Jurors in the racketeering trial of Marcus Millsap heard more testimony Thursday regarding the inner workings of the white supremacist gang, the New Aryan Empire, but in more than three hours of testimony in the morning, the only mention they heard of Millsap came from his attorney's objections that the testimony was irrelevant.
Randall Rapp, 41, of Russellville spent nearly two hours on the stand Thursday, continuing his testimony from the previous day as he outlined his history with the New Aryan Empire, the inner workings of the gang, and the Nazi symbols and white supremacist images that make up the gang's identity.
Last September, Rapp pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Brian Miller to violent crimes in aid of racketeering of kidnapping, maiming and assault with a deadly weapon. He faces a maximum of life in prison.
He testified about the workings of the gang in and out of prison, and said rules infractions could result in a variety of sanctions ranging from writing essays to being beaten by other members to having a membership patch -- a tattoo of the gang's symbol of a sword, Nazi swastika, lightning bolts, and other symbols -- covered over or burned off.
He said in 2019, while he was at the Arkansas Department of Corrections' Varner Unit, he was disciplined for mentioning fellow gang member and co-defendant Chris Buber's name to law enforcement.
"The paperwork came down, and they asked me if I wanted to go out easy or go out hard," Rapp said. "I was in the kitchen, and we walked down to the shower and handled the violation."
The punishment, he said, was a three-minute beat-down by two other gang members.
Millsap's attorney, Tre Kitchens of Little Rock, noted that in Rapp's testimony he had said that the shower was opened for them by guards at the prison.
"Does that happen often?" Kitchens asked.
"At Varner it does," Rapp said.
After being transferred to the Cummins Unit, Rapp said Buber put out a hit on him, resulting in him being attacked and nearly stabbed while he was in his bunk.
Rapp offered a deadpan, matter-of-fact description of the kidnapping, beating and torture of Heath Dollar and Cascy Lewis, Pope County residents who the gang suspected of being informants.
Dollar of Dardanelle was kidnapped along with Lewis of Atkins in early June 2017, and both were taken to a trailer at 106 Foothills Road just outside of Russellville that was used as a gang clubhouse, Rapp said.
Rapp said the gang had met to discuss what to do with Dollar and had issued what it called an SOS -- "Smash on Sight -- where any gang member who ran across Dollar would be obliged to beat him. He said the initial plan was to kick in the door at the home of Dollar's mother and "smash him there at the house," but Rapp said he opposed that idea.
"You kick the door in, that's a home invasion," he said. "Let alone his mom would shoot us, and that's 20 years on a hundred percent."
"What do you mean, 20 years on a hundred percent?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Mazzanti.
"It's a hundred percent of 20 years you have to do in prison," Rapp said.
Several days later, Rapp said, he was awakened at 3 a.m. and told that Dollar was at the trailer and was being beaten by co-defendant T.J. Ferguson. When he arrived, Rapp said, Dollar was sitting on the kitchen floor.
"I asked him did he snitch on my bro, and I slapped him about five times," he said. "We all hit him about four or five times apiece."
Rapp said Dollar was also forced to write several drafts of an apology letter to Kevin Long, a co-defendant who the gang believed Dollar had implicated in a shootout some time earlier, which he said was the reason for the kidnapping.
Later, Rapp said, as he got ready to leave the trailer, he heard a noise and turned to see Buber body slam Dollar on the floor and then hold him down while Adam Mitchell burned his face with a knife that had been heated up with a torch.
In later testimony, Lt. Glen Daniel with the Russellville Police Department described Dollar's injuries as the jury was shown photos that were taken at a Dardanelle hospital. In addition to the burn mark, Dollar had several scalp lacerations that were inflicted when he was beaten in the head with a baseball bat, and had bruises all over his body.
Kitchens objected to the testimony, saying that at the time Dollar and Lewis were beaten, Millsap had been in jail for nearly a year, but was overruled by Miller.
"This has nothing to do with my client," Kitchens insisted.
Rapp said that while Dollar was being beaten, Lewis was being held in another room as several women, including his sister, Amanda Rapp, beat and stabbed her. Mazzanti asked if he saw Lewis at the trailer.
"I did," Rapp replied. "She was in the back bedroom."
During Rapp's testimony, several photos were shown to the jury that showed groups of gang members and associates at a gathering at Mount Nebo and another gathering at the trailer where Dollar and Lewis were beaten.
Other photos showed some of the members' wives or girlfriends and a couple of children. Rapp identified the men and the women in the photos, a number of them among the 55 co-defendants in the case.
Kitchens repeatedly objected to the testimony as being irrelevant, with none of Rapp's testimony having anything to do with Millsap or the crimes he is accused of.
On cross examination, Kitchens pointed out that Rapp's agreement with the government in exchange for his testimony could result in up to a 50% reduction in whatever sentence he is given once he goes before Miller for sentencing. Kitchens then named several members of the New Aryan Empire and another white supremacist gang, White Aryan Resistance.
"All of those men I just listed have taken an oath not to talk to law enforcement, is that right?" Kitchens asked.
"That's correct," Rapp replied.
"Every single one of those folks are coming and taking that stand, testifying for law enforcement to get a reduced sentence, correct?"
"That's correct."
"So," Kitchens continued, "your promise is subject to what's best for you, correct?"
"Correct," Rapp said.
Then, Kitchens placed the photos of the gatherings at Mount Nebo and 106 Foothills Road on the courtroom video monitors.
"Show me Marc Millsap in that picture," he said.
"He isn't in there," Rapp said.
"But there is a child there, isn't there?" he asked.
"There is," Rapp said.
"At these meetings of these Aryan groups, there's a lot of children there, correct?" Kitchens asked.
"Correct," Rapp answered.
Then, moving to the next photo, Kitchens said, "Show me Marc Millsap."
"He isn't there," Rapp said.
Under questioning, Rapp said he had never met Millsap or had any dealings with him.
But, Kitchens noted, there were more children in the photo.
"Those kids are being raised this way, aren't they?" he asked.
"You could say that."
Court is set to reconvene at 9 a.m. today as the government continues to present its case to the jury.