Skinhead Gets Year For Pointing Weapon Gang Prosecution Team Sought, Got Maximum Sentence

A neo-Nazi skinhead who pointed a loaded assault rifle at a fleeing group of Native Americans in north Spokane last summer will spend a year in jail.

Rodney Nomura, 28, was sentenced to the maximum jail term on Wednesday by District Court Judge Sam Cozza.

The skinhead’s public defender asked the judge to impose only 30 days in jail.

Nomura pleaded guilty to a charge of intimidation with a weapon, a gross misdemeanor.

Normally, such convictions result in probation for first-time offenders or very light jail sentences.

But Normua’s case was diverted by District Court deputy prosecutors to a newly formed gang prosecution team, headed by deputy prosecuting attorney Dave Hearrean.

“We targeted this case for the maximum prosecution and sentence, and that’s what we got,” Hearrean said Friday.

The two prosecutors assigned to the gang team - established in September by Prosecutor Jim Sweetser - target crimes with racial violence overtones, including drive-by shootings and homicides.

Normua, who lives in Seattle, apparently attended the Aryan Nations World Congress in Hayden Lake, Idaho, in mid-July.

Shortly after midnight on July 26, he and other skinheads got into a dispute with a group of Native Americans in the 600 block of West Augusta in Spokane.

The nature of the dispute wasn’t disclosed, and police weren’t able to locate the victims of the intimidation, Hearrean said.

During the dispute, Normua went into a house and returned with an SKS assault rifle. He pointed the weapon at the group of fleeing Native Americans and a neighbor who opened her door because of the commotion.

When police arrived, they seized the assault rifle and took photographs of Nazi flags in a house at 708 West Augusta where Normua was staying, Hearrean said.

“I don’t think this kind of result would have ever happened without this gang team in place,” Hearrean said.

, DataTimes