Differences In Robbery Mos Debated Defense Says Spokane Heists Dissimilar To Portland Attempt
Armed with a machine gun, hand grenades, revolvers and rifles, Spokane’s three bombing suspects drove from their Sandpoint homes to Portland last October, a federal jury was told Thursday.
They stole a Ford Aerostar van and made repeated U-turns on side streets to see if they were being followed, FBI agent David Bedford testified.
The defendants also mailed threatening letters with strange biblical references and tooled around the parking lot of a U.S. Bank branch in Oregon, the witness said.
“Things were matching up with the two previous robberies,” Bedford told a U.S. District Court jury in Spokane.
This time, however, the FBI was watching.
Charles H. Barbee, 45; Robert S. Berry, 42; and Verne Jay Merrell, 51, are on trial, accused of bombing Spokane Valley offices of The Spokesman-Review, Planned Parenthood and U.S. Bank and twice robbing the bank last April and July.
On Thursday, a series of FBI agents testified that the Valley bombers were preparing to commit similar crimes before they were arrested Oct. 8.
Tipped off by an informant, FBI agents tailed the suspects from Idaho. In cars and a plane, agents watched the men drive to the parking lot of a U.S. Bank branch in Portland.
Authorities telephoned bank employees and told them not to open, and the three suspects left. They were arrested later that day at a convenience store in Union Gap, Wash.
There, FBI agents seized lamp oil and flares they believe the men planned to use to firebomb their getaway vehicle, Bedford testified.
Homemade explosives that didn’t work were found in getaway vans used in the Spokane crimes.
FBI agent Andy Caster testified that Army-style ponchos and radio transmitters were seized during the arrests - items similar to ones seen in bank surveillance photos taken during the robberies.
But defense attorneys pointed to differences between the Valley crimes and preparations for the Oregon holdup.
The Valley robberies started with diversionary bomb blasts, defense attorney John Rodgers said during cross-examination. No bomb was set off in Oregon.
Letters left at the scene of the April and July crimes included references to “Phineas,” a biblical hero who killed an interracial couple.
No such references were found in letters mailed in October, copies of which were found in one of the stolen vans, Rodgers said.
Defense attorneys contend unknown men who share their clients’ white separatist beliefs committed the Valley bombings and robberies.
The defense also claims the government’s key witness - military surplus dealer Christopher Davidson Jr. - was involved in those crimes.
On Thursday, FBI agent Bedford admitted a witness had claimed to have seen a 300-pound man leave the Valley bank and motion as if he had a gun moments before the April 1 robbery. Davidson weighs about 350 pounds.
But Bedford disputed suggestions by defense lawyers that Davidson had made only halfhearted attempts to record conversations with the defendants.
Bedford said Davidson was afraid to wear a body wire or use a minicassette recorder because Berry owned detection devices.
Berry, Barbee and Merrell are charged with a dozen felonies and face life imprisonment and up to $3 million in fines if convicted. Prosecutors expect to rest their case Monday.
, DataTimes