A federal agent testified Tuesday that a former friend of Randy Weaver said he would kill the federal fugitive rather than take $5,000 the government offered for luring Weaver off his northern Idaho mountaintop without a violent conflict.
"He said he was going to kill him, and I wouldn't have to pay him," Deputy U.S. Marshal David Hunt said of Bill Grider under cross examination by defense attorney Gerry Spence. "He said he would call me and tell me where I could pick up his body."Hunt said Tuesday's testimony was the first time the U.S. attorney's office - or any government agency - had been notified of Grider's threat. Hunt said he used Grider, a former Weaver family friend, to carry messages to and from Weaver's cabin.
But eventually, Hunt said Grider related that Weaver told him to quit talking with government agents and not return to the cabin.
The testimony came during the 11th day of the murder-conspiracy trial of Weaver, 45, and Kevin Harris, 25. They are accused of killing Deputy Marshal William Degan in an Aug. 21 gun battle that triggered an 11-day standoff at Weaver's Ruby Ridge cabin.
Weaver's 14-year-old son Samuel also died in the initial exchange of gunfire, and Weaver's wife Vicki, 42, was killed the following day by a federal sniper.
That confrontation came 18 months after Weaver failed to appear for a February 1991 trial a federal weapons charge. Weaver holed up with his family. And marshals testified they were hesitant to move on the cabin to serve the warrant because the Weavers were known to be heavily armed and they did not want to expose the children to a shootout.