White supremacist Jeffrey Hall saw threats in the protesters who demonstrated outside his Southern California house. He installed a surveillance camera pointed at the cul-de-sac outside the tidy home where strangers might approach. 
 
 In this May 5, 2011 photo, the home of Jeff Hall is seen in Riverside, Calif. Hall's 10-year-old son is being charged with murdering his father, a 32-year-old plumber, at their Riverside home. Hall was... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this May 5, 2011 photo, a security video camera is seen on top of the roof of the home of the late Jeff Hall in Riverside, Calif. His 10-year-old son is being charged with murder in the shooting death... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this May 5, 2011 photo, the back porch of the home of Jeff Hall is seen from a vantage point in Riverside, Calif. A 10-year-old boy is being charged with murdering his own father, Jeff Hall. Hall... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Oct. 22, 2010 file photo, Jeff Hall holds a Neo Nazi flag while standing at Sycamore Highlands Park near his home in Riverside, Calif. Hall's 10-year-old son is being charged with murdering his... (Associated Press) 
 
 The threat he feared, however, was not outside. It came, authorities say, from within the home: His 10-year-old son shot him to death last week. 
 
 Police arriving at the house on May 1 for a report of gunfire found Hall's body on a sofa. 
 
 Prosecutors won't say if they know the motive, but family court records portray a troubled boy who spent his first years hungry and living in filth while his parents went through a messy divorce that included accusations of child abuse. 
 
 Evidence about how he was reared is likely to surface in a case that raises questions about whether the boy is mature enough to know right from wrong and whether his father's extremist views played a role in the shooting. 
 
 "It's a matter of figuring out what happened and why it was done," said Kathleen M. Heide, a University of South Florida professor who wrote, "Why Kids Kill Parents," and has treated child killers for 30 years. 
 
 Abuse and neglect are key precipitating factors in most killings of parents by their children, Heide said. 
 
 Few have been as young as the accused boy. 
 
 At his first court appearance Wednesday, the boy wore a baggy jail uniform and did not make eye contact with family members. He later asked to see his grandmother and stepmother. His biological mother, who has not seen him for years, left the courthouse without comment. 
 
 The Associated Press is not naming him because he is a minor. He's being held in juvenile detention and his four siblings are in protective custody. 
 
 Police declined to provide details about the shooting or how the boy got the handgun. Police said they found a rifle and handgun after the shooting. 
 
 Court records show Hall, a 32-year-old plumber with a leadership post in the Detroit-based National Socialist Movement, and ex-wife, Leticia Neal, slugged through a divorce and custody dispute nearly a decade ago in which each accused the other of child abuse. 
 
 In 2003, Child Protective Services removed the children from their mother's care after her 3-month-old twins by another father were hospitalized for failing to thrive. Hall's children were temporarily placed with his mother because he was on a three-year probation term for driving under the influence. 
 
 Social workers reported that witnesses said Neal had no electricity or gas, maggots were crawling on dishes, curdled milk was in the babies' bottles and the children were dirty and often hungry and thirsty. 
 
 Hall's children had bruises and injuries but social workers could not determine their origin or the extent of any abuse. Initial findings that Hall's children were aggressive and developmentally delayed were later revised and he was granted full custody in 2004. 
 
 Last year, Neal filed for joint custody, saying Hall's neo-Nazi ties made her "scared of what will happen to my kids." Hall opposed the request, noting the children had been taken from her when they were toddlers and she had not called or sent a birthday card or present in six years. 
 
 "The things they suffered while in their mother's care was deplorable," Hall wrote in November. 
 
 But Hall made no secret of his beliefs, telling the AP in October during his unsuccessful bid for a local water board seat that he supported an all-white nation. "I fly the swastika. I don't hide that," he said. 
 
 Hall was known in the suburbs about 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of Los Angeles for his neo-Nazi affiliation and views. He led rallies at a day labor hiring site and outside a local synagogue and his water board candidacy disturbed many residents in the region that experts say has become a hotbed for hate groups. 
 
 Hall used an amplifier to spread his message during regular meetings of the National Socialist Movement in his fenced-in backyard, where a swing set, small tent and child's basketball hoop could be seen Thursday. Blooming rose bushes were out front. 
 
 The house is in a well-kept subdivision that lies between rocky, rugged peaks near a freeway. Police were dispatched to the neighborhood about a year ago when a group of demonstrators protested his activities, prompting Hall to install the camera. 
 
 How Hall's beliefs could play out in the murder case is open to debate. 
 
 "If you're in an environment where your moral values are twisted, that could impact your ability to know right from wrong," said Larry Cunningham, a former juvenile prosecutor who is associate dean at St. John's School of Law in New York. 
 
 However, Michael Wald, who teaches a course in children and law at Stanford Law School, said that "socializing your children into repugnant ideologies is not something the courts will go into." 
 
 Deputy Public Defender Matt Hardy said he was considering an insanity defense for the boy, but he didn't elaborate. 
 
 Legal experts said such pleas are questionable for a child that young. "A child's brain is developing well into his 20s," Cunningham said. "But below the age of 10 it's not unusual for a child to have difficulty knowing right from wrong." 
 
 Hall wrote that his son and daughter with Neal had rebounded from being withdrawn, aggressive and developmentally delayed. 
 
 With the help of counseling, they were doing better in classes and participating in after-school activities such as ballet and soccer and both were "healthy, happy, outgoing, well rounded children," he said. 
 
 The boy, who had previously been removed from several schools for "wild and sometimes violent actions," Hall wrote, "has shown great progress and is no longer in danger of being removed from his school." 
 
 In fact, he was being taught at home as a pupil of the River Springs Charter School. 
 
 Tamara Rose, an education specialist who visited the home every 20 days, wrote to the court that she was impressed with the education the children were receiving and noted that the home was always decorated with seasonal crafts made by the kids. 
 
 She declined to comment for the story. A message left at the school's offices seeking comment was not returned. 
 
 J.T. Ready, a former member of the National Socialist Movement who lives in Arizona, told the AP he knew Hall for years, has been to his house numerous times and never saw any family problems. 
 
 Ready was planning to join him next weekend to patrol the Mexican border to fight illegal immigration. ||||| A white supremacist who ran for a Riverside water board last year was shot to death inside his home early Sunday, and his young son is suspected of the killing, police said. 
 
 Officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 5400 block of Lauder Court at 4:04 a.m., a Riverside police news release stated. They found Jeff Hall, 32, inside the home with a single gunshot wound. Police did not say where the bullet struck him. 
 
 Riverside firefighters later pronounced him dead. 
 
 Police were investigating whether the shooting was intentional or accidental, said Lt. Ed Blevins, manager of the Investigations Bureau. He said two handguns were recovered from the home. 
 
 Hall had been identified as the regional director for the National Socialist Movement, which promotes white separatism on its website. 
 
 Hall's wife and five children were in the home at the time of the shooting, Blevins said by phone Sunday evening. He did not release any information about the child suspected in the shooting. Child Protective Services were called, he said, but he wasn't sure if they had taken the other young children. 
 
 Police said they were not looking for additional suspects. 
 
 On Sunday afternoon, no one answered the door at the beige stucco, two-story home where Hall and his family lived. 
 
 A wreath with a blue cartoonish rabbit and Easter eggs with the words "Bunny Crossing" hung on the door, and Easter egg appliqués were stuck to a front window. A surveillance camera protruded from a corner of the roof, commanding the front of the house. 
 
 Charles Wilson, head of public relations for the Detroit-based National Socialist Movement, confirmed that Hall had been killed, but said by phone Sunday afternoon from his home in Oklahoma that the organization had no immediate comment. 
 
 An Arizona publication, Phoenix New Times, reported last year that Hall had led several armed white supremacists into the desert near the Mexican border to patrol for illegal immigrants. 
 
 The National Socialist Movement website shows photos of its members from Southern California near the state's border with Mexico, as well as pictures from an anti-illegal immigration rally in Riverside two years ago that turned violent when scores of counter-protesters marched against the neo-Nazi group. 
 
 Several residents in the neighborhood overlooking UC Riverside said they were still shaken from the early-morning shooting. Some refused to talk about it, while others weren't sure how to react after months of what they described as intimidation by Hall and other National Socialist Movement members who often visited. 
 
 "Honestly, I feel like it's over," said Juan Trejo, who lives across the street from Hall's home. "It was scary here. Hopefully we'll never see any of them again." 
 
 Trejo described a Halloween party at the home last year, when Hall flew a swastika flag from the home and guests wore KKK hoods. Trejo said Hall lived there with his wife and several children, one of whom called his son a "beaner" when the boy skateboarded near the Hall home. 
 
 Trejo said in the two years they lived there, he had never spoken to Hall, his wife, or several children, whom he described as all younger than about 12. 
 
 "I never tried to even say hello because they are racist," he said. 
 
 Hall ran against incumbent Tom Evans for Division 2 of the Western Riverside Municipal Water District board in November. Division 2 covers March Air Reserve Base and eastern Riverside. 
 
 Hall said at the time that regardless of his National Socialist goals, he would serve the entire community equally if elected. 
 
 Hall lost to Evans, but still received more than 25 percent of the vote. 
 
 Reach David Keck at dkeck@PE.com or 951-368-9465.
– A leading white supremacist has been shot to death at his California home and his 10-year-old son has been booked on suspicion of homicide. Jeff Russell Hall, 32, was the regional director of the National Socialist Movement and came to national attention last year when he ran for a post on the local water board. The son was taken into custody after police interviewed Hall's wife and four other children, the Los Angeles Times reports. Police say the shooting was intentional, but a motive hasn't been determined, reports the Daily Bulletin. Neighbors complain they were verbally abused and felt threatened by the family, who held a Halloween party last year where a swastika flag was flown from the house and guests wore KKK hoods. "Honestly, I feel like it's over," Juan Trejo, who lives across the street from Hall's home, tells the Press-Enterprise. "It was scary here. Hopefully, we'll never see any of them again."