Skinhead Convicted of Murder of Two Homeless Men in Tampa

TAMPA, FL—U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that a federal jury today found James Robertson (32) guilty of two counts of murder in aid of racketeering. Robertson faces a mandatory penalty of life in federal prison. His sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Robertson was indicted on May 22, 2008.

According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Robertson was a member of “Tampa Blood and Honour,” a hate group whose members espoused the belief that white persons of Aryan descent were the superior race. Tampa Blood and Honour members considered the homeless to be an inferior class, regardless of race. “Bum rolling” was a term used by Tampa Blood and Honour members to describe the activity of targeting and committing acts of violence against homeless persons.

Specifically, in the early morning hours of September 13, 1998, Robertson and three other members of Tampa Blood and Honour, Kenneth Hoover, Charles Marovskis, and Cory Hulse, murdered two homeless men, Alfred Williams and Richard Arseneau. Mr. Williams was murdered in downtown Tampa, under the Crosstown Expressway, in the vicinity of Meridian Street. Robertson and the other Tampa Blood and Honour members severely beat Mr. Williams with, among other things, a tire-iron. According to the medical examiner, the cause of Mr. Williams’ death was blunt force trauma to the head.

Mr. Arseneau was murdered in Tampa near the intersection of Interstate 275 and Fletcher Avenue. The murder occurred in a wooded lot located east of 320 East Fletcher Avenue. Robertson, along with the same three other Tampa Blood and Honour members who participated in the murder of Mr. Williams, also beat Mr. Arseneau to death. As a result of the beating, Mr. Arseneau sustained massive head injuries, at least some of which were caused by a hatchet. According to the medical examiner, the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.

Co-defendants, Hoover, Marovskis, and Hulse previously pleaded guilty to both counts of murder in aid of racketeering and are awaiting sentencing.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with the assistance of the Tampa Police Department, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, and the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Laurel Moore Lee and First Assistant United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III.