Former Bundy Bodyguard Pleads Guilty to Firearms Counts
A man who once served as a bodyguard for Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has pleaded guilty to two serious federal firearms charges midway through his jury trial in Seattle.
Schuyler Pyatte Barbeau, a former Marine and Washington Army National Guard soldier, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to possession of an unregistered firearm and possession of a machinegun. Each charge carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard H. Jones accepted the guilty pleas and set sentencing in September for Barbeau.
He has been in custody since his arrest in December 2015 near Seattle by federal agents assigned to a Joint Terrorism Task Force. They opened an investigation, court documents say, after learning Barbeau had threatened public officials and confided to an associate that he had stolen blasting caps and detonator cord from his Army Guard unit.
His case attracted considerable interest in the antigovernment, Patriot community, mostly on social media, including supporters of Cliven Bundy and his sons who have had their own legal battles with the federal government.
Barbeau has lived in Stanwood, in western Washington, and more recently at a rural ranch near Springdale, in eastern Washington, owned by Allen Aenk, who claimed he was the leader of a loose-knit group called the “Sheepdog Militia.” His wife, Carrie Aenk, sat by Barbeau, who acted as his own attorney during the trial. He had difficultly cross-examining an FBI agent and was admonished by the judge before the trial came to a sudden end with the defendant’s guilty pleas.
Barbeau is charged with illegal possession of an AR-15 semi-automatic 5.56mm caliber assault rifle with a 10.5-inch barrel and a sight. The evidence against him included photos on his smart phone and at least three Facebook photos of him displaying the weapon he was attempting to sell for $5,000.
The prosecution’s case also included a tape-recorded, voluntary statement Barbeau made to FBI agents following his arrest. In it, he admitted possessing the unregistered, fully-automatic firearm in question and that he knew the machine gun’s barrel was shorter than the 16-inch length required by federal law.
“Barbeau [confessed] after being advised of his Miranda warnings, and there has been no suggestion that the statement was somehow involuntary,” federal prosecutors said in their trial brief.
Barbeau claimed that he wanted to use the money from the sale of the machine gun to purchase a rifle capable of firing 7.62 millimeter rounds, the type of ammunition used in Soviet-style AK47 rifles.
“Barbeau believed this type of rifle would be more effective in shoot-outs with law enforcement,” court documents say.
