Image copyright Donaldson Family Image caption Two men were sentenced to prison for their involvement in the ‘Black Widows’ gang in Delaware
Two men linked to the “White Widows” white supremacist gang in Delaware have been sentenced to between nine and 11 years in prison.
Christopher Donaldson, 23, was jailed for 12 years after pleading guilty to charges including assault and attempted murder.
His friend Carlos Rossier, 25, was sentenced to nine years after pleading guilty to numerous criminal charges.
Both men were part of the gang and also are charged with shooting a teenager dead in October 2017.
‘Reprehensible’
In a statement, US Attorney for the District of Delaware Richard Hartunian said the men were “wholly responsible for the injuries and death of a promising young man”.
The former leader of the “White Widows” gang, Holly Donaldson, was jailed for 24 years in February for a string of hate crimes including witness intimidation and conspiracy.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Holly Donaldson was jailed for 24 years for terrorising people over the gang
Her son Christopher Donaldson was also charged over the 17-year-old’s murder, but could not be extradited to Delaware because US authorities cannot guarantee his safety.
A third man, 35-year-old Paris Philobese, is due to stand trial in September on charges including attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder.
Delaware has one of the highest numbers of white supremacists in the US, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organisation that monitors hate groups.
The “White Widows” gang is made up of former white nationalists known as the “Black Widows”.
They murdered a teenager and terrorised other members of the gang in the 2016-17 period.
However, the gang attempted to clean up its act under the leadership of Holly Donaldson in 2017.
She ordered several prison inmates, including Rossier, to delete social media posts and reported the killers to police for threatening to kill her son.
The pair then began dissolving their gang in part to avoid detection by authorities.
Prosecutors said the pair carried out a shooting on 19 October last year which killed Logan Walker, 17, and injured another member of the gang.
During the attack, Christopher Donaldson shot at a moving truck with his semi-automatic handgun, but missed.
The District Attorney’s office said the punishment was appropriate.
They said: “The prolonged run of harassment that the victims experienced at the hands of this organization goes far beyond the one crime.”
