Sunday, February 28, 1999
Kehoe trial starts Monday in Arkansas
Charges include murders, conspiracy
The Associated Press
A few years ago, a band of young white men set out to overthrow the United States government and establish the Aryan Peoples Republic in the Pacific Northwest, federal prosecutors say.
They planned to perpetuate their nation through polygamy. Only their kind would be allowed — no blacks, no Asians, no Hispanics, no Jews.
On the way, they stockpiled military-style weapons, robbed and murdered several people, and gained national recognition from a shootout with Ohio police near Wilmington, the government says.
Monday, Chevie Kehoe, 26, of Colville, Wash., and Danny Lee, 26, of Yukon, Okla., are to go on trial in Little Rock, Ark., in a five-count indictment alleging racketeering, conspiracy and murder. The trial could last three or four months. If convicted, the two men could be sentenced to death.
The trial could include testimony from Mr. Kehoe's father, Kirby, and his younger brother, Cheyne. Both have described Chevie as the instigator of most of the trouble.
According to prosecutors, Chevie Kehoe gave the orders and Mr. Lee carried them out. Their alleged crimes were linked to bank robberies throughout the Midwest; gun trafficking in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Washington state; a 1996 bombing at Spokane, Wash., city hall; a 1997 shootout with Ohio police that was captured on videotape; and the murders of at least six people, prosecutors say.
On Feb. 15, 1997, Chevie and Cheyne Kehoe were caught on a patrol car camera in the shootout after police stopped their vehicle for expired license plates. The tape was broadcast around the country. No officers were hurt, but a passer-by was wounded by a bullet fragment.
The brothers were indicted by an Ohio grand jury, and a nationwide manhunt began. Four months later, Cheyne Kehoe turned himself in and told police where to find his brother in Utah.
Cheyne Kehoe, 22, also from Colville, Wash., was convicted last year in the Ohio case of attempted murder, felonious assault and carrying a concealed weapon. He was sentenced to 241/2 years in state prison.
He claimed at the time that he feared his older brother, that Chevie Kehoe wanted to kill their parents to get their father's gun collection, and that Chevie wanted to rob an armored car. He also claimed his brother was involved in the bombing of a federal building.
In Ohio, Chevie Kehoe pleaded guilty Feb. 20, 1998, to attempted murder of a police officer, felonious assault and carrying a concealed weapon. The judge deferred sentencing until the Arkansas case is resolved.
In the Arkansas case, Chevie Kehoe and Mr. Lee are accused of the murders of gun dealer William Mueller, 52; his wife, Nancy Mueller, 28; and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Powell. They are accused of robbing the the Muellers of weapons to support their cause.
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