Kirby Kehoe Charged With New Gun Crimes Wife Said He Pointed Machine Gun At Her; Federal Agents Also Find Live Hand Grenades

The father of Chevie and Cheyne Kehoe faces four new federal firearms charges in an indictment returned Wednesday in Spokane.

The charges against Kirby K. Kehoe came after his wife told federal agents that he pointed a machine gun at her during a domestic violence assault.

Kehoe, 49, is scheduled to be arraigned today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno.

Attempts to reach court-appointed defense attorney Mark Casey on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Kehoe was arrested March 7 near Springdale, Wash., after promising the same federal judge that he would remain in his hometown of Yaak, Mont., while awaiting trial on an earlier firearms charge.

As a condition of being released without bond, he also wasn’t supposed to have firearms.

Among the items seized from Kehoe’s camper, which he had shared with his wife and six youngest sons, were two live hand grenades and a machine gun, authorities said.

Kehoe’s wife, Gloria, and an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were among the witnesses who testified before the federal grand jury in Spokane.

His wife reportedly feared for her safety and that of others, including her youngest children, before calling the ATF.

She is in hiding and being given federal protection, sources say.

On Wednesday afternoon, the grand jury returned a four-count indictment.

It accuses Kirby Kehoe of two counts of possessing unregistered firearms, one count of possessing a machine gun and one count of transportation of firearms while under indictment.

Kehoe is scheduled to stand trial May 11 in Spokane on an indictment returned last year. That indictment accuses the former Colville man of possessing a handgun that belonged to an Arkansas woman who was killed in a triple homicide.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl Hicks said the earlier charge will be prosecuted separately.

If convicted of the new charges, Kehoe faces a possible 10-year “sentencing enhancement” for violating terms of his earlier release.

Kehoe’s oldest son, Chevie, faces a possible death sentence if convicted in Arkansas of a racketeering charge that includes the triple murder and transportation of stolen guns from Arkansas to Spokane.

Kirby Kehoe is not named in the Arkansas indictment.

Another son, Cheyne, is serving prison time after he and Chevie were convicted of shooting at Ohio Highway Patrol troopers in February 1997.

Federal authorities are investigating a report that Kirby and Chevie Kehoe provided firearms to a gang of white supremacists called the Aryan Republican Army.

None of the seven firearms found in Kirby Kehoe’s possession when he was arrested on March 7 in Springdale were linked to the Arkansas gun dealer killed in the triple murder.

But ATF agents also found other firearms in a Thompson Falls, Mont., rental locker Kehoe rented under an assumed name. At least one of those weapons has been linked to the Arkansas slayings, authorities say.

The arsenal seized in Montana included tear gas, smoke grenades and an estimated 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

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