How does Current Brown County Sheriff Bobby Grubbs (Former Brown County Texas Ranger) feels about this ?
AP: 6 Davidians to be freed from prison
05:20 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 19, 2006
By ANGELA K. BROWN / Associated Press
WACO – Thirteen years after the Branch Davidians' armed standoff with federal agents ended in an inferno that killed nearly 80 people, six sect members who were sent to prison are about to be released from custody.
Most of those who will be freed over the next two months escaped from the compound near Waco as it burned to the ground on April 19, 1993 – 51 days after a shootout that erupted when federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to arrest religious leader David Koresh for stockpiling guns and explosives.
The six men went to federal prison for manslaughter, weapons offenses or both in connection with the Feb. 28 shootout, which left four federal agents and six Davidians dead.
Once the men are out, they will be under supervised release for three to five years. Among other things, they will be barred from associating with one another.
A seventh Davidian is also still behind bars but is not scheduled for release until next year.
Paul Gordon Fatta, who is to be released next month in San Diego, said he remains angry about the government's actions. He was at a gun show in Austin during the ATF raid and was not at the compound during the standoff.
"They needed their pound of flesh, so they took the survivors and put them on trial. Somebody had to pay," Fatta, 48, told The Associated Press by telephone. "They just want it to go away, and they hope people will forget as time passes. But it's going to be with me the rest of my life."
Koresh and nearly 80 followers, including two dozen children, died in a blaze that survivors say was ignited by tear gas sprayed into the compound buildings from military tanks. Authorities claim the Davidians committed suicide by setting the fire and shooting themselves.
Jaime Castillo, who is to be released next month from a Los Angeles halfway house, said he plans to remain there and try to rebuild his life by forming another band – which is how he met Koresh in 1988 – or by working as a personal trainer. He said he might someday visit the compound site, where a few survivors still meet for Bible study each weekend.
"For me, I don't think it could ever be re-created," said Castillo, 37. "They study and reflect on teachings. I could do that by myself; I don't need somebody to tell me that. I've always been an individual."
In 1994 in San Antonio, 11 Davidians went on trial; all were acquitted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges. However, five were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and weapons charges and three were convicted on weapons charges. A 12th Davidian who was indicted pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for testifying against the others; she was sentenced to three years in prison and was released in 1996.
The federal judge sentenced most to 40 years but in 2000 reduced most terms to 15 years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his decision. One of the eight was sentenced to five years on a weapons charge and got out in 1997.
Jane McKeehan of Johnson City, Tenn., whose 28-year-old son Todd McKeehan was one of the ATF agents killed, said she and her family have tried to focus on their son and not think too much about the Davidians.
"It is in our minds every day; it completely changes your life," McKeehan said. "We're Christians, and we know we're going to see Todd again, so we try to focus on the good. He was doing what he wanted to do and was adamant about making it a better world."
While in prison, Castillo, who maintains that he didn't shoot any agents during the raid, said he has thought a lot about the events on the Central Texas prairie 13 years ago. He wishes Koresh had surrendered with the entire group – 21 children and 14 adults did leave during the standoff – although Castillo believes that Koresh felt he was following God's will.
"Certain things change. You have to re-evaluate, and now you think, 'Dave probably shouldn't have done this,"' Castillo said. "But if I start questioning this, what's the point now? It's the past. It's not going to benefit anyone now."
Fatta, who moved to a halfway house last year and now works at a restaurant, said he has enjoyed seeing his family more. But Fatta said "it's pretty unfair" that he won't be allowed to see his co-defendants.
"I'm proud of my friends, and it was a privilege for me to have gone there to study the Bible, regardless of what the world thinks," Fatta said. "If I had it to do all over again, I would do the same thing. Did I like going to prison? No. Did I like my friends being murdered by federal agents? No. If you look at history, people take a stand for what they believe in, and they're misunderstood."
This text is invisible on the page, but this text is affected by the invisible item's flow. This text is invisible on the page, but this text is affected by the invisible item's flow.
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/042006dntexdavidians.1682071c.html
---------------------
Fuel Cans Found at Davidian Compound
Associated Press Writer, July 10, 2000
By Sherri Chunn
WACO, Texas (AP) - Four gas cans and a homemade torch were recovered from what had been the dining room of the Branch Davidian complex after fires consumed it in 1993, Texas Rangers testified Friday.
Bobby Grubbs, one of the Rangers who helped gather evidence including the fuel cans after the deadly fire, testified that Clive Doyle, one of nine people who escaped, told him the blaze was started with Coleman fuel that was distributed throughout the compound.
When asked if he knew who started it, Doyle refused to answer the question, Grubbs testified.
``I felt he had information; he just wouldn't give it to us,'' Grubbs said.
About 80 Branch Davidians and leader David Koresh died - some from fire, others from gunshots - when their compound went up in flames on April 19, 1993, at the end of their 51-day standoff with federal agents.
Fire investigators have said one of three blazes that day started in the dining room area, and the government was using Grubbs' testimony to support its contention that the Branch Davidians were suicidal and started the fires themselves.
Davidian survivors and relatives of those who were killed in the standoff claim in their $675 million wrongful death lawsuit that federal agents contributed to or caused at least some of the fires.
A fire expert hired by the plaintiffs has testified that tanks used in an FBI tear-gassing operation on the final day turned the compound into kindling by punching holes in the walls, allowing wind gusts to feed the flames.
Plaintiffs also say tanks could have contributed to or caused the flames by knocking over lanterns used to illuminate the compound during the standoff or by tumbling fuel cans used to fill the lanterns. Grubbs said lantern parts were found near the cans.
Grubbs said Rangers interviewed Doyle a day after the fire, as he lay in a burn ward of a Dallas hospital. Doyle's mother, Edna Doyle, who sat in the courtroom with her 59-year-old son, quietly repeated the words ``You're a liar'' as Grubbs testified about the interview.
The younger Doyle, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, testified last week he could feel skin ``rolling off his hands'' as he jumped out of the burning building through a hole made by government tanks.
A government attorney presented Doyle with the melted remains of a blue nylon jacket he wore on the final day of the standoff and asked why the sleeves of the jacket were covered with ignitable liquids.
``It could have come from constantly filling lanterns,'' Doyle testified at the time. ``I don't know.''
Dozens of lanterns were in use throughout the building after FBI agents cut off the compound's electricity.
Texas Ranger Sgt. Lane Aiken also testified that while searching the burned grounds of the compound the day after the siege ended, a fellow Ranger found a damp torch in the mud near the rear of the building.
Lead plaintiffs' attorney Michael Caddell asked Aiken if he knew it really was a torch.
``It certainly looks like a torch. I can't imagine it being used for something else,'' he said. The torch later failed lab tests that checked for flammable liquids.
source: http://www.rickross.com/reference/waco/waco214.html
-------------
<< Home