[Ppnews] Austin man denies plans to use Molotov cocktails at GOP convention

[Political Prisoner News]

Austin man denies plans to use Molotov cocktails at GOP convention

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/29/0129mckay.html

David McKay says the idea came from FBI informant.

By David Hanners
ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Texas man accused of making eight Molotov 
cocktails during the Republican National 
Convention testified Wednesday that the 
government informant who infiltrated his activist 
group first came up with the idea to build the firebombs.

David Guy McKay told jurors in his federal trial 
that the informant, Brandon Darby, had mentioned 
the possibility of building the devices and that 
because Darby was an older, more experienced and 
nationally known activist, he influenced the 23-year-old McKay.

If Darby "were just another guy, I'd have no 
reason to be in this courtroom," McKay said.

There is no dispute that McKay and his former 
co-defendant, Bradley Neil Crowder, made the 
Molotov cocktails while staying in a fellow 
activist's St. Paul apartment when the GOP 
convention was in town. But though Crowder 
pleaded guilty in a plea bargain, McKay is 
arguing that he was entrapped by Darby, who made 
a name for himself as a street activist and then became an FBI informant.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Paulsen, who is 
prosecuting the case, pressed McKay on 
cross-examination, pointing out that he gave a 
confession to the FBI, spoke about the case with 
a former girlfriend and even wrote a letter to 
the judge in which he said he was taking sole responsibility for his actions.

"Did you say 'I am completely responsible for my 
own actions,'" Paulsen asked after reading the 
letter to the judge into evidence.

"Yes, sir," McKay replied.

Moments earlier, McKay acknowledged that he and 
Crowder ­ and not Darby ­ bought the components 
used to make the Molotov cocktails, bought the 
flammable gasoline and then assembled the devices.

"But you claim it was all Mr. Darby's idea," Paulsen said.

"The idea came from Brandon Darby," McKay replied.

McKay denied planning to use the Molotov 
cocktails, and said he had made comments to Darby 
about using the firebombs on cars in a police 
parking lot ­ even if police were in the cars ­ just to impress him.

McKay grew up in the West Texas town of Midland 
but most recently has lived in Austin. He is 
accused of making and possessing unregistered 
firearms, which is how federal law classifies a Molotov cocktail.

He's also accused of possessing Molotov cocktails that lacked serial numbers.

He was arrested Sept. 3 after the St. Paul police 
SWAT team raided the apartment he'd been staying 
in, about half a mile from the Xcel Energy 
Center, where GOP delegates were meeting.

A member of the department's bomb squad searched 
the building's basement and found eight Molotov cocktails.

McKay took the witness stand Wednesday afternoon 
as the first defense witness. Under questioning 
by defense attorney Jeffrey DeGree, McKay 
described his early years ­ "My parents were two 
very eccentric people," he said ­ and how he 
shuttled between Midland and Austin after his parents divorced.

He laid out his journey from a young man with a 
modest interest in politics to an angry 
revolutionary who built Molotov cocktails to a 
disillusioned activist who saw the futility of mass protests in St. Paul.

McKay said he went to the convention after 
becoming involved in an Austin group with 
Crowder, who was more politically minded than he was.

McKay and Crowder went to St. Paul with a trailer 
full of riot shields they had made out of 
purloined plastic highway safety barrels.

But Darby had warned the FBI, and St. Paul police 
seized the shields a day or so after they got to town.

That's when McKay and Crowder decided to exact 
revenge on the police, the government says.

But McKay said that Darby came up with the 
suggestion to build Molotov cocktails, and 
Crowder found instructions online on how to make them.

He said they went to the Wal-Mart on University 
Avenue and bought some components used to make the devices.

"Why didn't you just not do that?" DeGree asked him.

"Stupidity," McKay replied. "Thinking back on it 
now, I didn't know the ramifications."




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