White Supremacist Convicted

The Associated Press/July 29, 1999

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- A white supremacist convicted of a hate crime for helping beat a man was cleared by an all-white jury of a more serious charge involving the victim's son.

Jules Fettu, former state director of the World Church of the Creator, was convicted Wednesday of battery as a hate crime against William Salas, a 42-year-old man of Cuban descent who lives in Miami.

The six-member jury found that Fettu, of West Palm Beach, was one of several skinheads who beat and kicked Salas when he tried to defend his 17-year-old son from the group outside a rock concert in August 1997.

The jury cleared Fettu, 26, of aggravated battery against Salas's son, Jesiah, the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale reported.

Two others have pleaded guilty to the attack on Salas.

All three have links to the World Church of the Creator, which advocates the deportation of Jews, blacks and other minorities. A former member, Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, killed two people and wounded eight -- all minorities -- and then shot himself earlier this month in Illinois and Indiana.

Fettu could get up to five years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 3.