This case is important and highlights the potential danger posed by sovereign citizens. Also, interesting is the overlap of beliefs with other extremist groups, including the Three Percenters and QAnon, among others. They are seeking a 30-month sentence.
From the case records:
The Defendant proclaims to be a “sovereign national” who believes that the United States government is illegitimate and that its laws do not apply to him. He has aligned himself with like-minded organizations, which include the “3 Percenters,” the “Sovereign Citizens,” and the “People’s Bureau of Investigation,” which often harass public officials and sometimes use violence to further their antigovernment goals. Prior to being arrested here, the Defendant sent letters to local law enforcement, threatening them with arrest, imprisonment, or death if they did not bow to his demands.
Because the Defendant believes that the law does not apply to him, he has stated that he will not abide by any law that interferes with his possession of firearms. However, after throwing his ex-wife through a window in Nevada, the Defendant was convicted of domestic battery in 2017. That conviction, under state and federal law, bars the Defendant from possessing firearms. The Defendant did not abide by those laws, which led to an additional criminal charge against him in 2021 in Nevada state court. In May 2022, despite an upcoming court appearance, the Defendant left Nevada for Massachusetts. He was apprehended in Buffalo, which led to these proceedings.
The Defendant disclaims the term “sovereign citizen” as applied to him. However, law enforcement has identified him as such, his beliefs are consistent with individuals in the Sovereign Citizen Movement, he cites to known sources of information for sovereign citizens, and he threatened law enforcement citing Sovereign Citizen literature and rhetoric.
In 2017, the Defendant is convicted of domestic battery and the unlawful possession of a firearm while intoxicated.
In March of 2017, in Virginia City, Nevada,3 the Defendant was convicted of (1) a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, domestic battery and (2) the unlawful possession of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. The conviction stems from an incident in Virginia City in October 2016. The Defendant was arguing with his ex-wife and when the Defendant’s ex-wife attempted to leave the area, the Defendant grabbed her and threw her backwards into a glass window of a nearby business. She sustained injuries including serious cuts and glass lodged in her left upper arm and back. The Defendant’s public act of violence caused nearby witnesses to call the authorities, which resulted in the Defendant’s arrest. The Defendant also possessed a firearm at the time of this arrest, despite being under the influence of alcohol. The Defendant was initially charged with felony assault. He ultimately pleaded nolo contendere to, and was convicted of, a misdemeanor domestic violence charge and to the possession of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. The Defendant admits that he was convicted of domestic violence but denies pushing his intimate partner into the window. He nonetheless declined to contest the charges, which remain valid.
In 2021, the Defendant is charged in Nevada state court as a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.
On May 13, 2021, the Defendant was involved in an incident at a grocery store in Douglas County, Nevada, in which the Defendant and another individual harassed a local police officer and his wife about a mask mandate. The Defendant had a firearm holstered on his hip at the time of the incident. Law enforcement learned that the Defendant had a prior conviction of domestic battery, and he was arrested and charged. On September 13, 2021, an amended information was filed in Douglas County, Nevada against the Defendant, charging him with being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm on May 13, 2021. On September 13, 2021, the Defendant was arraigned on the amended information. The court had previously held a preliminary hearing and determined that probable cause existed that the Defendant possessed a handgun after being convicted of domestic battery. That case was pending in May 2022.
Importantly, with respect to these state charges in Nevada, the Defendant was released with conditions in May of 2021. One of the conditions of release was that the Defendant agree not to possess firearms. The Defendant signed the bail release document agreeing to abide by the conditions set by the Court, including the firearms restriction. That bail restriction was in place when the Defendant fled Nevada and drove to Buffalo.
CIn April 2022, the Defendant sent threatening letters to officials in Nevada. In April of 2022, several public officials, including the local sheriff, a judge, and district attorney, received “writs of execution” and other papers from the Defendant, on behalf of the “People’s bureau of Investigation.” See PSR at 6. In his recent letter to the Court, the Defendant admitted to sending these “Writs of Execution.”
In his interview with law enforcement, the Defendant stated that he sent these “writs” to the governor of Nevada, “actors in black robes calling themselves judges,” and “a multitude of bar attorneys,” including his own attorney in the Nevada state criminal proceedings.
One of these documents accused an official of crimes including the “unlawful discharge of chemical & biological warfare agents,” “crimes against humanity,” “genocide,” “treason,” among others. Ex. B, Apr. 26, 2022 “Writ of Execution,” The document declares that the recipient is an “enemy of the people” who has “engaged in overt acts of war and warring against the people.” The document instructs the official to resign and to “get your affairs in order and be prepared to plead for mercy before the tribunal.” The punishment, according to these papers, is “up to a 30-year term in prison; or penalty of death.” Failure to comply within 30 days would result in “arrest.”
On the website for the “People’s bureau of Investigation,” there was a directory listing the names and home addresses of these officials. The website also described how, should an official refuse to comply with a writ, that individuals could arrest them “by any means of force, at any time of day or night, or when family members are present” and receive a $10,000 reward.
In his interview, the Defendant explained that if the officials did not comply in 30 days, there would be “lots of bounty hunters” called “Seekers,” paid in the amount of $10,000 to $20,000 to arrest the officials. Def. Int. at 17:24:35. The Defendant suggested that members of the military would assist in this effort and stated:
It is with the people, the power of the people, in combination with the military, it’s gonna hammer ‘em. The people are the anvil, they [the military] are the hammer, and whoever gets caught in the middle are done. They’re f*cking done. And that’s how we, the people, take back our f*cking country, period.
The “writ” was issued under the authority of an “Environmental Court.” The Defendant described the “Environmental Court” as the “highest court in the land” and “above the Supreme Court.” It is, the Defendant claims, the “people’s court, of the people, by the people.”
On May 19, 2023, a federal grand jury of the District of Nevada returned a one-count indictment against the Defendant for a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), possession of a firearm after being convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor. A federal arrest warrant was issued on the same day. The Defendant had been scheduled to appear for a hearing in the Nevada state case on May 23, 2022, where federal authorities planned to arrest him. Defendant later admitted that he had no intention of appearing for that proceeding. Instead, the Defendant fled Nevada. The Defendant stated that he fled to get away from corrupt people. On May 20, 2022, the FBI issued a fugitive notice, noting that the subject is considered “armed and dangerous” and was wanted on a federal arrest warrant from the United States District Court of Nevada.
On May 22, 2022, law enforcement in Buffalo was notified that GPS data indicated that the Defendant was traveling in Buffalo. The FBI provided information to local law enforcement concerning the outstanding arrest warrant and details concerning the Defendant’s vehicle, including that it was a 2004 Grey Dodge pickup truck with a Nevada license place reading “3PRCNT.” Based on information provided by the FBI, local law enforcement observed the vehicle heading east on the I-90. Law enforcement pulled over the vehicle and arrested the Defendant and his passenger. When opening the front door of the vehicle, a BPD officer observed spent shell casings in the door pocket. After the Defendant was taken into custody, he agreed to be interviewed after receiving the Miranda warnings.
The Defendant stated that he had an AR-15, a shotgun, and a rifle stored in his truck. The Defendant describes the firearms, where they were located in the vehicle, and stated: “those are my personal firearms.” He provided verbal and written consent to search the vehicle, which contained a variety of the Defendant’s belongings. While in the process of signing the consent to search the vehicle, the Defendant stated that if he believes a law violates his Second Amendment rights, that he will not “adhere to that law.” Specifically, the Defendant stated: One thing that you’re going to find is that I am a constitutionalist. So when they write a statute, a regulation, an act, a code, that deprives me of my Second Amendment constitutionally God-given right to bear arma, I do not adhere to that law because that act, that rule, that code, that statute, that regulation, because that is not a law. The law is the law of the land which is the Constitution, period.
The Defendant later discussed his criminal history and his status as a person prohibited from possessing a firearm stating he was taken to jail for being “a prohibited person with firearms.” He stated that he believed this action was unlawful because the United States was a corporation that could not interfere with his “God-given” rights. Similarly, the Defendant stated that Nevada authorities had taken him and his friend “to jail as prohibited persons [gestures with air quotes] with firearms. Let me tell you something, we are not prohibited persons because I am a live-life human. I am a people, not a person. I am not a Fourteenth Amendment f*cking person. You cannot infringe on my f*cking rights to bear arms, period. You can’t use your corporation, and your corporate rules or your corporate employees to f*cking take a live-living human’s God-given rights, period.”
The Defendant described a difficult upbringing and claimed that his family members and the system have been “f*cking with” him or “railroading him” since he joined the Navy as a teenager and was given an other-than-honorable discharge. He claimed that his brother, apparently a member of law enforcement, was pulling strings to make his life difficult. The Defendant claimed that the judge in his divorce proceedings was corrupt, that the district attorney in his domestic violence proceedings was corrupt, that he was discharged unfairly from the military, and that his own attorney in Nevada was part of a corrupt system.
The Defendant repeatedly disclaimed violence and claimed that he acted peacefully in many stressful situations, including confrontations with law enforcement while the Defendant was armed. The Defendant many times suggested, however, that he has been on the brink of violence due to perceived injustices perpetrated against him. “There are a lot of people who are lucky to be f*cking breathing today. If I was a violent man, if I didn’t believe in Jesus Christ, there would be some dead motherfuckers.”); (“I’ll tear the f*cking place apart if they keep my kid from me. They are lucky to be breathing. So, I have been resisting the f*cking urge to do a lot of goddamn damage to people. And I feel like I have been doing a pretty f*cking good job.”); “She has got my boy. She is holding him hostage through the f*cking courts. I can’t just go over there and f*cking [gesture], f*cking ghillie suit the motherfuckers. That’s against the law [laughs]. You can’t just murder people I have a right to my thoughts. They can die a million times up here [pointing to his head] so long as I don’t do this [gestures pulling a trigger]. Because that is not how I am going to let them f*cking win.”
Because of the perceived illegitimacy of the U.S. government, the Defendant believes that judges are “actors in black robes” who are all in a conspiracy to deprive Americans of
their rights. The Defendant believes that the only person with authority in the courtroom is the clerk.
Because Sovereign Citizens believe the United States government may only exercise jurisdiction over the corporate personhood assigned at birth, Sovereign Citizens attempt to divest themselves of this corporate personhood. There is no one recognized way to do this, but the Defendant has stated on multiple occasions that his “live-life birth nativity,” has accomplished this.
The document the government believes the Defendant to be referring to was in his vehicle at the time of the search: During his interview, the Defendant directed law enforcement to the website of Russell Jay Gould, a Sovereign Citizen leader who apparently signed a document for the Defendant.
The Defendant also refers to himself as a “people” rather than a person. Based on the letter the Defendant sent threatening officials in Nevada, this distinction is apparently rooted in a misreading of 33 U.S.C. 1319(c)(6). The Defendant used this distinction to threaten the Court and the Marshalls when the Court refused to immediately release him as he demanded, because to the Defendant, not being a “people” means that such an individual is not protected from the punishments that he and like-minded others may impose on “corporate officers”:
THE DEFENDANT: You’re all gonna go before a military tribunal. That’s a fact. Prepare for it. That’s what’s coming, y’all. This is a hostile treatment. Yeah, you guys are looking at me now, aren’t you, huh? Just because I speak the truth? Is this America? Who are you people? You’re not people, you’re persons of a corporation that no longer exists. That’s what’s happening here. This is a kangaroo court. That’s what’s happening, you all know it. Look at you, stone faced, you know it. You know what criminals you are.
It should be noted that while some Sovereign Citizens engage in violence, most do not. However, the Defendant has either threatened, or expressed a strong desire to harm, many individuals.
Shortly after his arrest in May 2022, law enforcement searched the Defendant’s vehicle and recovered several firearms, other weapons, tactical equipment, and items conveying antigovernment messages. The recovered items included three firearms, an ammo box with a label “Justin’s 5.56 FMJ”7, an ammo box labeled “Justin’s Ammo,” ammunition and magazines loaded with ammunition, Oath-keepers materials, a Guy Fawkes mask, papers related to sovereign citizen activities, and electronic devices. The cover of a recovered MacBook Pro contains numerous stickers. One reads: “9-11 Was an Inside Job.” Another is a bunny with a QAnon logo. During his interview, the Defendant discussed his association with the 3 percenters and the QAnon beliefs.
The symbol of the skull that appears on the vest and on the helmet depicted above is known as the “Punisher skull.” The white rabbit with the “Q” is a reference to QAnon. In addition to the firearms, ammunition, and tactical equipment, law enforcement also recovered an axe, a knife, and a Guy Fawkes mask.
Ultimately, the Defendant knew that he was prohibited from possessing a firearm and was under felony charge in Nevada. He decided to flee Nevada and travel through Buffalo with an AR-15 style rifle, a tactical shotgun, a scoped rifle with a mount, magazines, ammunition, and tactical equipment, and several items suggesting a violent, antigovernment mindset. These facts demonstrate the seriousness of these offenses, for which a sentence of time-served is not appropriate.
Sentence TBD. Will update when complete.