Kansas Jewish center shooting suspect asks court for delay

By Kevin Murphy and Carey Gillam OLATHE, Kansas (Reuters) - The white supremacist charged with killing three people at two Jewish facilities near Kansas City on Passover Sunday appeared in a Kansas courtroom on Thursday and was granted a month-long delay in the proceedings against him. Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., 73, also known as Glenn Miller, was wearing an orange jumpsuit, with hands and feet shackled. Seated in a wheelchair, he spoke quietly with his attorney. Johnson County District Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan agreed to a request by Cross's attorney to set the next hearing for May 29, when scheduling details for a trial will be discussed. Cross, being held on $10 million bond, has not yet entered a plea. Authorities have said he could face the death penalty in the April 13 shooting death of 14-year-old Reat Underwood, and his grandfather William Corporon, 69, outside a Jewish community center in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas. In addition to capital murder charges in those killings, Cross is charged with first-degree premeditated murder in the fatal shooting of Terri LaManno, 53, at a Jewish retirement home shortly after leaving the Jewish Community Center. A conviction in LaManno's death would bring a sentence of up to life in prison, with parole not considered for 25 years. Although none of the three victims was Jewish, federal prosecutors have said the killings were a hate crime as Cross appeared to be targeting Jewish people. Cross is a convicted felon who was known by law enforcement and human rights groups under the name Glenn Miller as a former senior member of the Ku Klux Klan movement and someone who has repeatedly expressed hatred for Jewish people. Before the shootings, Cross had posted on the web that he had an "obsessive hatred for Jews," and discussed his operation of a paramilitary organization in the 1980s and his use of stolen money to found a group called "The White Patriot Party" in North Carolina. Cross also describes on the website how he became a federal informant, testifying against other white supremacists, and eventually entering the federal witness protection program. His website states that he received a new identity and financial support. He lived in Iowa with his family before moving to the rural community of Aurora, Missouri. But, the website says, he never ceased working to expose what he called "my GD Jew enemies." (Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Olathe and Carey Gillam in Overland Park; editing by Gunna Dickson)