A mountain of evidence in the case of a Stockton man charged with attempting to blow up a federal building will push a potential trial date out by several months after a status conference last Friday in U.S. District Court.
William Keebler, 57, appeared before Magistrate Judge Paul Warner a month after his last court date. Keebler is charged with one count of attempting to damage federal property by use of explosives and one count of carrying a firearm in the commission of a violent crime; both charges carry a minimum sentence of five years if convicted.
Warner requested Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Choate to prepare spreadsheets that detailed the contents of more than 170 DVDs of video and audio evidence in the case, which Choate completed prior to the status conference. Choate said the only possible evidence remaining in the case would come from FBI field offices around the country that were working on additional cases with a connection to Keebler.
Keebler’s public defender, Lynn Donaldson, said his office had already begun to go through hundreds of hours of video recordings from undercover FBI agents that infiltrated Keebler’s organization and surveillance footage. Donaldson said he believed someone working 72 hours a week would take a year to watch all of the footage and he has other responsibilities.
“I honestly don’t know how long it will take,” he said.
The original trial date of Sept. 12 for Keebler was removed from the court calendar and another status conference was set for Nov. 30 at 10:30 a.m. in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.
Keebler faces federal charges after he attempted to detonate a pipe bomb at a cabin near the main Bureau of Land Management building at Mount Trumbull in Arizona on June 21, according to charging documents from the FBI. Keebler’s militia, the Patriot Defense Force, was infiltrated by undercover FBI employees for about a year.
One of the FBI operatives was tasked with making explosives for Keebler, to be used at a BLM facility in the “middle of nowhere.” According to the FBI, Keebler was present at the Bunkerville, Nevada standoff between cattle rancher Cliven Bundy and the BLM over unpaid grazing fees.
