Three Enter Guilty Pleas In Bomb Conspiracy Case
Three of the 11 defendants in a federal pipe-bomb conspiracy case entered guilty pleas Monday, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Richard Frank Burton Jr., 38; his wife, Caitlin Hansen, 36, both of Seattle, and Theodore R. Carter, 38, of Bellingham, entered the pleas before U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, said Kate Greenquist, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney.
Burton pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, two counts of possession of destructive devices, and one count of persuading another to withhold or destroy evidence, Greenquist said.
Burton had been accused of persuading his wife to destroy and conceal evidence.
Hansen pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice. She had been accused of helping her husband destroy and conceal evidence.
Carter pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
The three are to be sentenced March 21.
In November, a federal grand jury issued a revised indictment against members of the Washington State Militia and others, alleging they plotted to assault or kill federal agents as part of a pipe bomb-making conspiracy.
The anti-government activists were arrested in Bellingham, Seattle and Tukwila in late July.
The charges stemmed from an investigation in which an undercover FBI agent participated in meetings with the defendants. Trial for the remaining defendants is to begin Jan. 13.
Others charged with conspiracy are militia leader John Pitner, 45, of Deming; Gary Marvin Kuehnoel, 48, of Bellingham; Frederick Benjamin Fisher, 61, of Bellingham, the militia’s assistant director; Bellingham resident Marlin Lane Mack, 24; and Seattle residents Tracy Lee Brown, 55, Judy Carol Kirk, 54, and her husband, John Lloyd Kirk, 56.
Pitner’s wife, Deborah Sue Reece Pitner, is accused of perjury through her testimony in an Aug. 28 federal hearing in Seattle about the alleged bomb-making.
The indictment also alleges that Pitner and Kuehnoel sold an Uzi machine gun on Dec. 17.
In addition, Mack and John Kirk are charged with making and possessing unregistered destructive devices; Judy Kirk is accused of possessing an unregistered destructive device; and Kuehnoel is charged with selling two machine guns and possessing another machine gun and unregistered firearms.
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