Mary Elizabeth Durham (Marion County Sheriff’s Office)
A 39-year-old member of a white supremacist gang in Florida will be spending several years in jail after her role in forcibly tattooing a racial slur — that was misspelled — on the neck of a gang member who had broken the rules of their group.
Mary Elizabeth Durham was sentenced to serve four years in a state correctional facility, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Before being formally sentenced, Durham pleaded no contest on Aug. 25 to one count of principal to aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm over the unlawful tattooing. In exchange for pleading guilty, prosecutors agreed to drop several other charges, including principal to robbery using a weapon and principal to tampering with a witness or victim.
Durham was the fourth gang member sentenced over the misspelled tattoo. Three others — Brandon Dwayne Hayley, Brett S. “Wolf” Singleton, and Luke Xavier Evans — have been sentenced in the case. Hayley was sentenced to 10 years in prison and five years of probation. Singleton was sentenced to six years, and Evans was sentenced to 15 years.
Brandon Dwayne Hayley and Luke Xavier Evans (MCSO)
As previously reported by Law&Crime, the alleged victim told authorities that Durham and the other three gang members confronted him at his home the night of Jan. 28 and demanded he cover up his gang tattoo, which read “CWB.” CWB stood for “Crazy White Boys,” police said.
The victim said the group entered his house, closed the door, and demanded they come with him to have his tattoo covered. The situation escalated, and Evans pulled out a knife, and the other men searched the victim, finding meth in his pocket.
“The victim stated Evans and Hayley then held him down, and Singleton began tattooing his neck, trying to cover his [CWB] patch,” a probable cause affidavit stated. “The victim stated that he was moving too much and fighting against being tattooed, at which time Hayley hit him with something, knocking him unconscious. The victim advised that he remembered waking up briefly and Durham was tattooing his neck.”
The victim told police he remembered Durham saying, “I’ve never done this before,” and then someone responded, “It’s OK, it doesn’t matter.” The victim said he then passed out because of the pain.
When the victim came to, he told police that “his pants were twisted and his butt hurt and there was blood all over his pants. He said that he believed he had “been sodomized” while unconscious but could not provide any additional details.
Officers taking the victim’s statement after the attack said they could read the words “f— n—-” on the front of the victim’s neck, noting that the racial slur was missing a “g.”
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