The jurors who will determine the guilt or innocence of Fairbanks militia leader Schaeffer Cox and two of his lower ranking men, Coleman Barney and Lonnie Vernon, are getting a thorough look at what investigators found the day the men were taken into custody in March 2011. Agents with the FBI and Alaska State Troopers spent hours on the stand Wednesday describing photographs and paperwork, reading handwritten notes of anti-government musings aloud to the courtroom, and holding up rifles and bullet proof vests to allow jurors a good view of the firepower discovered in raids the day of the arrests.
Prosecutors are in the early stages of their case, working step-by-step to get these items admitted into evidence. They focused on Barney's North Pole home, and a trailer he owned found parked and packed with weapons and other household goods at a public park in Fairbanks.
The defendants, who are part of the sovereign citizen movement, are accused of multiple weapons crimes and with plotting to harm federal officials. None of the weapons showcased Wednesday was specifically identified as illegal to own or purchase, a point defense attorneys were quick to raise in their cross examinations. It will be up to the prosecution in coming weeks to explain to jurors how the weapons support their allegation that Cox and his crew were ready to kill and had amassed illegal weapons to get the job done.
One item that will likely become a thorny battle between prosecutors and defense attorneys are 37-millimeter grenade launchers found by investigators. The launchers are legal to purchase and use, but with limited purpose and restricted firepower. If they are intended for something other than flares or smoke grenades, they must first be registered with the ATF as a destructive device, and laws for such uses followed. The government accuses the men of using the unregistered launchers in combination with anti-personnel rounds called hornets nests, in violation of the law. A pamphlet from American Specialty Ammo, a company that sold kits to make explosive wildlife rounds, warned buyers to know and follow the law, and specifically made note of the prohibition on using launchers with anti-personnel rounds. The warning materials were discovered during the search inside a box used to send the materials from Utah to Alaska.
After a combined state-federal team took the men and others into custody on March 10, 2011, law enforcement teams then focused on serving search warrants, through which they seized guns, ammunition, grenade launchers, grenade bodies, gas masks, bullet proof vests, a lock pick, thousands of dollars in cash, and various notebooks containing handwritten action lists and philosophical writings on government and law. Whoever penned the writings -- which were found in Barney's home -- was not a fan of the current state of American government or justice.
"Our government is not operating by the rule of law. Instead it is operating by the rule of force," read one set of notes scratched onto a yellow legal pad found inside Barney's home on a bedside nightstand. The note went on to state that people have an obligation and a duty to a higher power to not follow unjust laws, and that people need to be the "Rosa Parks of the law" and "move to the front of the bus, lest we lose our liberties and our life."
"Be prepared to use force to defend liberty and law. Live with courage die with peace," ended another catalogue of things "to do."
Barney lived in his home with his wife and children, and Cox, with his wife by his side, took refuge there for some time after becoming a fugitive. After missing a Feb. 14, 2011 court date in an unrelated case, the militia leader had gone underground.
Other notes -- found variously in Barney's office or an upstairs attic space that had been converted into a living area with a mattress and couch -- contained detailed planning notes for various militia-related activities in service to protecting Cox either in court or during Cox's appearance one evening at a local television station. The notes had lists of people identified to perform on separate "teams," gear that needed to be assembled to support the missions, and hand-drawn maps of a state of Alaska courtroom in Fairbanks, including exits used by judges and police.
One discovery in the attic suggests Cox, whose wife's name is Marti, may have feared for his family's life and well being. A bank bag with his phone number on it contained $12,500 of cash stuffed into an envelope labeled "ransom." The letters "M & G" were also written on the envelope.
Notebooks found also contained directives for the personnel who were enlisted to perform surveillance or security for Cox: bring cameras and recorders, do not escalate the situation, don't talk to cops unless they are about to put hands on you, don't run, be of good cheer, once Cox wraps up get quickly to cars, give media (presumably reporters) "one liners." Other notes made reference to safe houses and radios needed for secure communications.
By the end of the day prosecutors had begun to show jurors state court filings in which Cox sternly rejected the authority of Alaska's courts and personnel and declared his status as a sovereign citizen, a "natural man."
Trial continues Thursday.
Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com