LUDOWICI, Ga. By RUSS BYNUM (AP) — Four Army soldiers based in southeast Georgia killed a former comrade and his girlfriend to protect an anarchist militia group they formed that stockpiled assault weapons and plotted a range of anti-government attacks, prosecutors told a judge Monday.
Prosecutors in rural Long County, near the sprawling Army post Fort Stewart, said the militia group
of active and former U.S. military members spent at least $87,000
buying guns and bomb components. They allege the group was serious
enough to kill two people — former soldier Michael Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York — by shooting them in the woods last December in order to keep its plans secret.
"This domestic terrorist organization did not simply plan and talk," prosecutor Isabel Pauley
told a Superior Court judge. "Prior to the murders in this case, the
group took action. Evidence shows the group possessed the knowledge,
means and motive to carry out their plans."
One of the Fort Stewart soldiers charged in the case, Pfc. Michael Burnett,
also gave testimony that backed up many of the assertions made by
prosecutors. The 26-year-old soldier pleaded guilty Monday to
manslaughter, illegal gang activity and other charges. He made a deal to
cooperate with prosecutors against the three other soldiers.
Prosecutors
said the group called itself F.E.A.R., short for Forever Enduring
Always Ready. Pauley said authorities don't know how many members it
had.
Burnett, 26, said he knew the group's leaders from serving
with them at Fort Stewart. He agreed to testify against fellow soldiers
Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, identified by prosecutors as the militia's founder
and leader, and Sgt. Anthony Peden and Pvt. Christopher Salmon.
All
are charged by state authorities with malice murder, felony murder,
criminal gang activity, aggravated assault and using a firearm while
committing a felony. A hearing for the three soldiers was scheduled
Thursday.
Prosecutors say Roark, 19, served with the four
defendants in the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the Army's 3rd Infantry
Division and became involved with the militia. Pauley said the group
believed it had been betrayed by Roark, who left the Army two days
before he was killed, and decided the ex-soldier and his girlfriend
needed to be silenced.
Burnett testified that on the night of Dec.
4, he and the three other soldiers lured Roark and York to some woods a
short distance from the Army post under the guise that they were going
target shooting. He said Peden shot Roark's girlfriend in the head while
she was trying to get out of her car. Salmon, he said, made Roark get
on his knees and shot him twice in the head. Burnett said Aguigui
ordered the killings.
"A 'loose end' is the way Isaac put it," Burnett said.
Aguigui's
attorney, Daveniya Fisher, did not immediately return a phone call from
The Associated Press. Attorneys for Peden and Salmon both declined to
comment Monday.
Also charged in the killings is Salmon's wife,
Heather Salmon. Her attorney, Charles Nester, did not immediately return
a call seeking comment.
Pauley said Aguigui funded the militia
using $500,000 in insurance and benefit payments from the death of his
pregnant wife a year ago. Aguigui was not charged in his wife's death,
but Pauley told the judge her death was "highly suspicious."
She
said Aguigui used the money to buy $87,000 worth of semiautomatic
assault rifles, other guns and bomb components that were recovered from
the accused soldiers' homes and from a storage locker. He also used the
insurance payments to buy land for his militia group in Washington
state, Pauley said.
In a videotaped interview with military
investigators, Pauley said, Aguigui called himself "the nicest
cold-blooded murderer you will ever meet." He used the Army to recruit
militia members, who wore distinctive tattoos that resemble an anarchy
symbol, she said. Prosecutors say they have no idea how many members
belong to the group.
"All members of the group were on active-duty
or were former members of the military," Pauley said. "He targeted
soldiers who were in trouble or disillusioned."
The
prosecutor said the militia group had big plans. It plotted to take
over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition control point and talked of
bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah, she said. In
Washington state, she added, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison
the state's apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia's goal
was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president.
Fort Stewart
spokesman Kevin Larson said the Army has dropped its own charges
against the four soldiers in the slayings of Roark and York. The
Military authorities filed their charges in March but never acted on
them. Fort Stewart officials Monday refused to identify the units the
accused soldiers served in and their jobs within those units.
"Fort
Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield does not have a gang or militia problem,"
Larson said in a prepared statement, though he said Army investigators
still have an open investigation in the case.
"However, we don't believe there are any unknown subjects," he said.
District
Attorney Tom Durden said his office has been sharing information with
federal authorities, but no charges have been filed in federal court.
Jim Durham, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of
Georgia, would not comment on whether a case is pending.
