A white supremacist skinhead was found guilty of breaking into the home of a New Jersey African-American couple and beating them with a baseball bat. 

A Superior Court jury in Mount Holly, New Jersey, found Brian Nielson, 27, guilty of assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. The verdict was rendered on October 22, 2004. 

ADL’s New Jersey Regional Office applauded the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office for its successful conviction of Nielson for the vicious bias crime.

Nielson was a tattoo artist for a now defunct skinhead group that merged into the Keystone State Skinheads, made up of racist skinheads from Pennsylvania and other mid-Atlantic states.  The group has grown considerably in numbers and activity since 2001.  Nielson is listed as a “Prisoner of War” on the group’s Web site. 

Nielson and his accomplice, Henry Baird, wore masks and shouted racial slurs during the attack, which occurred in July 2001 in Pemberton Township.  Both victims suffered broken wrists and one suffered a broken ankle.

In their testimony, the victims indicated that Baird and Nielson directed racial slurs at them during an encounter outside their home two weeks before the attack.