Jury has questions in skinhead's slay trial

In its second day of deliberations, a jury yesterday asked seven questions regarding the fate of skinhead Thomas Gibison, accused of killing a black man - a precondition of "earning" a spider-web tattoo in his racist subculture.

Gibison, 36, of Newark, Del., is charged with first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy, ethnic intimidation and weapon offenses in the April 16, 1989, murder of Aaron Wood.

If convicted, he faces life in prison.

Jurors wanted Common Pleas Judge Teresa Sarmina to read portions of her charge, regarding reasonable doubt, criminal conspiracy, accomplices and ethnic intimidation.

They later asked additional questions about murder and firearms violations, and about whether ethnic intimidation applied only to the death of Wood.

The four black and eight white jurors also asked for evidence: a May 1, 2006, report by Terrence Mortimer, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, regarding an interview with admitted accomplice Craig Peterson.

Peterson testified that he had driven Gibison to North Philadelphia, where he saw Gibison shoot the fatal bullet in the head of the first black he saw - Aaron Wood.

Jurors wanted a copy of a 1989 news article in which Peterson, then a teenager, described himself as being a "blue-collar skinhead."

They wanted reread the testimony of Homicide Detective Leon Lubiejewski about how he found 37 unsolved murders during the first five months of 1989.

Lubiejewski testified that he had narrowed down the crime to Wood's murder, based on details provided by two federal agents after they interviewed Peterson. *