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Posted: 1:33 PM- The route Curtis Michael Allgier has taken through life might have been laid out at birth.

He was born into white supremacy and began developing a criminal outlook while very young, according to an attorney who defended him in a firearms case.

"Additionally, he spent much of his formative years with older cousins who only further ingrained the white supremacy mindset into a young and impressionable Mr. Allgier," assistant federal public defender Kristen Angelos wrote in a court brief asking for a prison term below the one recommended in federal sentencing guidelines.

"With no other example to follow, Mr. Allgier simply mimicked the mentality and actions of his older family members," she wrote.

The argument evidently failed to sway U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell, who presides in Salt Lake City. On June 7, he sentenced Allgier to 104 months behind bars for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The punishment fell about halfway between the recommended 92 to 115 months. Angelos had argued for less time, possibly a term from 63 to 78 months.

Cassell recommended that Allgier be placed either in a federal facility in Terre Haute, Ind., or Oxford, Wis. Utah has no federal prisons, which requires that inmates serve their time out-of-state.

Allgier - a heavily tattooed neo-Nazi who already was serving time in Utah State Prison on escape, burglary and forgery convictions - probably is far from beginning the federal term. He is accused of shooting and killing a corrections officer at the University of Utah Medical Center this morning.

State authorities plan to charge him with murder.

Allgier's criminal history and his tattoos, which now cover his face and neck, have increased throughout the years.

State court records show that Allgier, who is associated with the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood, was charged in October 2000 in Weber County with carrying a concealed dangerous weapon, a Class A misdemeanor. Under a plea bargain, the charge was dropped to a Class B misdemeanor.

Second District Judge Roger Dutson sentenced Allgier to 180 days in jail, suspending 135 of those days and giving the defendant credit for the 45 days he already had spent behind bars, according to the state court Web site. He also was placed on 18 months' probation.

In 2000, Allgier was charged in Cache County with one count of second-degree felony burglary, as well as forgery and two counts of theft, which are third-degree felonies.

As part of a plea deal, Allgier pleaded guilty to the burglary and forgery counts and was sentenced in March 2001 to probation and one year in jail, including work release, according to court records.

Five months later, Allgier failed to return to jail after working a shift at a Logan restaurant.

He was arrested a month later and charged with the new crime of escape from official custody, a second-degree felony.

Allgier again struck a deal, pleading guilty to a lesser third-degree felony count of escape, and was sentenced by 1st District Judge Clint Judkins to up to 15 years in prison, court records say.

Allgier served 24 months in prison before he was paroled in May 2003.

He was arrested and returned to prison in July 2004 for absconding supervision and being in possession of two knives at his residence, according to Utah Board of Pardons and Parole records.

Allgier was paroled again in October 2006, after serving another 27 months in prison, which included time for technical and prison rule violations, according to parole records.

During this second chance at freedom, he was charged by federal prosecutors with possessing a firearm in November 2006.

He admitted in a plea bargain to having a Hi Point 9mm handgun.

In addition to arguing that his background was a mitigating factor, attorney Angelos argued that his earlier escape conviction was not a violent crime, which can increase a federal sentence. She said Allgier merely walked away from his work release.

In the meantime, the Utah Board of Pardons scheduled Allgier for a parole violation hearing in July to address what the state should do in light of the new federal sentence.

Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Salt Lake City, said today that prosecutors likely will file a federal firearms charge against Allgier based on the shooting. If convicted in state court of the slaying of the officer, a conviction on this federal charge would bring a more severe sentence based on the underlying crime.

In light of today's events, the Crime Rant blog posted an interview done in December with Allgier's wife, Jolene. She described her husband, who she calls Wood, as athletic and an "awesome artist."

"He can tattoo and draw," Jolene Allgier said in the interview. "He sings extremely well and is very well educated. He is very patient and good with kids."

She also called him a romantic who sings to her and writes poems.

"I'm a better person because of him and that's why I get so upset when people judge from the tattoos," Allgier told Crime Rant, adding that her husband had the courage "to put his beliefs on his entire body."

- Arrin Newton Brunson contributed to this report.