The fourth federal search warrant to be unsealed in connection with weapons and murder plot charges levied earlier this month in federal court against a handful of Fairbanks-based militia members reveals new details about how Lonnie and Karen Vernon of Salcha allegedly planned to kill a federal judge and his family members. The new documents also show that the Vernons were betrayed by someone they knew. One of the informants the government used to build its case was not only a member of the Alaska Peacekeeper Militia, a group Vernon and others charged in the case belong to, but was also a coworker of Lonnie Vernon's on a recent construction job.

According to court records, the Vernons were part of a militia-driven plot to kill an Alaska state judge and Alaska State Troopers as well as, independently, their own bloody vendetta against federal personnel involved in a tax case the IRS had brought against them seeking nearly $180,000 in overdue income taxes. Unhappy with the looming likelihood that they were about to lose the tax case and possibly their home, the husband and wife were intent on revenge, according to written testimony from the FBI agent who had to justify for a judge why the search warrants were needed.

As the Vernons were dealing with the tax case and talking about murdering the federal judge and IRS agent involved in it, they were also giving shelter to self-described militia leader Schaeffer Cox, who was on the run from a misdemeanor weapons charge, authorities allege.

It is during this time that in the Vernons' home and elsewhere, twin killing sprees were being formulated, according to Special Agent Patrick Westerhaus of the FBI: The Vernons' attack on the feds, fueled by their tax situation, and Cox's desire to wreak his own revenge on state officials for their attempts to hold him accountable in court for the weapons charge.

One day after Cox failed to appear for his trial in a Fairbanks courtroom and a warrant for his arrest was issued, the Vernons received notice from Alaska's U.S. District Court that unless they answered a filing by the United States in their tax case by the first week in March, the judge would likely rule against them.

As militia members discussed the situation, including a member who was secretly working for government investigators and who was also a construction co-worker of Lonnie Vernon's, Lonnie Vernon said no matter what happened, he would win, according to Westerhaus's version of events. And, a new silencer Vernon had ordered would come in handy in waging his battle.

"Vernon said that every day of his life the judge would be looking for that silencer to hit him in the back of his head," Westerhaus wrote in his affidavit to the court. "Vernon also said the judge is trying to play God over his family."

Vernon also threatened to kill members of the judge's family, the receptionist at the IRS office and an IRS agent, authorities say.

The informant had also reported that the Vernons had "numerous handguns, shotguns and assault rifles that were strategically placed at doors and windows," and that Vernon had said "he has designed his house as an ambush site and added that if 'the feds' show up he would do harm to them."

In late February, at the construction site where the two men worked, Vernon reportedly told the informant that he would shoot "any law enforcement officer on sight" without waiting to find out what the officer wanted.

By March 7, the day that the Vernons were to have responded to the government's request for a court judgment against them, they instead filed a request for a one-week delay and then asked to meet with their militia cohort, who unbeknownst to them was recording what they said and did -- and reporting back to the FBI.

That same day the Vernons and the informant met in the informant's car and talked.

"Lonnie Vernon described his plan to kill all of Judge Beistline's family on one coordinated operation," begins Westerhaus's narrative of the events that day. "Vernon said that he would need (the confidential source's) and Coleman Barney's assistance to strike three residences at once."

Barney is among the militia members formally charged in state and federal court in connection with the various murder plots.

The Vernons' plan called for Karen Vernon to drop her husband off near a dark area close to the home of one of Beistline's relatives, where two children also lived. Lonnie Vernon would then break into the house, "shoot everyone in the head with his new silencer" and burn the house down using glass jars filled with gasoline.

Authorities also say Vernon then tasked Barney and the informant with killing two other family members of the judge, who lived in separate houses. Lonnie Vernon handed the informant a piece of paper with addresses and descriptions of the people who lived there, and Karen gave directions to the locations, according to the affidavit in support of the search warrant.

One day later -- March 8 -- the search warrant was approved and federal investigators were given the authority to search the Vernons' property anytime day or night for illegal and unregistered firearms, paperwork, notes or other records about the judge, the IRS agent, their families or where they lived, any firearms components of use to snipers and long-range shooting, silencers, night visions scopes, explosives, grenades, ammunition, hit lists and surveillance plans, and more.

It is not clear whether the investigators found a specific "hit list" but the list of items they took from the property includes firearms and ammunition, an "improvised blasting cap" containing a substance suspected to be black powder, a "booby trap device" made with a clothespin, wires and casing, nearly a dozen firearms, including semi-automatic weapons, shotguns, rifles and revolvers, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition. They also found military-style tactical vests, body armor and gas mask filters, miscellaneous "anarchist / militia" books, emails and other documents, a violent poem, diagram of Judge Beistline's courtroom and a handwritten "ops plan."

Because the Vernons are now jailed awaiting trials in state and federal court on weapons violations and conspiracy charges in the respective kidnapping and murder plots, they have had to write to the judge overseeing their tax case from jail. In a March 18 letter they wrote from the Fairbanks Correctional Center, they asked for extra time -- two months -- to file their opposition to the government's request for summary judgment.

Meantime, presumably since Judge Beistline is one of the targets in the alleged murder schemes, the tax case has been reassigned to a U.S. District Court Judge in Washington state.

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Alaska militia charged in murder-kidnap plot

By Yereth Rosen Yereth Rosen – Mar 11, 9:05 pm ET

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Five Fairbanks-area residents involved in a loose-knit militia group have been arrested in connection with a plot to kidnap or kill Alaska state troopers and a local judge, federal and state authorities said on Friday.

The group includes Francis "Schaeffer" Cox, the 26-year-old leader of the so-called "citizen sovereignty" movement, which considers individuals to be sovereign nations not subject to any state or federal laws.

Cox and his associates had developed an extensive plan to launch their attacks, the troopers said in a statement.

They had already conducted extensive surveillance on Fairbanks-area troopers, locating the homes of two troopers, and acquired a large cache of weapons, some of them illegal, according to the statement.

According to prosecutors, the weapons amassed by the group included machine guns, multiple assault rifles, multiple pineapple grenades, at least one grenade launcher, dozens of high-powered rifles and pistols and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

The five are charged with conspiring to commit murder, kidnapping and arson, weapons misconduct, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence, the troopers said. They were arrested late on Thursday without incident, the troopers said.

One of those arrested, 56-year-old Lonnie Vernon, was charged with threatening to kill U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline and a member of Beistline's family.

According to the grand jury indictment issued on February 17 and unsealed Friday, Vernon was seeking retaliation against Beistline for rulings in a case in which Vernon and his wife have been found to owe about $166,000 in back taxes.

Vernon on Friday pleaded not guilty to the two counts facing him, threatening murder of a federal judge and threatening murder of a judge's family member. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted on each charge, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Vernon's wife, Karen Vernon, was among the five people arrested in the case, but she was not charged in the federal indictment.

The five defendants were arraigned later Friday in state court in Fairbanks. Charges against them were filed under seal on Monday, and bail had been set at $2 million for each.

The investigation and arrests were coordinated by federal, state and local law-enforcement officials.

Cox has become a minor celebrity in Alaska for his outspoken views and flamboyant style.

He ran for the state legislature in 2008, has identified himself as a good friend and associate of unsuccessful Tea Party-supported U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller and has tangled with law enforcement officers over domestic-violence charges and weapons charges. At the time of his arrest Thursday, he was the subject of a warrant for failure to appear in court on a weapons charge.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)

 

Related links:

• Documents: Two informants helped FBI in Fairbanks '241' militia bust
• Arrest warrant issued for Fairbanks militia leader Schaeffer Cox
• CENTRAL ALASKA MILITIA HANDBOOK