Article author:
Associated Press
Larry Neumeister
New York (AP) — Planned to kill members of his troops abroad with the help of a secret violent anarchist group Court records show that the defense, who calls it all Internet Fantasy, before pleading guilty shortly before a trial planned by a military civilian accused of as.
Ethan Ferram Melzer's defense plan documents in court for several months before a Kentucky man suddenly pleaded guilty on Friday and eliminated the need for a July 5 trial in Manhattan Federal Court. Revealed in. The verdict is set on January 6th. You may face up to 45 years in prison instead of the life imprisonment brought about by the jury's conviction.
Melzer, 24, communicated online with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team after being redeployed in 2020 and before planning an attack on Army troops. I was in Italy in October 2019. The prosecutor said to protect the isolated and sensitive military installations.
However, according to court documents, the individual he was communicating online with was not a member of the nine-angle order (or 09A), as he believed, but rather against him. He was a government informant and defense lawyer who assisted in the proceedings. He said.
The Washington Post said in a June 2020 article that a Nazi Satanist group was founded in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and has contributed to extreme violence for decades. Quoted.
Officials who talked about anonymity because of problem sensitivity ranged from dozens to about 2,000 members of 09A, targeting young people. He told the newspaper that he would send supporters to the group to influence them. We are recruiting.
The White Supremacist Group supports the beliefs of neo-Nazis, anti-Semitism, and demonism, and its members are willing to infiltrate, train, violent, and destroy the army. Encouraging the identification of individuals who share the same, the prosecutor said from within.
US lawyer Damian Williams said on Friday that Melzer "tried to organize a murder ambush in his troops by illegally disclosing its location, strength and weapons to 09A members online. ".
"The defendant believed that he could put the United States into a long-term armed conflict while killing as many soldiers as possible. Melzer's betrayal was his. It was a betrayal of a well-known unit and an attack on the most important American values, "he said in a news release.
Prior to Friday's plea, Melzer's lawyer was called a "cannibal police officer" by the tabloids when the NYPD was convicted of a kidnapping plot in 2013. He was building a defense claiming to be indulging in a fantasy chat similar to. He plans to rape, kill, and eat women. They said it was the case with "similar facts" to what Melzer was facing.
Online, Officer Gilbert Valle was discussing the cannibalistic plot with others in great detail. However, in revoking the jury's verdict, the judge said Valle's "Missogini's sexual fantasy" reflected a sick heart, but the prosecutor took steps to allow him to perform horrific acts. Wrote that he could not prove that he had taken.
As Melzer's lawyer wrote, "The accusation in this case is sensational and the fact is not so much. I'm not going to see one happen. After the arrest. In an interview with law enforcement agencies, he did not intend to see the attack occur, and his interlocutor believes that he is a "joker" who also has no intention or ability to coordinate the attack. I made it clear.
They said his online prose was "rough-a fake designed to impress the people he communicates with online." And the lawyer wrote that Melzer was interested in 09A, but thought it was "strange" and "quite cult", and his belief was his own "opposite".
They claimed that a government collaborator online disguised as a 09A sympathizer was a former Canadian paratrooper injured in Iraq, but was actually hospitalized. He said he was 15 years old with a mental illness. For psychiatric care months before he started communicating with Melzer.
"The government's efforts to portray Melzer as an O9A believer who promised to kill his fellow soldiers are exaggerated," the lawyer wrote. They said three post-arrest interviews with law enforcement agencies in 2020 "leaded to a total denial of the most serious accusations against him."
Plea was convicted after prosecutors revealed to Melzer that they had filed a proceeding against Melzer, including evidence from his electronics and barracks (photos, videos, documents). It has been issued. material.
Also, books entitled "Ominous Traditions" and "Anarchist Cookbooks" maintained by the prosecutor were recovered, with detailed instructions on how to make and use explosives and weapons.
However, the most damaging evidence prosecutor gained self-start to 09A through violence as a street-level drug dealer after a jury shot a marijuana dealer in his arm. Near an apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, in January 2017, which stated evidence of an attempt. He joined the Army the following year.