Gangland-style attack nets men years in prison

A couple of small-time thugs who cut off a Whitehorse drug dealer's finger are going to do some big time in a federal penitentiary.

Two men involved in the assault were sentenced Thursday morning in territorial court.

Territorial Judge John Faulkner recounted the day last June when 39-year-old Danny Jordan led a gang of enforcers to a downtown home to collect on a drug debt.

Inside they found coke dealer Fred "Mad Dog" Marten.

Using a hammer, meat cleaver and a baseball bat, they beat, slashed and tortured Marten. 19-year-old Michael Nehass, who was high on coke and heroin, helped out by holding Marten down while Jordan chopped of his pinkie finger.

Before leaving, Nehass butted a cigarette on Marten's back. They threatened to kill him if he ratted on them to the police.

Judge Faulkner called it premeditated, gangland-style enforcement that must be denounced. He said it included torture and the invasion of an innocent person's home.

He called the ringleader, Jordan a career criminal with little hope of rehabilitation.

With credit for time already served, Jordan gets five more years in prison.

Judge Faulkner says the teenager, Nehass, needs help.

Faulkner acknowledged his troubled upbringing, but said Nehass had become a seriously disturbed youth, in desperate need of treatment.

But Nehass is such a danger to society, and himself, that he'll have to get that treatment during his next three years, in prison.

With credit for time served that puts him in federal penitentiary for the next 33 months.