LUDOWICI, Ga. (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.
