killed in shootout with Texas police days after the murders.
The existence of the audiotape surfaced in the case of
Stevie Vigil, a Denver-area woman who pleaded guilty to buying a
9mm handgun for Ebel, an ex-convict who skipped out on his
parole days before the murders in March.
Clements, 58, was gunned down at his home in Monument,
Colorado, about 45 miles (72 km) south of Denver.
“Ebel rang the doorbell and shot and killed Clements when he
answered the door,” prosecutors said.
The murder of the high-ranking government official triggered
a nationwide manhunt for the killer.
Ebel was stopped for a traffic violation near Decatur,
Texas, and wounded a deputy before police shot him dead.
Colorado court records showed Ebel had been arrested at
least seven times between 2003 and 2010 for such offenses as
burglary, unlawful weapons possession, assault, menacing,
robbery and trespassing.
Authorities said Ebel was a member of the 211 Crew, a
Colorado-based white supremacist prison gang. He had tattoos of
a swastika on his stomach, lightning bolts on his hands and the
words “White Pride” on his arm.
Colorado prison officials released documents last year
showing that Ebel spent the bulk of his sentence in solitary
confinement for repeated disciplinary violations.
Ebel lured Leon to a remote location under the pretense of
ordering a pizza, forced him at gunpoint into the trunk of his
car, and at some point ordered him to record the statement
before killing him, prosecutors said.
Leon’s body was found in the Denver suburb of Golden.
In a transcript of the recording, Leon said prison
authorities routinely “disrespect” inmates and their families.
“In short you treated us inhumanely, and so we simply seek
to do the same, we take (comfort) in the knowledge that we leave
your wives without husbands, and your children fatherless,” the
document said. “You wanted to play the mad scientist, well they
will be your Frankenstein.”
Clements was the father of two grown daughters, and Leon was
the father of a 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old twin girls.
“Leon was murdered while he tried to make extra money for
his young family,” prosecutors said.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Mohammad Zargham)
