Lawrence Russell Brewer goes on trial next month for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr.

				Texas Dragging Death Trial
				Background Feb. 16. Update (Opening Statements) Feb. 17 Update Feb. 18 Update (Morning) Feb. 18 Update (Afternoon) Feb. 19 Update The Message Board Feb. 22 Update (Morning) Feb. 22 Update (Afternoon) Feb. 23 Update (Closing Arguments) Feb. 23 Update (The Verdict) Feb. 24 Update (The Penalty Phase) Penalty Phase Analysis Feb. 25 Update (The Sentencing) March 11 Update March 29 Update April 19 Update April 20 Update April 22 Update April 28 Update

JASPER, Texas (Court TV) — Relatives say Lawrence Russell Brewer, the second defendant in the dragging murder of James Byrd Jr., wasn't a racist.

"Russell didn't hate blacks," his aunt Carol Gillham told the Houston Chronicle. "We've never had any KKK in this family. Russell's cousin married a black man."

Brewer is scheduled to go on trial May 17 for his participation in the death of Byrd, a 49-year-old black man who was beaten, chained to the back of a pickup, and dragged along back roads for more than two miles until his body was dismembered.

The brutal murder shocked this sleepy East Texas lumber town of 8,000, which is about half black, and its overtones of racial hatred horrified the nation.

John William King, 24, an avowed white supremacist, was sentenced to die in February for his role in the killing. Brewer, who pleaded not guilty, has asked for a change of venue. If convicted, he too faces the death penalty.

But Lawrence Russell Brewer's relatives say the 32-year-old, married to a Hispanic woman, did not learn racism from his upbringing in the hardscrabble town of Sulphur Springs.

He came from a hardworking Christian family, according to the local sheriff Benny Fisher, and his parents treated the kids well and attended church regularly.

But Brewer dropped out of high school and dabbled in burglary. He was eventually convicted and sent to prison, which Fisher said changed him.

"When the boy went off to prison, he fell in with the wrong gang," said Fisher. "It destroyed his life as well as his parents' lives."

A hearing on Tuesday will consider Brewer's motion to move the trial out of Jasper. Prosecutors are opposed to the request.

Brewer claims that he can't get a fair trial in Jasper due to the small county-wide jury pool and the publicity from the slaying and King's trial. The surrounding county of Jasper is about 18 percent black.

King also requested a change in venue but it was denied. It took three weeks to choose his seven-man, five-woman jury, though the trial itself took only about two weeks. He filed an appeal to his capital murder conviction last week.

Brewer is accused of helping his former roommates Shawn Berry and King beat Byrd, strip him, and drag him until his head was severed. The three allegedly picked Byrd up on the road while he was hitchhiking on the night of June 7, 1998.

Berry, the only defendant who gave police a statement, said that King wanted to "teach Byrd a lesson" and initiated the fatal attack.

After their arrest, King sent Brewer a prison note that was intercepted in which he called Berry a "traitor" and bragged "Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history."

Berry is scheduled to be tried after Brewer.

Court TV's Catherine Heins, Bryan Robinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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