TATTOO DIDN'T TAINT TRIAL CONVICTION ON ASSAULT UPHELD.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- Letting a jury hear that a Palmdale parolee had a swastika tattoo on his leg didn't violate the man's right to a fair trial for a racially tinged brawl prompted by the defendant head-butting a black teen, an appeals court said.

In upholding the assault conviction of 21-year-old Michael Gaines, who is white, the 2nd District Court of Appeal concluded that the judge was within his authority to let the jury know about the tattoo and that, in any event, it was not prejudicial.

``Evidence that Gaines harbored racial animus against (b)lack persons was relevant to demonstrate his motives for his actions, and to rebut evidence that he acted only in self defense,'' the ruling said.

``The jury already had before it evidence that (a victim) referred to Gaines as a `skinhead,' that Gaines referred to himself as a `peckerwood,' or white person, and that Gaines had devil horns tattooed on either side of his head. The swastika tattoo was unlikely to be significantly more damaging than this evidence,'' the ruling added.

Gaines is serving a seven-year sentence for assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor assault. The jury acquitted him of two other counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and he was also acquitted of attempted murder and attempted voluntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors said the brawl occurred in June 2005 after Gaines head-butted and knocked to the ground a 15-year-old boy who passed him walking near Lake Elizabeth Road and Sagetree Lane, then threatened the teen's brother with a knife.

Gaines later told deputies that the boy he head-butted and his friends had attempted to pick a fight with Gaines' younger brother in a dispute about a girl, the ruling said.

After the brothers returned home, they, their stepfather and several other relatives and friends drove off looking for Gaines and found him and a companion about 10 to 15 minutes later in the 38000 block of Juniper Tree Road.

What exactly happened after the group confronted Gaines depends on who was describing it, but one member of the group was armed with a hammer and another repeatedly punched Gaines after Gaines got into his stepmother's car, prosecutors said.

Gaines stabbed the person who punched him -- and was not charged with a crime for that -- then got out of the car and stabbed another in the arm, then chased and stabbed the stepfather in the head and chest, prosecutors said.

Gaines said in court that he identified himself as a peckerwood -- which is both Southern slang for a poor white person and a common name for white street gangs -- after the stepfather called him a ``n-----.'' He denied that a person who is a ``peckerwood'' is a ``race-hater'' and denied promoting violence against black people or belonging to any groups that did.

The prosecutor requested a sidebar conference with the judge and argued evidence of the tattoo should be admitted to rebut Gaines' testimony that he was not a member of a group that advocated violence against nonwhite racial groups.

Over defense objections, the judge ruled the jury could be told of the tattoo ``on the issue of (Gaines') intent, and it goes to his credibility in terms of what was really going on,'' the ruling said.

Gaines later testified that he would have behaved the same way regardless of the other people's race, the ruling said.

``Certainly, the racist terms allegedly used by both (the stepfather) and Gaines were sufficient to inject racism in issue as a potential motive for the parties' actions,'' the ruling said.