The seven women, five man jury in the case of the Alaska Peacemaker Militiamen came back with several verdicts yesterday after deliberating since Thursday.
The jury in the 22-day-long trial brought in verdicts on all but one count yesterday, that one failed count was against 37-year-old Coleman Barney. The jury deadlocked on Conspiracy to Commit Murder against him. The judge ruled a mistrial on that count that carries with it possible life in prison. It is unlikely he will be tried again on that charge.
Both 28-year-old Schaeffer Cox and Lonnie Vernon were convicted on charges of Conspiracy to Murder Federal Employees including Police Officers. Cox was also found guilty on the charge of Soliciting the Murder of a U.S. Officer.
All three of the men were found guilty on the charges of conspiring to possess unregistered silencers and destructive devices.
Cox was convicted on nine counts by the jury, Barney and Vernon of two, but the jury threw out all five counts of Carrying a Firearm During a Crime of Violence.
The prosecutors in the trial had over 70 witnesses and 900 exhibits that were used to construct the case against the militiamen.
It was while down in Montana where Cox gave several speeches to organizations where he told audiences that he had a force of 3,500 men with mines and automatic weapons ready to kill to protect liberty that put Cox on the FBI radar.
Well over 100 hours of recordings were made in the investigation into Cox and his organization by the FBI, including video of the the take-down in the sting operation that led to court. Cox, Barney and Vernon and his wife were arrested in March of last year in that operation.
Most of the audio recordings were made prior to Cox’s scheduled appearance in court where he was to answer to charges of failing to inform a police officer of a concealed weapon he was carrying.
|
After the verdicts were read in court yesterday, an agitated Cox shouted at the jury, telling them, “The Prosecutors with-held evidence from you guys!” He was silenced by the judge.
It is not an end of court trials for the Vernons, they are due in court this fall to answer charges of threatening to murder the Federal Judge who heard their losing IRS case.
The jury, although now allowed to speak to reporters and attorneys about the case, instead chose not to, as they left the courthouse as a group and then once outside went their separate ways.
U.S. Attorney Steve Skrocki said after court was adjourned, that he felt the verdicts were fair.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Bryan, the visiting judge who presided over the case, set the sentencing date on the charges for September 14th.The defendants were cuffed and remanded back to jail by the judge as court adjourned.