Defense Witness Declines To Talk Tells About Conversation He Overheard, Then Refuses To Answer More Questions
Defense attorneys rested their case in Spokane’s domestic terrorism trial Wednesday after calling a final, reluctant witness.
Jeff Schoengarth was expected to tell jurors he overheard armed men at North Idaho’s Aryan Nations compound whispering about vague criminal plans and carrying a U.S. Bank brochure shortly before the first of last year’s Spokane Valley bombings.
Instead, Schoengarth, a 21-year-old felon, got his own lawyer, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to answer most questions.
Schoengarth concluded less than three days of defense testimony from 14 witnesses.
Prosecutors kicked off closing arguments late Wednesday and will continue this morning. Jurors in the U.S. District Court trial could be deliberating by late afternoon.
Verne Jay Merrell, 51, Charles Barbee, 45, and Robert S. Berry, 42, are on trial charged with bombing Valley offices of The Spokesman-Review, Planned Parenthood and U.S. Bank, and twice robbing the bank last April and July.
The defendants have denied any involvement in the crimes.
Merrell testified in his own defense Tuesday, but Barbee and Berry declined to follow suit Wednesday.
The defense instead called Schoengarth, a sex offender imprisoned on credit-card fraud charges in Boise.
On the stand, Schoengarth said he was living at Hayden Lake’s Aryan compound in February 1996, when he saw a woman and four men arrive. Schoengarth testified that the men were clearly not Berry, Barbee and Merrell.
But when asked about bank brochures, a Benelli shotgun, pipe bombs and religious extremists known as “Phineas Priests,” Schoengarth refused to answer.
Defense attorneys have maintained that the Valley bombings and robberies were committed by people who share their clients’ white-separatist, anti-government views.
If Schoengarth’s lack of cooperation helped the defense, it was in giving the jury reason to believe he has something to hide, attorney Roger Peven said.
The speed and intensity of the defense case contrasted starkly with the prosecution’s, which ended last week.
Prosecutors called 81 witnesses over 11 days and referred to some 500 exhibits. Testimony came from dozens of witnesses and victims, dozens of federal agents and a handful of experts from the FBI laboratory in Washington, D.C.
Defense testimony came from three prosecution witnesses, five of Berry’s siblings, a 21-year-old blue jeans expert, two convicted felons and a private investigator.
Berry, Barbee and Merrell are each charged with 12 felonies and face up to $3 million in fines and life imprisonment if convicted.
, DataTimes