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The Eastern District of Texas sentenced a 40-year-old federal inmate for his role in the murder of a fellow prisoner, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Cox Tuesday. Of Henagar, Alabama, Michael Jason Shelton pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact-murder and was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison today by U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone.
On June 13, 2018, a jury convicted Rickey Fackrell, 36, of Vernal, Utah, and Christopher Cramer, 38, of Ogden, Utah, of first-degree murder. The court sentenced both to death following a six-week federal trial before Judge Crone. According to information presented in court, beginning in March 2014, Cramer and Fackrell, inmates of the U.S. Penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas, murdered fellow inmate Leo Johns. On June 9, 2014, Cramer and Fackrell stabbed Leo Johns to death at the federal prison.
Shelton pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the murder.
All three inmates were members of the white supremacy group, Soldiers of the Aryan Culture. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Prisons-SIS investigated, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys John B. Ross and Rachel Grov prosecuted the case.