A white supremacist group planned to use murder and robbery to revolt against the U.S. government, then allow polygamy in the new republic to build its population, federal prosecutors said Friday.
A federal grand jury at Little Rock charged Chevie Kehoe of Colville, Wash., and Daniel Lewis Lee of Oklahoma City in a seven-count indictment alleging murder, racketeering and conspiracy. An Idaho man convicted of murder is named in a single count.Kehoe's alleged shootout with Ohio police last February - a battle caught on videotape and broadcast nationwide - was not cited in the indictment, but Kehoe's alleged encounter with another Ohio officer just moments afterward was.
Prosecutors say Kehoe and the others wanted to create the Aryan Peoples Republic through a campaign of murder, robberies and kidnappings.
Once the U.S. government was gone, their new country would grow quickly "by recruiting certain white people into the Republic and by engaging in polygamy so that the number of these white persons would greatly increase," the indictment said.
According to the indictment, Kehoe, 24, directed the group, and Lee, 24, carried out his orders. Faron Earl Lovelace, 40, of Sandpoint, Idaho, was Kehoe's assistant and is charged only with racketeering.
The charges stem from an investigation that has lasted nearly two years, U.S. Attorney Paula Casey said.
Kehoe and his brother Cheyne, 21, are accused separately of being involved in last winter's videotaped shootout with police. A camera mounted on the officer's dashboard recorded the encounter. No officers were injured but a passerby was wounded by a bullet fragment.
The brothers were fugitives until June, when Cheyne surrendered and told authorities where to find his older brother. Kehoe was arrested a short time later near Cedar City. Cheyne was not named in Friday's indictment.
Kehoe and Lee are accused in Pope County in the 1996 deaths of Tilly, Ark., gun dealer William Mueller, 52, his wife, Nancy, 28, and Nancy Mueller's daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Powell, 8. They allegedly robbed the Muellers to support their cause, and the circumstances surrounding the deaths gave the Arkansas grand jury jurisdiction.
Pope County Prosecutor David Gibbons said state murder charges would be dropped to allow the federal case to advance. Authorities say the Muellers and Kehoes knew each other and were associated through gun shows and militia group activities.
Kehoe is accused of directing crimes that also include theft, interstate transportation of stolen property and money laundering. Part of Lee's job was to carry out four murders. Lovelace's duties included one murder, according to the indictment.
Kehoe and Lovelace are accused of transporting stolen goods from the white separatist community of Elohim City, Okla., to Spokane, Wash., in March 1995 and again from Arkansas to Washington after the Muellers were killed.
Lovelace was convicted this year of killing Jeremy Scott in 1995. Lovelace suspected Scott, 23, was a government informant, prosecutors said.
Lovelace also has admitted kidnapping and robbing Jill and Malcolm Friedman in June 1995. He allegedly held the Colville, Wash., couple captive for five hours after stealing their weapons and extorting several thousand dollars from them. The Friedmans' ordeal is listed as part of the racketeering count in Friday's indictment.
All three defendants are in custody. Kehoe is being held in Ohio awaiting trial on charges stemming from the videotaped shootout.