SACRAMENTO — Members of the Aryan Brotherhood plotted to assassinate a prominent criminal defense lawyer and onetime district attorney candidate while he represented a member of the prison gang’s upper echelon, an alleged conspiracy that remained hidden from public view until a Wednesday afternoon court hearing.

The attorney, Todd Leras, said in court Wednesday that law enforcement has warned him several times of risks to his life brought about by an alleged murder plot hatched behind bars, including an allegation that a hitman working for the Aryan Brotherhood was assigned to travel to Sacramento on the same day Leras was presenting closing arguments for his client in a racketeering case.

At the Wednesday hearing, a discussion of the alleged plot culminated in a heated back-and-forth be

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