Militia Trial – Barney Will Not Be Retried
~Coleman Barney (L) and Schaeffer Cox (R) in Fairbanks last year
Twenty verdicts were handed down by the jury last week in the Alaska Peacemakers Militia Trial against defendants Schaeffer Cox, Coleman Barney, and Lonnie Vernon. But on the twenty first charge, the jury was deadlocked. Cox and Barney took the stand in their own defense during the trial. Barney was widely regarded to have been a strong witness.
Cox and Vernon were found guilty on conspiracy to commit murder which potentially carries with it a life sentence. But they could not reach a verdict concerning the third defendant Coleman Barney, a major in the militia. The prosecution had the option of trying the case again just for Barney, or dropping the charge. They have decided not to retry the case again.
Barney’s attorney Tim Dooley noted after the verdicts were handed down, that the conspiracy charge was levied after his client had refused to take a plea bargain of 5-10 years.
Dooley also said he plans to appeal one of the charges for which Barney was found guilty – possession of an unregistered 37mm launcher in conjunction with a “hornets’ nest round,” filled with small rubber pellets. The two are legal individually but if possessed together, carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Barney was also convicted of conspiring to possess unregistered suppressors (silencers) and destructive devices (grenades), which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years. He was found not guilty of possessing four grenade bodies (without fuses), and other hornets’ nest rounds and launchers, and also of carrying a firearm during a crime of violence.
There has been no word from the other defendants about whether or not they will appeal any of the charges.
I wouldn’t want to go to prison looking like Schaeffer Cox. Maybe he should have thought of that before playing strongman.
“Barney was widely regarded to have been a strong witness.”
I wish we could have had your eyes and ears there for his testimony , AKM.
This decision by the prosecutor(s) makes sense in light of the inability of this jury , who worked very hard overall, to agree on this charge. I’m not sure Mr Barney is guiltless on this count but accept that he may have been less culpable than the other 2 but will never stop wondering why he didn’t distance himself completely from the escalating horsepunky Mr Cox was pursuing.