Prosecutor will seek death for soldier from Washington state

A prosecutor in Georgia tells a judge he will seek the death penalty against a soldier and former Chelan County man, the alleged ringleader of an anarchist militia, operating at Fort Stewart.

District Attorney Tom Durden announced that he will pursue the death penalty for 21-year old Army Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, formerly of Cashmere. At separate court hearings, Durden also declared that he will seek the death penalty against two co-defendants.

Aguigui is charged, along with two other Fort Stewart soldiers and a woman in the murders last December of two people.

The defendants, Aguigui, Sgt. Anthony Peden and Pvt. Christopher Salmon of Fort Stewart are charged with malice murder, felony murder and criminal gang activity in the Dec. 4 slayings of former soldier Michael Roark, who was born in Kirkland, and his girlfriend, 17-year-old Tiffany York. The fourth defendant is the wife of one of the accused soldiers.

Prosecutors say Aguigui ordered the murders of Roark and York, fearful that the former soldier or his girlfriend would expose the existence of the militia.

WTOC TV, in Savannah, GA reports that during Thursday’s hearings, York’s stepdad tried to attack Peden in court. Roark’s father yelled at the officers in the courtroom to say leave York’s stepdad alone. WTOC reports both men were removed from the courtroom.

Prosecutors in rural Long County, near Savannah, say the soldiers were part of a militia operating within the U.S. Army that was stockpiling weapons, planned to poison the Washington apple crop, blow up a dam in Washington state, assassinate the President and overthrow the federal government.