TOWSON, Md. Opening statements were delivered Monday in the hate crime trial of Brandon Troy Higgs, a 25-year-old white supremacist accused of attacking two Black men and shooting one of them.

Higgs, a former Navy cryptologist, appeared at the Circuit Court of Baltimore County in a red prison jumpsuit, his tattoo of a yellow identitarian lambda , a white nationalist symbol, visible on his arm.

He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, assault, committing hate crimes and firearms-related charges stemming from an incident on Dec. 20, 2018, in Reisterstown, a suburb of Baltimore.

Higgs, who has ties to organized neo-Nazi groups , faces up to life in prison if convicted of the attempted murder charge.

His two alleged victims, Elvis Smith and Robert Peete, talked exclusively to HuffPost last year for a story examining hate in America.