ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — A Virginia white supremacist is going back to prison for violating his supervised release by traveling to Mexico.
William A. White received a 10-month sentence Wednesday from U.S. District Judge James Turk, according to media reports.
White told Turk that he was sorry he left the country without permission. He said he was held in solitary confinement in a supermax prison and had a difficult time readjusting to society. He was released from prison in 2011.
“I tried to start my life over, and I went about it the wrong way,” White said. “I’d like a chance to try to do it again.”
A federal jury convicted White in December 2009 on charges of intimidating a group of apartment-complex residents in Virginia Beach. He also was convicted of threatening a university administrator in Delaware and a bank employee in Missouri.
White had been living in Lexington since his release. He was charged in May with leaving the area without authorization. In June, he was arrested in Mexico.
White is the former leader of the Roanoke-based American National Socialist Workers Party.
In a motion filed last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Hogeboom asked Turk to send White back to prison for six years. He called White’s trip “well-planned and orchestrated to make his apprehension difficult.”
“On their face, the defendant’s violations do not appear to be all that serious,” Hogeboom wrote.
“After all, many a country song has been written about leaving your cares behind to go to Mexico. Although an idyllic and romantic thought, it is doubtful that any of the song writers were referring to Supervised Release as the trouble to leave behind.”
