Brandon Darby is a Government Snitch

[WaTcHeR]

Jurors in the federal bomb-making trial of David Guy McKay told the judge they were deadlocked Friday afternoon, but he sent them back to the jury room to deliberate more.

They did so until 5 p.m. then went home. Deliberations resume at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

Although the courtroom theatrics had ended with final arguments the day before, there were flurries of activity during Friday's deliberations as the jury of eight women and four men sent out at least four notes.

Two notes hinted at a concern of at least some of the jurors: whether a federal informant had "induced or persuaded" McKay to manufacture eight Molotov cocktails during last summer's Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

McKay, 23, of Austin and a friend, Bradley Neil Crowder, also 23 and of Austin, were charged with making and possessing the Molotov cocktails.

Crowder this month entered a guilty plea to one of the three counts he faced, and the government dropped the other two. He faces 30 to 46 months in prison. No sentencing date has been set.

McKay, however, took his case to trial and said the FBI informant in the case, Brandon Darby of Austin, entrapped him.

Darby, who gained a national reputation in activist circles for his relief work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, became a government informant and infiltrated a group of Austin activists at the request of the FBI.

Both men testified at the trial. Darby said he didn't induce McKay or Crowder to make the Molotov cocktails, and he denied planting the idea in their heads. McKay said Darby hatched the plan to make the firebombs.

Before deliberations began, Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis told the jury that if they concluded McKay had no "intent or disposition" to break the law prior to meeting Darby, and if the informant "induced and persuaded" McKay to build the firebombs, then it was entrapment and they should acquit McKay.

Jurors deliberated for two hours Thursday and resumed at 8:30 a.m. Friday. Three hours later, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Paulsen and defense attorney Jeffrey DeGree were summoned to the courtroom because the jury sent a question to the judge.

Davis read the note aloud in court. Jurors wanted to know the difference between "induced" and "persuaded," and they wanted to know if the "mere suggestion" of making a Molotov cocktail could be considered inducement or persuasion.

In his reply, the judge gave jurors the dictionary definitions of the two words and told them they'd have to figure it out on their own.

Paulsen declined to comment. DeGree said that while he wouldn't speculate on how jurors were voting, "I was pleased to see ... that they are looking at the right issues."

Shortly after 2 p.m., another note: "We cannot reach a unanimous decision."

The judge brought jurors into the courtroom and read them additional instructions, known as an "Allen charge" or a "dynamite charge."

The instruction reaffirms that jurors "must not surrender your honest convictions," but it also tells them to "carefully reconsider all the evidence bearing upon the question before you."

It also tells them there's no reason to think another trial would be better or have "a more conscientious, impartial or competent jury."

The charge is prohibited in some federal jurisdictions; critics say the instructions can be interpreted as pressuring jurors in the minority to rethink their positions.

About 4:15 p.m. jurors had sent two notes — one asking to be sent home at 5 p.m., and the other declaring that one of the jurors was concerned his continued absence might cost him his job. Davis said he would call the man's employer because it is illegal to fire a person for missing work while on a jury.


http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... lotov.html

[WaTcHeR]

A snitch is a snitch and a snitch should be hung by the neck until dead.*

* This is just my personal belief and if you don't like it you can come suck my barrel.

[WaTcHeR]

MINNEAPOLIS — Jurors in the federal bomb-making trial of Austinite David McKay told the judge they were hopelessly deadlocked Monday afternoon, and the judge declared a mistrial.

The jurors had said the same thing Friday, but had been told to resume deliberating.

Shortly before 4 p.m. today, they threw in the towel.

What concerned the 12 jurors: whether a federal informant had “induced or persuaded” McKay into manufacturing eight Molotov cocktails during last summer’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

McKay, 23, was charged along with a friend, Bradley Crowder, also 23, of Austin, with making and possessing the Molotov cocktails and for lacking serial numbers for the incendiaries. Crowder last month entered a guilty plea to one of the three counts he faced and the government dropped the other two; no sentencing date has been set.

McKay, however, took his case to trial and claimed the FBI informant in the case, another Austin man named Brandon Darby, entrapped him. Darby, who gained a national reputation in activist circles for his relief work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, became a government informant and infiltrated a group of Austin activists at the request of the FBI.

Both men testified at trial. Darby said he didn’t induce McKay or Crowder to make the Molotov cocktails, and he denied planting the idea in their heads. McKay said Darby hatched the plan to make the firebombs.

After Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis granted the mistrial, he set a new trial date for March 16.

He also said McKay could be freed from federal custody if he posts $25,000 cash or surety bond.

The judge set conditions: McKay can’t threaten Darby or other witnesses who testified against him, he must commit no new crimes, submit to drug testing and live his father in Midland until they find housing for him in Texas. He also must surrender his passport.

[WaTcHeR]

Seems to be a pretty smart jury to see through the lies of the government.

Did I mention snitches and informants are a menace to America and should be shot in the head?

[WaTcHeR]

A Texas woman faces trial this month in Austin on charges she threatened to kill a government informant who infiltrated an Austin-based group that planned to bomb the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., last fall.

Katyanne Marie Kibby, 25, was indicted in June by a federal grand jury in Austin. She is accused of retaliating against Brandon Darby, the community activist-turned-informant who helped federal prosecutors win convictions against Bradley Neal Crowder, 24, and David Guy McKay, 23.

Prosecutors say the e-mail threat was made Jan. 10. That was two days after Crowder reached a plea bargain with federal prosecutors in Minneapolis for his role in the plot to build Molotov cocktails and attack the GOP convention in September 2008.

Crowder and McKay were part of a group of activists that had gone to the Twin Cities to take part in street demonstrations. The FBI had infiltrated the group with Darby. Crowder and McKay built eight of the gasoline firebombs but didn't use them, a fact law enforcement officials credited to Darby.

Members of the Austin protest community heaped scorn on Darby, saying he had betrayed longtime friends and colleagues.

Kibby, who lives in Houston, is free on bond. If convicted, she could face 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She could not be reached for comment.

Federal prosecutors and Kibby's public defender have about a week to reach a plea agreement. If they don't, her trial is to begin Aug. 31 in U.S. District Court in Austin.

Neither her attorney, Jose Gonzalez-Falla, nor Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Sofer returned calls for comment. Darby, who lives near Austin, also did not return a call for comment.

The single-count indictment says Kibby "did knowingly engage in conduct threatening bodily injury" to Darby. It says she sent an e-mail that threatened his life "for giving information to a law enforcement officer."

The indictment doesn't say what was in the e-mail.

Darby, originally from Houston, had earned a national reputation as an activist in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005. He was a co-founder of the Common Ground Collective, whose members delivered food, water, supplies and medical care to people in the flood-ravaged city.

But Darby said that he grew disenchanted with some beliefs and tactics used by more radical activists. That disenchantment led to contacts with the FBI, and in November 2007, federal agents asked him to work as an undercover informant.

Federal agents asked him to infiltrate a loose-knit group of activists in Austin that included McKay, who did part-time graphics work at an ad agency, and Crowder, who worked in a sandwich shop.

In the months leading up to the GOP convention in St. Paul, the FBI was concerned that some groups planning to converge on St. Paul had less-than-peaceful demonstrations in mind.

Darby accompanied the group to St. Paul. McKay and Crowder later built eight Molotov cocktails, and alternately planned to bomb either a truck with a large TV screen or a parking lot used by law enforcement officers, according to later testimony.

McKay and Crowder were charged in September. A little over a month later, Darby's work as an informant was disclosed by the Pioneer Press.

Crowder pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors, but McKay took his case to trial. Darby was the key witness against him.

When McKay testified in his own defense, he claimed Darby entrapped him. He told jurors that had it not been for Darby's urgings, he never would have built the Molotov cocktails.

The jury couldn't reach a verdict and a judge declared a mistrial. Before a second trial was to begin, federal prosecutors said Crowder would be called to testify against McKay, who then accepted a plea bargain.

Crowder was sentenced to two years in prison and is scheduled for release in May 2010.


http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... kibby.html