Crime & Courts

Imprisoned Fairbanks man charged with soliciting murder of federal officials

A 56-year-old Fairbanks man imprisoned there on weapons charges since last October now stands accused of asking an unidentified person to murder federal officers.

A federal grand jury handed up a single-count indictment against Guy Christopher Mannino, charging him with "solicitation to commit murders of federal officers."

That indictment does not indicate who Mannino is accused of having asked to commit the murders or who the intended targets were. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Bottini declined to comment on the details of the murder solicitation case.

Mannino, a former chiropractor and firearms dealer, has been in custody at the Fairbanks Correctional Center since October 2013, following the government's filing of charges two months earlier related to the possession and transfer of banned weapons, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The weapons he possessed included a machine gun and silencers. According to a plea agreement, Mannino gave someone a Sten machine gun equipped with a silencer. Neither the firearm nor the silencer were registered as required by the National Firearms Act, the plea says.

In February 2012, Mannino set off 300 pounds of explosives in Chena Ridge. The explosion rattled houses throughout suburban Fairbanks and could be heard from 20 miles away. He was charged but never indicted for the bomb blast.

After authorities learned that Mannino had set off the explosives, they searched his home and business. Among other items, they seized a 12-gauge shotgun, a Ruger 10/22, a Sten machine gun and five silencers.

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Federal authorities arrested Mannino in Nashville, Tennessee, on six federal weapons charges linked to that search. Mannino unsuccessfully argued that the weapons could not be used as evidence because the search warrant mentioned explosives, but not firearms and silencers.

Mannino pleaded guilty to three felony firearms charges earlier this year. He also pleaded guilty to hiding assets from a federal bankruptcy court and creditors in 2011. Mannino has yet to be sentenced on those charges.

For the weapons charges, Mannino faces up to 20 years in prison, as well as a $250,000 for each count.

In January 2013, Alaska militia leader Schaeffer Cox was sentenced in federal court to 24 years behind bars for conspiracy and solicitation of the murders of law enforcement and government officials and weapons crimes.

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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