White Supremacists Charged With Inmate's Murder, Hate Crime: Feds

ROCKFORD, IL — A grand jury has indicted two prisoners at a high-security federal prison on murder, conspiracy and hate crime charges stemming from the fatal beating of a fellow inmate last year.

The two men are members of the white supremacist group called the Valhalla Bound Skinheads and targeted the victim because they believed he was Jewish, according to the indictment returned Tuesday in federal court in Rockford.

Matthew Phillips, 31, was serving a sentence of more than seven years after pleading guilty to heroin distribution and money laundering charges in 2015. According to a court filing from his attorney, he had been struggling with drug addiction since high school and began selling heroin to support his habit.

The Associated Press reported he was severely beaten before he was found unresponsive in his cell at U.S. Penitentiary Thomson on March 2, 2020.

Brandon Simonson, 37, and Kristopher Martin, 39, both "espoused white supremacist views and possessed various Nazi memorabilia and other items symbolizing white supremacy," according to the indictment.

In addition to tattoos and written material promoting the Valhalla Bound Skinheads, the duo allegedly had "a cup with a swastika engraved on it, drawings of Adolph Hitler, and prison shoes with the numerical symbols '88' and '14'" — numbers with symbolic significance to neo-Nazis.

According to the indictment, the two men taunted and ridiculed Phillips for being Jewish. And prior to the deadly beating, Martin warned another prisoner that he and Simonson were going to "get" Phillips and told the other inmate not to interfere.

That day, Simonson and Martin began striking Phillips and continued to beat Phillips "despite verbal commands by correctional officers to stop," the indictment said.

Emmerson Buie, head of the FBI's Chicago field office, announced the indictment, which includes charges of conspiracy to commit murder, second-degree murder, hate crime, and assault resulting in serious bodily injury.

“All Americans have the right to live their lives without fear of race or religion-based violence, and FBI Chicago takes very seriously its responsibility to uphold the civil rights of Illinoisans," Buie said in a statement.

Court records show Simonson, also known as "Whitey," pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in 2015 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Martin, also known as "No Luck," pleaded guilty in 2018 to being a felon in possession of a firearm, in exchange for a sentence of nearly 5½ years in prison.

Convictions for murder, conspiracy and hate crime charges each carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, while the maximum sentence for the assault charge is 10 years.

“Hatred and violence on the basis of religion have no place in our society,” said John Lausch, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. “We will continue to work with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to protect the civil rights of all Americans.”