Polygamist clan leader Addam Swapp remains convinced his 1988 bombing of a Mormon chapel and the subsequent death of a police officer in a shootout were God's will, and so he has no apologies.
Four years in a federal prison in Sheridan, Ore., have done little to dampen the 31-year-old Swapp's dogmatic belief that the Lord guided him and his family through a 13-day siege at their Marion, Summit County, compound.The standoff ended Jan. 28, 1988, in a spatter of gunfire that killed Utah Corrections Lt. Fred House.
The bombing was intentional, Swapp said in an exclusive interview with KUTV News aired Sunday night. House's death, however, was an accident, he said.
The incident was recreated in a made-for-TV movie, "In the Line of Duty: Siege at Marion," which aired Monday night on NBC.
The bombing of the Marion LDS Stake Center in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 16 "was not a vengeful act in my eyes," Swapp said.
He said he never intended to hurt anyone. House, who was shot during a botched arrest attempt, simply "was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"His death was a clear accident as far as we're concerned," said Swapp, convicted of manslaughter even though he did not fire the fatal shot.
Swapp also believes the lawman's death was part of the Lord's plan, which is still unfolding.
"Yes, God had a hand in it, I don't deny it."
Swapp, his brother, Jonathan, brother-in-law John Timothy Singer and mother-in-law, Vickie Singer all were convicted and sent to prison on federal charges. Swapp must complete a 20-year federal sentence before he serves a one-to-15 year sentence in Utah for House's death.
God had a hand in that, as well, Swapp said, denying any remorse.
"I cannot apologize for what the Lord has asked me to do," he said. "I stood firm upon it."
And nothing about prison, or the prospect of spending the next two decades behind bars, has dulled those convictions.
"I was willing to give my life," he maintains. "I'm also willing to give my time in prison."
The standoff had its roots in the late 1970s, when John Singer - whom Swapp never met - defied the local school board and refused to put his children in public school. He was shot in the back in 1979 when police say he raised a pistol as they tried to arrest him outside the Singer home in Marion.
Swapp, who married two of Singer's daughters, maintains Singer was shot down in cold blood. It angers him that House has become a folk hero while Singer is all but forgotten.
"You want to keep harping on Fred House's death and they have made a big hero out of him in Utah," Swapp said. "But my father-in-law was blown away, premeditated, cold-blooded murder. And yet not one person gives a damn about what happened to him."
The chapel bombing occurred on the ninth anniversary of Singer's death. Swapp and Vickie Singer believed it to be the first salvo in a God-inspired conflict that would topple the Mormon Church and other agencies they believed responsible for Singer's death.
The family also believed it would lead to an armed confrontation that would bring about Singer's resurrection.
"It was a revelation," he said. "The Lord said, `Stand, stand as a man as I have commanded you.' "
The 100-pound bomb blew a crater in the empty church's floor and lifted its roof from the walls. Lawmen tracked sled marks back to the Singer farmhouse in the foothills a mile from the chapel.
For 13 days, Swapp and 14 other family members, including nine children and his two wives, held lawmen at bay. Heavily armed, they fired indiscriminately at spotlights and speakers set up by more than 100 law enforcement officers who surrounded the farm.
The morning of Jan. 28, House and an FBI special-weapons team hid in a nearby home and attempted to ambush Swapp and his brother, Jonathan, as they left the cabin to milk a goat. House, a K-9 officer at the Utah State Prison, was to set his dog on the men.
The dog balked, however, and House was hit when he exposed himself in a doorway to urge the animal forward.
The shot was fired by John Timothy Singer, who was covering the men from a window in the Singer cabin. He maintained he was shooting at the dog and was convicted of manslaughter. Jonathan Swapp was convicted of negligent homicide for House's death.
Vickie Singer has since been released from prison, but Addam, Jonathan and John Timothy Singer remain incarcerated. Still, Swapp said, the saga is not over. The family, such as it is, continues to live in Marion.
"I would say the last chapter has not been written," he said.
Meantime, Swapp fills his days in prison with chores, prayers and reading.
"With my trust and faith in the Lord, he takes me through each day," he said.