Surveillance video showed Bruce standing outside the store, near the intersection of Southeast 188th Avenue and Southeast Burnside Street, when Courtier drove up and parked. A fight erupted, but it was not clear how it started, Senior Deputy District Attorney David Hannon said.
The video then captured Bruce running down a street and sidewalk in an attempt to get away from Courtier, who chased Bruce in the Jeep and hit him. Bruce died several days later.
Hannon called Courtier violent and “unapologetic” for his white supremacist views.
“Russell Courtier’s membership with the ‘European Kindred’ gang was not out of necessity,” Hannon said in a written statement issued after Courtier’s sentencing. “Instead, it stemmed from his racist desire to be a part of a ‘brotherhood.’ This is an appropriate sentence given that the jury found Russell Courtier’s actions of murdering Larnell Bruce were motivated by his perception of Mr. Bruce’s race or the color of his skin.”
Bruce’s mother, Christina Miles, told Courtier in court that “you allowed the devil to misguide you and take the life of such a beautiful young spirit.”
Larnell Bruce Sr., the victim’s father, said he hopes Courtier spends his time in prison thinking about whether he wants his own son, who is 8, to grow up among white supremacists.
“That ideology that you have is not good for anybody,” Bruce said.
Courtier teared up in court but did not speak during the sentencing because his lawyers said they advised him against doing so. He is already serving a four-year sentence for his role in a 2015 bar attack. He will serve this latest sentence on top of the four-year term, bringing his total prison time before possible parole to 32 years.
Hunt, 37, had pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter during Courtier’s trial, agreed to accept a 10-year sentence and was sentenced Tuesday afternoon. She admitted to aiding and abetting Courtier in causing Larnell Bruce Jr.’s death, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
