Saturday, May 01, 1999
Ark. jury begins deliberations in Chevie Kehoe's murder trial
Prosecution seeks death penalty
BY PEGGY HARRIS
The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — To prosecutors, Chevie Kehoe and Danny Lee are crass conspirators who used robbery and murder to try to overthrow the government and set up a whites-only nation. To defense lawyers, they may have had repugnant beliefs but never had the means to do what prosecutors claim.
The two sides completed closing arguments Friday before a mostly black jury in the nine-week-old trial of Mr. Kehoe, of Colville, Wash., and Mr. Lee, of Yukon, Okla.
After listening to 95 pages of instructions — which took U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele more than two hours to read — the jury deliberated about 20 minutes, then recessed until Monday.
The men, both 26, are charged with racketeering, conspiracy and the murder of Arkansas gun dealer William Mueller, his wife and her 8-year-old daughter. The government is seeking the death penalty.
Prosecutors say Mr. Kehoe and Mr. Lee planned to set up the Aryan People's Republic in the Pacific Northwest and their plan also involved two other murders, a bombing of City Hall in Spokane, Wash., a robbery of a Washington couple and a 1997 shootout with police in Ohio.
To find them guilty, the jury will have to find they were part of an enterprise and committed two of the alleged crimes associated with it, defense lawyers said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Dan Stripling told the jury that Mr. Kehoe was the leader and Mr. Lee the follower. He said they held similar racist beliefs and recruited or tried to recruit others to their cause.
Mr. Stripling said testimony from Gloria Kehoe, Mr. Kehoe's mother, and from Cheyne Kehoe, Mr. Kehoe's brother, supported evidence that Chevie Kehoe and Mr. Lee were responsible for the January 1996 deaths of Mr. Mueller, his wife, Nancy, and her daughter, Sarah Powell. He said that while Cheyne Kehoe was implicated by defense witnesses, he also had an alibi — he was living in Washington at the time of the Muellers' deaths.
“The proof is clear that these people wanted to get together. They wanted to support themselves by stealing from others. They didn't want to work,” Mr. Stripling said. “Chevie Kehoe and Danny Lee did these crimes.”
The defense attacked the credibility of the prosecution's main witnesses, and the time-frame laid out by the government.
Gloria Kehoe, who testified that Chevie Kehoe told her that he and Mr. Lee killed an Arkansas gun dealer and his family, “is simply unworthy of belief. You should entirely disregard her testimony,” said Jack Lassiter, a lawyer for Mr. Lee.
Mr. Lassiter said Ms. Kehoe had been working for the federal government as a witness and had received more than $20,000 a year.
“She appears to be completely and totally dependent on the government,” Mr. Lassiter said. “She gave evasive answers.”
Cheyne Kehoe, who also testified for the prosecution, didn't have much to say about Mr. Lee, Mr. Lassiter said.
“Any reference to Mr. Lee in Cheyne Kehoe's testimony comes through what he relates that Chevie Kehoe told him,” Mr. Lassiter said.
On Thursday, Kehoe lawyer Tom Sullivan told jury that Mr. Kehoe's beliefs were not on trial and the government hadn't shown there was a conspiracy.
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