Aug. 28--A Chelan County soldier, suspected of murder in Georgia and accused of being the founder of a militia group that was plotting to kill President Obama and overthrow the U.S. government, purchased 15 firearms, including several semiautomatic rifles, at a Wenatchee gun store in September 2011.
It was that purchase, along with a suspicious relative, that first brought Army Pvt. Isaac Aguigui of Cashmere to the attention of local law enforcement, Wenatchee Police Sgt. John Kruse said Tuesday.
The relative, who has asked not to be named, told police that Aguigui's wife, who was a fellow soldier, and their unborn child had died under suspicious circumstances in July 2011 at Fort Stewart, Ga., where they were stationed. The relative also was concerned that Aguigui had purchased more than a dozen firearms, including "assault-style" weapons, from High Mountain Hunting Supply in Wenatchee.
After checking the report and talking to the gun store, Kruse said police decided they should contact the Army Criminal Investigation Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and the FBI in Spokane. Kruse said he spoke with FBI Resident-Agent-in-Charge Frank Harrill about the incident.
"We didn't do much with this. There had been no crime that we knew of, and it didn't really involve Wenatchee at all," he said. Moreover, "people buy multiple guns all the time," Kruse said.
The department did issue an "officer safety" bulletin alerting police to Aguigui's whereabouts, the fact that he was under investigation by the Army, and that he had recently purchased numerous firearms.
Kruse said Aguigui returned to Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia shortly thereafter.
Aguigui is among four soldiers based in Georgia who are charged with killing a former comrade, a Washington state native, and his girlfriend to protect an anarchist militia group they formed, plotted a range of anti-government attacks, including bombing a dam in Washington and poisoning the state's apple crop, prosecutors told a judge Monday.
Isabel Pauley, the prosecutor in Long County, near Fort Stewart, said the militia group of active and former U.S. military members spent at least $87,000 buying guns and bomb components. They allege the group was serious enough to kill two people -- former soldier Michael Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York -- by shooting them in the woods last December in order to keep its plans secret.
"Highly suspicious" death
The group allegedly called itself F.E.A.R., short for Forever Enduring Always Ready. Pauley said authorities don't know how many members it had.
One of the Fort Stewart soldiers charged in the case, Pfc. Michael Burnett, pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter, illegal gang activity and other charges in a deal to testify against the three other soldiers -- Aguigui, identified by prosecutors as the militia's founder and leader, and Sgt. Anthony Peden and Pvt. Christopher Salmon.
All are charged by Georgia authorities with malice murder, felony murder, criminal gang activity, aggravated assault and using a firearm while committing a felony. A hearing for the three soldiers was scheduled Thursday.
Aguigui was home-schooled in the Chelan County town of Cashmere, joining the Army after graduation. He married fellow soldier Dierdre Wetzker at Fort Stewart, according to news reports and interviews with family.
Wetzker, 24, died last year at Fort Stewart while pregnant with the couple's son. According to Orlin Wetzker, her uncle in Ogden, Utah, the family was told by law-enforcement officials that she may have been poisoned. A call to Aguigui's parents' home in Cashmere was not returned.
The prosecutors in the Georgia homicide case have called Wetzker's death "highly suspicious," but no charges have been filed.
According to court testimony, the group used some of the nearly $500,000 in insurance and death benefits to buy more than $87,000 worth of military-grade firearms and land in Washington state.
Orlin Wetzker said he knew nothing of Aguigui's politics.
Ayn Dietrich, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Seattle, said the bureau was aware of the case but declined to comment further.
A "loose end"
Roark, who was born in Kirkland and spent part of high school in Marysville, according to The (Everett) Herald, served with the four defendants in the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and became involved with the militia. Pauley said the group believed it had been betrayed by Roark, who left the Army two days before he was killed, and decided the ex-soldier and his girlfriend needed to be silenced.
Burnett testified that on the night of Dec. 4, he and the three other soldiers lured Roark and York to some woods a short distance from the Army post under the guise that they were going target shooting. He said Peden shot Roark's girlfriend in the head while she was trying to get out of her car. Salmon, he said, made Roark get on his knees and shot him twice in the head. Burnett said Aguigui ordered the killings.
"A 'loose end' is the way Isaac put it," Burnett said.
Roark's mother, Tracy Jahr, told KOMO-TV her son died "for standing up for what he knew was right."
She said her son told her last fall he had met someone with a lot of money.
"My mom's radar went up just a little bit and I said, 'Well, who is this person? Where is he from? Where does he live? Tell me more about him,' " Jahr told KOMO.
She said the situation eventually prompted him to leave the Army in December. He was killed two days later.
"It's not real because it can't possibly be your child that's been killed. It was devastating. It was devastating," Jahr said.
Also charged in the killings is Salmon's wife, Heather Salmon. Her attorney, Charles Nester, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
In a videotaped interview with military investigators, Pauley said, Aguigui called himself "the nicest coldblooded murderer you will ever meet." He used the Army to recruit militia members, who wore distinctive tattoos that resemble an anarchy symbol, she said. Prosecutors say they have no idea how many members belong to the group.
"All members of the group were on active duty or were former members of the military," Pauley said. "He targeted soldiers who were in trouble or disillusioned."
Big plans
The prosecutor said the militia group had big plans. It plotted to take over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition-control point, and members talked of bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah, she said.
In Washington state, she added, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison the state's apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia's goal was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president.
Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin Larson said the Army has dropped its own charges against the four soldiers in the slayings of Roark and York. Military authorities filed charges in March but never acted on them. Fort Stewart officials Monday refused to identify the units the accused soldiers served in and their jobs within those units.
Hatewatch, a publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based organization that tracks hate groups in the U.S., said Aguigui's father, Ed Aguigui, said he had "no clue" as to the location of the land in Washington state that reportedly was purchased by his son and members of his militia group. "I served my country for 20 years and I honor that, take pride in that," said Ed Aguigui, a veteran.
Isaac Aguigui's grandmother, Gloria Aguigui, of East Wenatchee, said her large family is from Guam. Annette Aguigui, the suspect's mother, home-schooled Isaac and his five brothers and sister while their father spent a career as a U.S. Army combat engineer.
"When they were little kids, they weren't even allowed to have guns," Gloria Aguigui told Hatewatch. "Isaac never got into trouble, and was always helping out. I have no idea what happened."
According to The Wenatchee World, Isaac Aguigui represented Washington state in the American Legion Boys Nation held in July 2008 in Washington, D.C. The American Legion Boys Nation is a weeklong citizenship and government program in the nation's capital that is designed to instill in each participant a deep loyalty to America while providing practical insight into the operation of the federal government, officials say.
The newspaper also reports he was among 21 Republicans who gathered in Wenatchee in October 2008 for the third and final presidential debate.
"When Obama outlined his health-care plan," the newspaper reported, "17-year-old Isaac Aguigui of Cashmere said, 'That makes absolutely no sense.' "
News researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report, which includes information from The Associated Press.
Copyright 2012 - The Seattle Times
