Victim upset at hung jury in neo-Nazi trial

Nearly four years have passed, but Patricia Wells still cannot shake the memories of a man coming into her mobile home wearing a gas mask and brandishing a blade.

The man slashed her in the face, but she escaped and ran for help. The gas mask covered most of the man's features, but Wells is convinced her attacker was a neo-Nazi named John Ditullio Jr.

A jury was not so sure.

Today, a judge set a March 22 retrial date. The decision came three days after a jury deadlocked trying to determine whether Ditullio was guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of 17-year-old Kristofer King and attempted murder in connection with the March 23, 2006, attack on Wells.

Ditullio could face the death penalty if found guilty of first-degree murder; he remains in the Land O' Lakes Jail.

"I'm just appalled," Wells said today of the jurors' indecision. "I have no faith in the justice system. I'm just beside myself."

Wells said she was targeted because she was associating with a black man. King died of stab wounds to his head and prosecutors said he was slain because he was homosexual.

At the time of the stabbings, Ditullio was a recruit of the American Nazis, a radical group that congregated at a compound in Griffin Park.

The group espoused a hateful code that included the degradation of blacks, homosexuals and Jews. Swastikas adorned the Teak Street compound, as did Confederate flags and racial epithets. The mobile home in the compound was full of firearms and knives as well as white supremacist literature, authorities said.

The jury voted 10-2 on Friday in favor of acquitting Ditullio. Pasco Circuit Judge Michael Andres announced a mistrial following 10 hours of deliberations but no unanimous verdict.

Wells said the jury should have included more minorities. She also is upset with prosecutors' presentation of their arguments.

"I'm very dissatisfied with the way the state handled the case."

Wells also thinks she was not convincing enough during her testimony.

"I feel there was something more I could have done," she said.

The hung jury ended a weeklong trial that tested the panel's ability to separate a defendant's extremist beliefs from his possible criminal act. One juror reached Monday declined to comment on the deliberations; the other jurors couldn't be reached.

King's mother, Charlene Bricken, declined to comment Friday night.

Wells lived next door to the neo-Nazi compound with her son Brandon Wininger. Wininger wasn't home on the night of the attacks but his friend King had gone there to use a computer.

Cory Patnode, a former American Nazi and key prosecution witness, told jurors Ditullio was responsible for the crimes.

Ditullio said he was framed by the other members.

The defense sought to blame Shawn Plott, an American Nazi who is listed as a fugitive.

A neighbor testified she saw Plott wearing a white T-shirt and khaki pants as he walked away from the compound on the night of the stabbings.

Wells testified her attacker wore a white T-shirt and khaki pants. She couldn't see his face because he was wearing a gas mask.

Eleventh-hour defense witness Samantha Troupe, who lived in the compound and is the fiancée of former American Nazi leader Brian Buckley, testified that Plott confessed to her in 2007.