White supremacist charged in Kansas murders makes court appearance

By Kevin Murphy OLATHE Kan. (Reuters) - A white supremacist accused of killing three people at two Jewish facilities in Kansas will be evaluated for his competency to stand trial on capital murder charges, a judge ruled Wednesday. Former Ku Klux Klan member Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., 73, also known as Glenn Miller, is charged in the shooting deaths of Reat Underwood, 14, Underwood's grandfather, William Corporon, 69, and Terri LaManno, 53, in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas. He could be sentenced to death if convicted. Johnson County District Court Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan granted the motion filed by Ronald Evans, a public defender assigned to represent Cross, allowing 30 days for a competency evaluation of Cross by a mental health professional. Cross, seated in a wheelchair with shackled hands and feet, argued against the ruling. "I object. I want a speedy trial, not a drawn out one," Cross told the judge, who set Dec. 18 for the next hearing. Prosecutors accuse Cross of shooting Underwood and Corporon to death at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City on April 13 and then driving to a nearby Jewish retirement home, where he killed LaManno. None of the victims was Jewish. Underwood and his grandfather were at the community center so the boy could audition for a singing contest. LaManno was at the Jewish retirement home to visit her mother. Cross, who is being held on a $10 million bond, also is accused of firing on other people at the facilities. Cross, from the rural community of Aurora in southwest Missouri, is a former senior member of the Ku Klux Klan. He is a convicted felon known as Glenn Miller to law enforcement and human rights groups. Before the shootings, Cross had posted on the Internet that he had an "obsessive hatred for Jews." (Reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Carey Gillam and Doina Chiacu)