Killing suspect has supremacist tattoos

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The attorney representing a man accused of a racially motivated killing says his client never officially belonged to a white supremacist group but has tattoos associated with the ideology.
Attorney J. Michael Farrell said Wednesday he could not be more specific about the tattoos on Thomas Gibison, who is accused of killing a black man more than 17 years ago on a Philadelphia street.
"He was not a formal member of any group that held white supremacist beliefs," Farrell said Wednesday after a status hearing on the case. But Gibison, who is white, did have friends who considered themselves members of such groups, Farrell said.
Gibison, 35, was arrested earlier this month at his home in Newark, Del., on charges of murder and ethnic intimidation in the April 1989 shooting death of 34-year-old Aaron Wood.
Authorities would not disclose details on what led them to Gibison, but the district attorney's office recently convened a grand jury that resulted in an arrest warrant.
Gibison, who would have been 17 at the time Wood was gunned down, "experimented with a great many thoughts and positions" as a teenager, Farrell said.
Gibison is being held without bail and has not entered a formal plea. Prosecutors said Wednesday that they had filed a petition seeking to bypass a preliminary hearing, in which a judge would decide whether there is enough evidence for the defendant to be tried.
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