Witnesses Say Suspect Had Guns Like Ones In Robberies

Bombing suspect Robert Berry owned two distinctive guns like the ones federal authorities say were used in bank robberies last year, witnesses said Friday.

Berry’s landlord and a family friend provided the first evidence linking the 42-year-old Sandpoint man to the Spokane Valley bombings and robberies.

Both said Berry owned guns like the ones identified earlier in the day by Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agent Michael Sprenger.

Using bank surveillance photographs, Sprenger said robbers had a Benelli shotgun, a rare, expensive, Italian weapon, and a popular single-action revolver, most likely a Ruger Vaquero.

Brad Day, a friend of Berry’s teenage son Curtis, testified he knew Berry owned a Benelli and was present when Berry bought a Ruger Vaquero.

Berry, Verne Jay Merrell, 51, and Charles Barbee, 45, are on trial in Spokane’s U.S. District Court, charged with bombing a newspaper office, Planned Parenthood clinic and U.S. Bank branch and twice robbing the bank in 1996.

Prosecutors contend the men are members of a white separatist sect and were motivated by a religious, anti-government doctrine.

Defense attorneys contend other people sharing those beliefs committed the crimes.

On Friday, Berry’s attorney John Rodgers pointed out ATF agents had seized several guns from the defendants but never recovered a Benelli or Ruger.

Sprenger admitted on cross-examination there was no way to prove guns in the robbery were the ones in Berry’s home.

Day distinctly remembered a Benelli hanging on the wall in Berry’s living room.

Donald Blaese Sr., who rented building space to Berry for his truck repair business, also saw the Ruger. He recognized the gun because he owns one himself.

The testimony is significant because eyewitnesses aren’t expected to link Berry and Barbee to the bombings and robberies.

Prosecutors contend the two men wore dark goggles and gloves and were hidden behind black ski masks and military-style ponchos or parkas during the crimes.

Previous witnesses placed defendant Verne Jay Merrell, 51, as the driver of stolen white getaway vans.

Also Friday, a typesetter from Sandpoint’s anti-Semitic Christian Identity church testified that Merrell once urged him to read a book titled “Vigilantes of Christendom: The story of the Phineas Priesthood.”

“He (Merrell) thought it was a good history book,” said typesetter Clifford Collier, 47. Collier refused to swear an oath before testifying.

“Phineas” is a reference to the biblical story of a Hebrew priest who thrust a spear through another Israelite because he slept with a foreign woman.

Prosecutors contend the three defendants are members of the Phineas Priesthood, a right-wing sect that opposes homosexuality and interracial marriage and supports violence to defend God’s laws.

Letters, signed “Phineas,” were mailed to U.S. Bank and Planned Parenthood months after the bombings.

Jody White, a former teller in the bank’s Spokane Valley branch, said she received one of the letters and “perceived it as a death threat.”

The letter, postmarked Sept. 6, urged the bank to rescind a $100,000 reward for capture of the bombers.

It also made reference to a Bible verse - Obadiah 18 - that ends with the phrase “There will be no survivors.”

The night the letter arrived, White looked up Phineas in a Bible reference manual. She read all four Old Testament verses that contained the name.

“All were associated with violence, threats and murder,” White testified.

Alarmed, White never returned to work.

“I just don’t feel safe,” she said.”I won’t even drive by the bank.”

By Friday afternoon, prosecutors had called 38 of the 80 witness expected to testify in the six-week trial.

They plan to call key informant Christopher Davidson - a Post Falls gun dealer who defense attorneys say set their clients up to collect reward money - early next week.

Berry, Barbee and Merrell are charged with 12 felonies and face a mandatory life sentence if convicted.

, DataTimes