By Kevin Murphy

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (Reuters) - A judge warned a Missouri white supremacist, accused of murdering three people outside two Kansas City-area Jewish centers, not to speak about his hatred of Jews in the opening statement of his trial on Monday.

Frazier Glenn Cross, 74, a former senior member of the Ku Klux Klan, is representing himself in the capital murder case and sought to explain to jurors the multiple reasons he hates Jewish people.

"If I can't explain why I did it then I have no chance of being found not guilty," Cross told Johnson County District Court Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan after Ryan halted Cross' opening statement and ordered jurors to leave the courtroom.

Cross told the judge and had attempted to tell jurors that Jews are guilty of genocide against white people and have unfair control of both the media and financial institutions.

Ryan said Cross' views about Jews were not relevant in the guilt phase of trial but may be brought in the penalty phase if he is convicted.

Cross, also known as Glenn Miller, could be sentenced to death if convicted of the April 2014 fatal shootings of Reat Underwood, 14, and his grandfather William Corporon, 69, outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, as well as Terri LaManno, 53, outside a Jewish retirement home in Overland Park, Kansas.

None of the victims was Jewish.

Cross also is charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at three other people outside the facilities. He has pleaded not guilty. His trial is expected to last three to four weeks.

In the prosecution's opening statement Monday, prosecutor Chris McMullin said Cross had confessed to the crime in a telephone call with an acquaintance last October.

"I did it and I'm proud of it. I planned it. I plotted it. I schemed it," McMullin quoted Cross as saying.

Eight people testified on Monday, including three Cross is accused of firing upon.

When witness Paul Temme said he had been shot at once, Cross corrected him. "There were two shots," Cross said.

Story continues

Cross asked Temme: "Have you formed an opinion about what kind of people I was shooting at?"

Temme said he did not want to get into that topic, answering "I'd be upset with whomever you shot."

Testimony is scheduled to resume on Tuesday.





(Reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Carey Gillam and Bill Trott)