Posted on 06/19/2014 5:24:39 AM PDT by Iron Munro
TAMPA — Federal authorities sought doomsday prepper Martin Winters for two days in the woods of east Hillsborough County, attempting to arrest him on weapons charges.
On the third day, agents didn't need to look far at all.
Winters, soggy-shoed and hungry, waited with a daughter in a car outside the FBI field office on Gray Street in Tampa on Wednesday morning as his attorneys stepped up to a reception desk and arranged his surrender.
In trade, he got cheeseburgers, fries, Gatorade, dry shoes, praise from the FBI and a morning free of gunfire — all this from the agency that had spent months chronicling his antigovernment rhetoric and spying on his preparations for an imminent "last stand" with law enforcement.
"We're glad to report that Mr. Winters did the right thing," said FBI spokesman David Couvertier. "We were hoping for a peaceful resolution, and today we got that."
Winters invoked his right to remain silent and was moved to the federal courthouse in downtown Tampa for a first appearance before Magistrate Judge Thomas Wilson.
The defendant's three adult daughters sobbed when he was led into the room in restraints. He wore dark camouflage pants and a brown T-shirt, his face rimmed by a Zeus-like mane of churning black and white curls.
He stood when the judge entered the room. He called Wilson "Sir."
But Wilson called Winters a danger to the community and ordered him held without bail.
Federal authorities say Winters, 55, leads a group known as the River Otter Preppers that advocates survival preparations in advance of an end-times event foretold in the Bible's Book of Revelation.
He and five others were indicted by a grand jury nearly two weeks ago. He's accused of designing and building destructive devices without a permit, among other charges. He pleaded not guilty.
Defense attorney Ellis Faught Jr., who first represented Winters 35 years ago on a hunting violation, told the judge that an undercover FBI agent who spent months building a case against Winters had witnessed only talk.
But Wilson didn't accept that.
"This is not just talk," the judge said. "There were, in fact, destructive devices found and sold."
Winters talked about booby traps and stashes of weapons he had around his house at 3032 Williams Blvd., according to an FBI affidavit. He also discussed elaborate plans to kill government agents in the event that they raided his property.
The FBI had tried to arrest Winters on Monday as he was driving near Durant High School in east Hillsborough County, but he sped away.
Prosecutor Donald Hansen told the judge that agents exercised caution because Winters' two grandchildren were with him. Eventually, he let them out and then abandoned the vehicle and ran into the brush.
On Tuesday, the FBI announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to Winters' capture, calling him "armed and dangerous."
"It could have been a catastrophe had he not turned himself in," attorney Faught said.
The surrender process began with a phone call just after 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to Faught.
Winters' 26-year-old daughter, Tracey Winters, arranged to meet the attorney at his office. Once there, she said her father wanted to surrender, Faught said. They picked him up in the general area of his home, several miles southeast of Brandon.
"He got in the car immediately, and we didn't stop anywhere," Faught said. "We went on State Road 60 all the way in. I just wanted to make sure to get to the FBI office as fast as we could without incident."
Yes they do. F them.
Sounds like he might have been making a perfectly legal device known as a "Slam-Bang Shotgun".
Also known as a "Philippine Guerrilla Gun" or a "Richardson Gun".
It's more or less a 12 Ga. Zip Gun.
The simple version is two pieces of steel water pipe and a pipe cap.
Instructions are all over the net - just Google the term.
Here is a video of one example:
$7 12-Gauge Zip Gun Homemade Shotgun
Not at all.
They are perfectly legal.
See my post #22 and watch the video.
Well when a child makes a maybe..gun out of a pop-tart,then gets the third degree and kick out of school...We should have seen this was coming. We are now being hunted for free thinking.
And so is the FBI, the Secret Service, the NSA.
The so called judge has already passed judgment ,that he is guilty .
Next they’ll tell me I cant keep empty beer bottles and gasoline in my garage . . .
What’s the second rule?
Good point - a recycling bin, gas for the lawn mower / leaf blower, and shop rags, and per the ambitious prosecutor, you were STOCKPILING MATERIALS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF MOLOTOV COCKTAILS!
Double trouble if you are stockpiling MILITARY HI-CAPACITY (wine) BOTTLES instead of beer bottles.
My FRiend, we now live in the age of Obama and have since November 4, 2008. Everything, except the worship of Obama, including breathing , without a permit, is forbidden. And soon the punishment for doing so will be death.
Survive
I can’t wait to see the material evidence the DON’T have against him.
The groups you mentioned are their friends and allies. We are their enemy.
Yep.
One of the first rules of thumb, SHUT UP! The second rule of thumb is, SHUT UP! For the most part, it does NOT pay to advertise. The powers that be, and just about everyone else, can already find out way more about you than you would like. No sense in helping them if you can avoid it. Kind of like concealed carry vs open carry. Stay in the dang shadows and don’t advertise what a bad ass you think you might be. Fly low and as much off the radar as you can.
It's always hard to tell from these poorly written articles.
From what I read the real charge that might stick is that he (and others) were making an illegal "straw purchese" of a firearm.
A firearm "straw purchase" is when one person acts as an agent to buy a gun for another person with the intent of hiding the identity of the final owner.
Gifts are supposedly excluded.
“What’s the destructive device that he is accused of making? A gun?”
The term “destructive device” is a legal term spelled out in an act of congress, not common parlance. It has a specific definition, it’s not just some bit of word soup that can refer to whatever in the hell people want it to mean at the moment; in this case the term refers to items specifically defined in the National Firearms Act of 1934. It’s not a term that can refer to any gun, or a dangerous idea you come up with.
Look up 26 U.S.C. § 5845 subsection (f).
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/5845
As a general rule any time you see charges describing a destructive device the charges will likely be referring to pipe bombs and suchlike.
A note about the NFA — the act was drafted back when Congress actually thought it was kindof bound by the constitution, so the act doesn’t actually ban the devices mentioned, merely levies a tax upon them and requires some form of application/registration for the possession, transfer, or construction of said items. This act was drafted back before the FDR administration successfully gutted most restrictions on federal authority.
Some states do effectively ban some of the items regulated under the NFA, some don’t; consequently you’ll find that in some states people are legally playing around with federally registered and taxed things like 40mm HEDP and RPGs — rare but interesting.
In this case the individual in question is being charged with the untaxed construction/transfer/sale/whatever of, effectively, pipe bombs.
And each morning you wake up the words,”Lose lips sink ships”, are the first sound from your mouth. And when you go to bed, the words, “lose lips sink ships” are the last thought going through your mind. Don’t follow this train of thought, and you will live to regret it, though your regret may only be a millisecond.
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