FAIRBANKS — An Alaska militia group member found guilty of weapons charges was sentenced Monday to five years in federal prison in a case involving others convicted of conspiring to kill government officials.
Coleman Barney of North Pole held his head in his hands and sniffled loudly while he waited for U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan to impose the sentence Monday in Anchorage.
“I think you got into some real bad stuff here, and this sentence reflects it,” Bryan said.
Barney, 38, and two other defendants have been in custody since their March 2011 arrests. The judge said Barney’s time already served will count toward his term.
Barney was convicted in June of conspiracy to possess unregistered silencers and grenades, and possession of an unregistered 37 mm projectile launcher loaded with a “hornet’s nest” anti-personnel round that contained rubber pellets. Bryan’s sentence was five years for each of the two charges, with the terms running concurrently.
Barney’s attorney, Tim Dooley, said he plans to appeal his client’s conviction and is considering appealing the sentence.
Schaeffer Cox, the leader of the Fairbanks-based Alaska Peacemaker Militia, and another militia member, Lonnie Vernon, are scheduled for sentencing Nov. 19 on more serious charges, including conspiracy to commit murder. Members of the tiny militia claimed the group would protect families and property if the federal government collapsed.
A jury at the men’s trial deadlocked on a murder conspiracy charge against Barney and acquitted him of two other charges: possession of hand-grenade parts that Cox had loaded into Barney’s trailer as Cox prepared to move out of Alaska, and a count of carrying firearms during a crime of violence.
Before he was sentenced, Barney apologized for making poor choices and decisions. A member of the Mormon church, he said he loved his country and that the militia started out as a group of “wonderful Christian men” who wanted to protect their families in case of a collapse. He said he got caught up in the hype and said things he didn’t mean.
Barney asked the judge to let him go back to his family.
“There won’t ever be any problems with me,” he said. “I’m not a violent man.”
Prosecutors had sought a 10-year sentence, saying Barney knew about the murder conspiracy, even discussing it at length with Cox and others.
Barney was a confidante of Cox and then tried to minimize his actions, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Yvonne Lamoureux. She noted there was no dispute that Barney is a family man and a hard worker, “which makes it all the more difficult to understand how he got to this point.”
Dooley said prosecutors were trying to sentence Barney for things he wasn’t convicted of. He pushed for a sentence of time served or house arrest.
“Beyond that would be corruption of justice,” Dooley said.
Authorities have said the men advocated the “241” retaliation plan, which stood for “two-for-one” — killing or kidnapping two officials for any member of Cox’ group who might be killed or arrested, an event that never happened. During its investigation, the FBI used an informant to infiltrate the group. He recorded more than 100 hours of conversations.
The plot arose after Cox was charged with misdemeanor weapons misconduct. He represented himself at a pretrial hearing, where he rejected the Alaska court system as a legitimate judiciary. Cox said he would not attend another hearing until the court system explained its authority over him.
A warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to appear for trial in that case in February 2011. Until his arrest, Cox went into hiding with his family at Barney’s home, prosecutors said.
Comments (14)
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"A member of the Mormon church, he said he loved his country and that the militia started out as a group of “wonderful Christian men” who wanted to protect their families in case of a collapse. He said he got caught up in the hype and said things he didn’t mean."
Pretty much meets the definition of a cult.
Unfortunate thing is, there are a lot more of those "wonderful Christian men” out there. I fail to see the difference between them and members of the Taliban. They both misuse their religions as a smoke screen to cover up their totalitarian ambitions.
People like these are more of a threat to our democracy than any Muslim invaders.
Same to you
I suppose a similar analogy could be used to describe Lat and it's lefty followers. Let's say something like Nazis, commies and Marxist for starters.
Oops, shouldn't have said that; here comes the verbal barrage...
I have no problem distinguishing between these militia fringe
groups and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Taliban is not so much a concern to me on U.S. soil. Remember, the Taliban are more tribal than worldly. The Afghanistan Taliban was granting refuge to the terrorist leaders responsible for the attacks upon U.S. citizens. The Muslim Brotherhood, on the other hand, are indeed international in scope and make no bones about their manifesto. We just choose to ignore it, at our peril, in lieu of equating them with some 'fringe' group of Islam.
History is replete with would-be world conquerors who were not taken seriously. After all, who in their right mind could seriously think the domination of a planet is conceivable?
It is even easier when there are two oceans separating the relative calm of American shores from the conflicts overseas.
The peacemakers of Islam will be swept up along with the rest of us.
AK justice - big difference
.....you rarely see those "lefty followers" in the news for blowing up government buildings and children (Oklahoma, Unibomer) or stockpiling weapons (Waco).....etc. etc.
Swimmergirl you are all wet
You do know that the Aurora shooter was a die hard lefty who started with the OWS movement right? Have you heard of the Una Bomber Ted Kaczynski and hisa decades long bombing campaign perhaps? What about the Animal Liberation Front that has killed scientists and is classified as a domestic terrorism group?
There are just as many lefty kooks as there are right wing extremists and its dangerous in todays society to be so uninformed.
NUT JOBS!
is what I prefer to call all these off the wall self proclaimed freedom fighting or one cause above all else types. All this stereotyping such idiots into liberals, righties, conservative, leftist is a failure to see these people as problem to be dealt with. The common thread is they all seem to have a propensity for using violence to get their way and nothing else. For the death and destruction they plan or actually accomplish does nothing more than hurt others in the name of their own demented world.
Clarity
Islander has nailed it. There are freaks and nut jobs on both ends at the extreme left and right.
I believe using violence to attempt change is never for the improvement of our society and has been proven all too many times to be the self centered desire of darker needs.
What likely began as a an innocent group of God fearing men trying to be prepared for emergencies appears to have grown into something darker and menacing.
To attempt to lump all christen men into a potential violent militia as Lat58 seems to believe is an extreme view for sure:
Lat 58
"Unfortunate thing is, there are a lot more of those "wonderful Christian men” out there. I fail to see the difference between them and members of the Taliban. They both misuse their religions as a smoke screen to cover up their totalitarian ambitions.
People like these are more of a threat to our democracy than any Muslim invaders."
The Fairbanks Alaska militia group stepped over the line. They were tried in our court system and have been found guilty of their crimes and will serve time for them. Justice has been done!
Sorry Justice
Didn't mean to indicate that I was lumping all christian men into that group. I wasn't by any means.
I was referring to the kind of "wonderful Christian men” that Barney was mixed up with. There are more groups of those "wonderful christians" out there besides the Fairbanks militia crowd, who are distorting a religion of peace and love into something suiting their own violent ends.
And I equate them to the Taliban, who similarly distort islam to the point where it can justify their f---ed up world view.
Muslim terrorists might attack our country again, as they did on 9/11, but they aren't a credible threat to our democracy. That democracy is most threatened from within. Domestic terrorist groups like the one Barney was involved with ultimately want to overthrow our government and install a version more to their liking. There are more groups in America like them, and the vast majority are not muslim.
And...
I agree with Islander. Nut jobs are not limited to any one religion or political ideology.
islander nailed it
Left and right extremists are simply "extremists."
However, it does appear that religion creates more extremists than not. I think that is more a factor of the simple fact that most people have a religion.
Would it be better if we started calling them what they are: terrorists? In the war on terror there is no habeas corpus, no probable cause, no opportunity for due process, no search warrants, just fear, suspicion, and action. Recently we have been learning about 9/11 is that our old system worked, it was just our leadership, who were all too human, that failed us.
The militia people in this case seemed to me to be simple people who got caught up in something that went way out of control. They were caught in a bubble of fear, paranoia, and megalomania. Kinda like a youth with their first bb gun. Once that first tweety bird is killed you suddenly realize that it is all fun and games until something gets shot. Most of us learn from that dead tweety, some people don’t (how many have had their parents make them eat that first tweety? "You kill it, you eat it.").
To me these people seem like that at the start they were just going along, getting wound up, and not realizing that they were actually “playing” at something deadly serious. I also wonder what the presence of the government informant had on them. From the trial transcripts it appeared that they were enabled and aided by the informant to “accomplish” more than they could have if just left alone to their own devices. Without the informant they might have just been some "big talking" gun nuts…we will never know. And in many ways it is probably best that they got caught before anything really bad happened.
That's true Latitude58,
but when was the last time you saw a liberal Christian, wearing a God, Guns and Guts t-shirt?
take a look...
http://www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm
This web site has a pie chart showing about 15.2% of the world population is not religious (including atheists). So roughly 4 out of 5 whackjobs will, just by averages, be religious.
Back to business
@ Lat: Apology accepted
@ El-Boorba: You too have hit the nail on the head; right on.
Now please excuse me while the boys and I head back to the church basement to work out a few last details...