White Supremacist Sentenced to Death

Santa Ana - A white supremacist was sentenced today to die for killing a fellow gang member who divulged gang secrets on television.

In the end, it was just what Billy Joe Johnson wanted, his lawyer said. The 46-year-old convicted killer's living conditions at San Quentin prison's Death Row will be better than if he served a life term at Pelican Bay State Prison, defense attorney Michael Molfetta said.

"It's pretty well documented the living conditions are better on Death Row," Molfetta said, where he said Johnson will have a bigger cell and get to watch TV instead of being on lockdown for 23 hours a day.

"He wants to live on Death Row until he dies," Molfetta said. "He knows that's not going to happen in the near future ... But as long as it happens after his mother dies, he's OK with it."

Johnson, as he did throughout his trial, joked with his attorney as Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel went through the formalities of reading out the charges for which Johnson was convicted.

Before the sentencing, the grinning Johnson leaned over and jokingly suggested to Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh that he should join a "group hug" with Johnson and Molfetta.

At one point, he even gave Molfetta playful grief about how the New York Giants defense played in the team's overtime victory over the Atlanta Falcons because he knows the prosecutor is a Giants fan.

Fasel did not comment on carrying out the jury's death penalty recommendation, except to say that Johnson's crimes "substantially outweighed" any "mitigating factors" that were presented in his favor.

Johnson -- who was already is serving a life term for the 2004 claw hammer slaying of a man in Huntington Beach -- was convicted last month of leading his boyhood friend, Scott Miller, to his execution-style slaying on March 8, 2002, in Anaheim.

The victim's mother, Bonnie Miller, said outside the courtroom she was "just relieved it's over and the district attorney was successful. I don't know what will happen with the appeal, but this will make the community a safer place for all of us."

Johnson, formerly of Costa Mesa, lured Scott Miller to his death months after he gave what he thought was an anonymous interview to FOX 11 News about their gang.

The four women and eight men on the jury took about 2 1/2 hours to decide Johnson should die for killing Miller, who was gunned down outside an Anaheim apartment complex after he left a party.

Another gang member, Michael Allen Lamb, was previously sentenced to death for his role in the Miller killing.

Also convicted of Miller's murder was Jacob Anthony Rump, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Oct. 5, 2007.

Prosecutors said Miller, known as "Scottish," was killed because he aired the gang's dirty laundry in a two-part news report.

The piece, broadcast on Feb. 20-21, 2001, focused on the evolution of the gang -- which grew out of the 1980s punk rock music scene in Long Beach, then evolved to racist skinheads to criminal thugs.

Miller, though his face was obscured, was recognized by gang members in the TV appearance because of a tattoo and his pet pit bull.