Jury says it is deadlocked in Michigan governor kidnapping case

(Reuters) -A federal jury told a judge on Friday that it was deadlocked in the trial of four men charged with a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor, allegedly over her COVID-19 restrictions and with hopes of starting a new civil war.

Jury members told U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in a note that they had reached agreement on some charges, but were at a stalemate on others. No details were given on which charges the jury had reached agreement on or were deadlocked on.

Jonker asked the jury, which was in its fifth day of deliberations, to keep working for a few more hours in a renewed attempt to break the stalemate and avoid a mistrial.

Prosecutors said Adam Fox, Brandon Caserta, Barry Croft Jr. and Daniel Harris planned to abduct Governor Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation home in northern Michigan, aiming to end what they perceived to be draconian restrictions championed by the Democrat to control the spread of coronavirus.

The defendants had hoped the kidnapping would spark a second American civil war ahead of the 2020 presidential election as the pandemic exacerbated the country’s intense political and cultural polarization, prosecutors said.

During a trial that has lasted nearly a month, defense attorneys argued that FBI informants coerced their clients into discussing the plot. The men never made concrete plans on their own and were victims of entrapment and overreach by the prosecution, their attorneys argued.

All four of the defendants face charges of conspiracy to kidnap the governor. Fox, Croft and Harris were also charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction as part of the kidnapping plot because of efforts to buy explosives – which they allegedly would have been used to blow up a bridge as part of their getaway plan after snatching the governor. If convicted, the men could spend the rest of their lives in prison.

The 12-person jury has seemed to focus on the weapons charge in their deliberations. Earlier this week, the jury asked judge Jonker for the definition of a “weapon” and on Thursday, before adjourning, the judge granted its request to inspect on Friday the pennies prosecutors said the men where planning to place in a homemade explosive to act as shrapnel, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The case has cast a spotlight on the emergence of militant right-wing organizations in the years since Republican Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. It also suggests the extent to which the pandemic and government efforts to control it have become a wedge issue in U.S. politics, pushing some people to extremes.

Two other men who had been initially charged – Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks – struck plea deals and served as star witnesses for the prosecution. Garbin is currently serving a six-year sentence, while Franks awaits sentencing.

The four men on trial, plus Garbin and Franks, are among 13 who were arrested in October 2020 and charged with state or federal crimes in the alleged kidnapping conspiracy. Seven of them are facing charges in state court.

The FBI said it had begun tracking the group’s movements after seeing online discussions that included posts about the violent overthrow of some state governments. The group’s goal was to end curbs on social and business activities imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Harris, Caserta and an undercover informant who testified at the trial were members of the Wolverine Watchmen, a militia group, prosecutors say. Croft and Fox were members of the “Three Percenters,” a similar far-right organization.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Mark Porter and Howard Goller)