Judge stays on case despite receiving racially charged letter

Circuit Judge Michael Andrews will be on the bench when self-professed neo-Nazi John Ditullio Jr. goes on trial for murder.

Ditullio, 23, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2006 stabbing death of 17-year-old Kristofer Guy King, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Last week, attorneys for Ditullio filed a motion to disqualify Andrews saying the judge, who is black, would be biased against him after he received a racially charged letter from convicted murderer Phillup Partin. Partin, 44, is now on death row for the 2002 killing of 16-year-old Joshan Ashbrook.

The letter, sent in November, is rife with racial slurs and includes the lines, "People said I had no respect for judges? Wait until you meet the infamous, notorious, John Ditullio! And I thought I had a deep hatred of [black people]."

Andrews denied the motion in court Tuesday, calling it "insufficient and untimely." Ditullio's trial will likely be in December or February, depending on the availability of his attorneys.

King was staying overnight at the Teak Street home of Patricia Wells when a man wearing a military-style gas mask broke in and stabbed them, authorities said. Wells, whose son was a friend of King's, survived the attack.

At the time, Wells lived next door to Brian "Zero" Buckley, leader of a white supremacist group dubbed the Teak Street Nazis. Ditullio was a member of the group and has described Buckley as the father he never had.

Buckley, 47, was convicted in 2006 of chasing Wells into her home and then punching a hole in her door two weeks before the stabbings. He is now serving a 20-year sentence.

Wells endured a barrage of racial and sexual taunts from her neighbors in the weeks leading up to both incidents. She has said she thinks the repeated visits of a black friend at her home prompted the attacks.