Shane Gail McNiel, Racketeering Murder, Texas 2008

HOUSTON – In a shocking turn of events, Shane Gail McNiel, aka ‘Dirty,’ 34, of San Antonio, pleaded guilty today to charges related to a May 2008 murder of an Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) prospect member in Atascosa County.

McNiel, an ABT member, and Destiny Nicole Feathers, 24, of Jourdanton, an ABT associate, pleaded guilty to the charge of accessory after the fact in the murder. The guilty pleas were announced today by United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson and Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman.

According to information presented in court, McNiel was an ABT member and Feathers was associated with the gang, a powerful race-based, statewide organization that operates inside and outside of state and federal prisons throughout Texas and the United States.

According to court documents, an ABT prospect member was murdered by Jim Flint McIntyre, aka ‘Q-Ball,’ Michael Dewayne Smith, aka ‘Bucky,’ and another ABT gang member for allegedly stealing drugs he was ordered to deliver to a customer on behalf of the ABT. The body was discovered in Atascosa County on May 4, 2008.

McIntyre, Smith, and Frank Lavell Urbish, aka ‘Thumper,’ each pleaded guilty in 2011 to the racketeering murder. According to their plea agreements, McNiel and Feathers helped hide a shotgun that they knew had been used to murder the victim. Following the murder, Urbish and Feathers drove to McNiel’s house with the shotgun wrapped in a sheet and gave it to McNiel, who then hid the shotgun in a metal shed behind his house.

McNiel and Feathers each face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison at sentencing, scheduled for January 30, 2014. They are two of 36 defendants charged with conducting racketeering activity through the ABT criminal enterprise, among other charges. They represent the 10th and 11th defendant charged in the indictment to plead guilty.

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