Army vet gets 25 years
Christopher Arthur, age 40, won’t get out till he’s 65 if he serves his full sentence.
Christopher Arthur, 40, was convicted in North Carolina last year on nine counts of providing explosives training and possessing unregistered weapons, including a short-barreled rifle, silencer, improvised hand grenades and an improvised claymore mine. According to court documents, Arthur owned Tackleberry Solutions, which sold training manuals on making explosives. The brand also had a YouTube channel, where Arthur posted a three-part series about how to overthrow the government, in addition to hundreds of other videos that the FBI described as militaristic.
Yeah, nothing says ‘discretion’ like doing YouTubes overthrowing the government or selling pamphlets on making things go boom. Fly beneath the radar stuff, huh…
Arthur was arrested after the FBI received recordings from a confidential informant who underwent training at Arthur’s North Carolina residence. The informant had first reached out to Arthur, claiming that officers with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had confiscated weapons from their house. The informant asked for help to prepare in case more officers returned.
Arthur taught the informant a home defense strategy he called “the spiderweb,” a tactic he described as “stupid lethal.” It included surrounding a residence with IEDs and remote-activated firearms.
“Stupid Lethal”… can’t argue with that. He even had his own yard rigged up.
His charges carried a maximum sentence between 14 and 18 years, but an enhancement for terrorism extended the possible maximum to life in prison. U.S. District Court Judge James C. Dever decided on 25 years, saying he took Arthur’s military service into account.
“Violence directed towards police, judges, and public servants will never be tolerated in a free society,” U.S. Attorney Michael Easley said in a statement. “This defendant’s property was wired with IEDs, the same design he sold to help others kill American law enforcement. Anyone teaching bomb-making to target American heroes gets a lesson today: 25 years in federal prison.”
He was actually tried last July, and was sentenced this week. Think that says something about the justice system – with a list of charges like that, he should have been convicted on Friday and sentenced on Monday.
Before sentencing, the defense pointed to Arthur’s military service as a reason he should receive a lighter sentence. Arthur enlisted in 2007 and served as an infantryman. According to court records, he deployed twice to Iraq in 2007 and 2008. His unit sustained several casualties and saw mortar attacks and suicide bombings, wrote G. Alan Dubois, Arthur’s public defender.
The second deployment changed Arthur’s trajectory and served as the beginning of his “descent into paranoid beliefs,” court records say. Army Times
He enlisted in 2007 and got out in 2019 as an SP4 after two deployments. Cops learned of him after another homegrown terrorist wannabe, Joshua Blessed, was killed in a gunfight after a high-speed chase, and they found some of Arthur’s pamphlets in Blessed’s car. (So much for any theories about vigilant FBI or BATFE guys spotting all that Internet silliness.)
I am guessing his Army career was spotty, as well, as attaining the exalted rank of E-4 after 12-13 years normally would entail Article 15 or Court Martial assistance, especially since the second tour cause of his downfall occurred 11 years before he got out.
H/t to Jeff LPH
Category: "Teh Stoopid", Army, Crime
Dumbass. They don’t have parole at the federal pokie so 25 years will be 25 years.
If they don’t eff up in the joint, federal prisoners are generally released after 75% of their sentence is served in confinement.
E4 at 12 years.
IIRC, that’s the up-or-out retention point.I
But more and more as I read these BATFEces and FiBbIe arrests, I wonder if these people weren’t “groomed” and set up, all so that the FedBois can squeal, “Look what we’ve done, we’ve saved you from another nasty dangerous terrorist. Bow down and worship us. Increase our budget. And stop making those mean memes about us.”
Can you say, “the Whitmer 13 kidnap plot that the FiBbIes orchestrated? I knew you could.”
12 years is the RCP for E4. An E5P can now retire at 20, which is kind of weird. Used to 9 and 15 years.
This dude needed some jail time for sure. But I wonder how much the FBI persuaded this dude to setup his home with ieds and gun traps. Encouraged and helped by the informant and then arrested. Looking at the Whitmer 13 plot it looks fishy. And the FBI may be getting better at entrapment without looking like entrapment. Practice makes perfect. Your thoughts are spot on I believe.
Looks like the entire scheme blew up in his face.
If this guy was a Dem, he wouldn’t have been arrested like the others of his ilk.
Wow, that’s your retort after 26L pitched you a meatball right down Broadway and set the table for one of your patented zingers? You’re slipping man.
Shouldn’t this have been posted on The Stupid People of The Week Thread?
Seemed like it was a standalone, and needed a Saturday column. Actually wrote this prior to my second columns yesterday and Thursdays. Any complaints, tell Ed to dock my pay.
So does this mean Tannerite filled garden gnomes are a bad idea? Uh oh…
The first rule of Stupid Lethal is not to talk about Stupid Lethal…
Tackleberry Solutions? As in, Officer Eugene Tackleberry of Police Academy fame?
He got lucky in Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, letting that old lady shoot his .44. I just got to work and there’s a fine-looking (well, kinda) S&W Model 69 Combat Magnum that came in today for repair. My coworker told me the customer had some powder burns and scratches on his face. The gun is missing its cylinder and has a slight bow to the top strap. Seems it blew up on firing… I’m curious as to whether it was factory ammo and/or the pistol at fault, or hand loaded wunderammo. My Model 29 had been flawless with all the ammo I’ve put through it, but I don’t push the limits with extremely hot stuff.
Most likely the cylinder blew up from a double charged handload. It is an easy mistake to make if on is charging the primed cases in a reloading block. Especially if one gets interrupted while doing so. When I was still using a loading block, I always checked the charged cases to make sure none were double charged.
I had a CH Progresive press and used to reload target .38 and .45 rounds and once or twice when I was at the range, somehow the case didn’t get charged with Bullseye powder and when I fired I got what I think was called a squib with the primer going off and the bullet stuck in the barrel and had to use the cleaning rod to knock it out. Gave it up after a number of years because of the lead getting into the skin and never used nitrile gloves. Started to buy factory target ammo after that. Still have a bottle of lead remover soap. CH presses used an aluminum platten unlike the older presses before the CH.
That sometimes happens in cowboy action matches. The range officer for that stage or shooter posse has to stop the shooter from firing the next round or a round will be fired into a plugged barrel. All Dillon progressive reloader presses have a buzzer that sounds if the case ha no powder. It avoids that problem.
Some great news from the DPR of Kanuckistan…..
Deranged, subhuman serial killer Robert Willie ‘Pigman’ Pickton in now roasting in Hell thanks to some Jailhouse Justice.
He got Dahmer’d
Sweet. Did he go out on the wrong end of a broom? Or was he shanked?
News reports are sketchy. But the word from the Federal Corrections grapevine says mostly blunt trauma.
I’m glad it wasn’t quick
I read he was stabbed in the neck with the broken shard of a broom handle. Real justice would be if the fed his body to his hogs.
Fuk-Tard
Has earned where he’s going
Sounds like he was one 24K Brainiac of a Rocket Surgeon! Once you get out into the Prepper and “Militia” communities, there’s no telling who out there is a “Feebie” or Informant.
50%, all ratting each other out.
Loser.