Defense Will Attack ‘Big Show’ Atmosphere Of Bombing Trial
Machine guns, hand grenades, bullet-proof vests and pipe-bomb fragments.
To date, the trial of three North Idaho men accused of last year’s Spokane Valley bombings and bank robberies has delivered exactly what defense attorney John Rodgers predicted.
In his opening statement three weeks ago, Rodgers warned jurors in the bombing trial that the prosecutors’ case might seem “eye-catching, potent, sexy, powerful … just like the word terrorism.”
As defense attorneys begin presenting their own evidence Monday in U.S. District Court in Spokane, “that psychological atmosphere is probably the most important thing to overcome,” Rodgers said in an interview last week.
Evidence against Charles Barbee, 45, Robert S. Berry, 42, and Verne Jay Merrell, 51, included ominous displays of weapons.
Testimony touched on inflammatory issues like race, religion and abortion.
Sobbing bank tellers told jurors they feared robbers would shoot them in the back. One witness testified his young sons had been leaning on a door moments before it buckled in a bomb blast.
“Most of it doesn’t mean beans,” said Rodgers, who represents Berry. “Individual bits of evidence we can logically, and fairly convincingly, pick apart.”
But jurors must wonder, Rodgers said, “if they (the defendants) didn’t do anything wrong, why the big show?”
Barbee, Berry and Merrell are charged with bombing the Spokane Valley offices of The Spokesman-Review, Planned Parenthood and U.S. Bank and twice robbing the bank last April and July.
Last week, three assistant U.S. attorneys rested their case against the Sandpoint men after 11 days of testimony from 81 witnesses.
Critical elements seem to pin the crimes on the defendants.
Eyewitnesses place Merrell at the crime scenes. Bank surveillance film linked clothing and weapons from the robberies to Barbee and Berry. Obscure religious treatises were found after the bombings and on Merrell’s home computer. Two informants said the defendants all but confessed their crimes.
Prosecutors have declined to talk about their case, but their message came through in court: The suspects are lunatic white separatists who used Scripture to justify terrorism.
Defense attorneys hope this week to show the suspects in a different light. They are expected to portray the trio as fanatically religious, slightly paranoid, gun-loving men - easily misled, but ultimately earnest and non-violent.
Defense attorney Roger Peven said in a recent interview he’s not worried about the psychological impact of the prosecution’s case.
He has suggested the real culprits are unidentified others on the explosive edge of an anti-government underground - organized, perhaps, by the government’s star witness.
“I think this jury has had enough exposure to know there are a great number of people out there who think like that,” said Peven, who represents Barbee.
He said his greatest concern is refuting testimony from informants and eyewitnesses.
“That’s the most damaging if it’s believed,” Peven said. “Everything else is circumstantial.”
Here are some highlights of the evidence presented by federal prosecutors:
The witnesses
A former newspaper employee told jurors he watched from a window as a masked man dropped a pipe bomb outside a door then retreated into a white getaway van on April 1.
Kelly Gibbons said he locked eyes with the van’s driver, a gray-bearded man in his 50s.
He was only the first to link Merrell, who has a gray beard, to the crimes.
A Spokane woman who once let Merrell live in her home testified that she saw him across the street from the newspaper office 30 minutes before the bombing.
A U.S. Bank drive-through customer that day also claimed to see Merrell driving a getaway van.
On July 12, a man loading a van in an alley near Planned Parenthood said he spotted Merrell waiting in a van after two masked men set off a bomb in the clinic.
An employee of Valley Glass spotted Merrell driving out of her parking lot not far from Planned Parenthood seconds later.
Witnesses also helped link the crimes.
U.S. Bank employees present for both robberies said masked men on July 12 appeared to be the same men who robbed the bank April 1.
One of the robbers looked to be carrying the same revolver used in the first crime, a teller testified.
Another robber was so short he looked like a “child wearing his father’s clothes,” bank vice president Craig Kuehl said.
While the suspects have not stood in the jury’s presence, an FBI agent said Barbee is 5-foot-6.
The weapons
Several witnesses linked distinctive weapons used in the crimes to Berry.
A firearms expert from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said surveillance video from the bank on April 1 showed robbers used a rare, expensive Italian shotgun and a single-action revolver that could be a Ruger Vaquero.
A Berry family friend testified that Berry owned a rare Benelli shotgun and that he saw Berry buy a Ruger Vaquero. Berry’s landlord and brother also said Berry owned the guns.
Federal agents also believe a Winchester 1300 shotgun was used in the July 12 robbery.
Informant Christopher Davidson Jr. testified that Berry asked him to sell such a gun in late July. Davidson later gave the gun back to Berry.
Berry’s brother, Loren Berry, testified that he led FBI agents to a Winchester 1300 he was asked to hide after Robert Berry’s arrest.
The literature
At the scene of the April 1 crimes, investigators found threatening letters that referred to “Yahweh” - a Hebrew term for God popular with white separatists - and made religious references about the evils of banking.
At the scene of the July 12 Planned Parenthood bombing, FBI agents seized a matchbook that referred to Psalm 139, which speaks of a woman’s womb and asks God to slay evildoers.
In September, the newspaper, the bank and the clinic all received comparable letters, one of which mentioned the matchbook - a find FBI agents had withheld from the public.
The three suspects were arrested in October carrying similar letters, one of which was mailed to the newspaper.
When investigators later searched Merrell’s home computer, they found a document that all-but mirrored notes found after the April 1 bombing.
The clothing
Bank surveillance video from the April 1 crime shows robbers wearing oversized military-style parkas. At least one robber is wearing blue jeans.
During the July 12 robbery, the masked men are shown on surveillance film wearing military-style ponchos and goggles.
Informant Davidson testified that he sold the three suspects large parkas and ponchos.
FBI agents seized a pair of J.C. Penney blue jeans from Barbee’s home. An FBI photography expert said wear marks on the pants show the same pair were worn during the April 1 robbery.
The expert also testified that by studying the way camouflage designs on one robber’s poncho line up at the seams, it could be the same one later seized from Merrell’s home.
And Berry’s brother, Loren Berry, testified that he saw Barbee using black Magic Marker to color the strap on a pair of Scott brand goggles.
The informants
Loren Berry testified that he watched his brother burn a tote bag authorities believe was used in the bank robberies. He said Barbee told him a fourth suspect - who since has been arrested - slipped getting into a getaway van.
Loren Berry also told jurors his brother’s wife admitted sewing her husband a ski mask. And Berry said he watched his brother spray paint a light-colored Ruger Vaquero pistol black before one robbery, then strip the paint off with solvent afterward.
Davidson, a military surplus dealer, also claimed Robert Berry admitted painting the gun to disguise it. Davidson testified that through spring and summer 1996, the trio shared tidbits of information that convinced him they were violent criminals.
While no one confessed to him, Davidson said, Berry told him Planned Parenthood bombers were “on the right side.” Barbee told him the robbers brought an assault rifle along in case they needed to shoot a guard.
He said Berry admitted planning to mail letters to the victims - letters that revealed details of the crimes only the bombers could know.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo