The Fort Stewart soldier accused of organizing an anti-government militia and orchestrating plots to takeover the Coastal Georgia Army post, bomb the Forsyth Park Fountain and poison Washington state’s apple crop appeared at the Long County Courthouse Friday to plead guilty in his civilian court case.
Isaac Aguigui, an Army private accused of being the ringleader of a group calling itself F.E.A.R. — for Forever Enduring Always Ready — was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The case was uncovered after he and three other soldiers were arrested in the Dec. 5, 2011, shooting deaths of Michael Roark and Tiffany York.
Aguigui, 22, had been charged with malice murder, felony murder, criminal gang activity, aggravated assault and using a firearm while committing a felony in the couple’s deaths.
Prosecutors said Aguigui ordered the killings to keep Roark, with whom he’d served in the 3rd Infantry Division’s 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, from revealing information about F.E.A.R.
The Friday plea negotiated by Chatham County Assistant District Attorney Isabel Pauley, working on the case as a special prosecutor to Atlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tom Durden, kept Aguigui from receiving the death penalty.
Durden is seeking the death penalty for two other soldiers in the killings — Sgt. Anthony Peden and Pvt. Christopher Salmon. A fourth soldier, Pfc. Michael Burnett, pleaded guilty in August to manslaughter charges. He said Aguigui ordered the killings and told a judge he saw Salmon shoot Roark and Peden shoot York.
The Army in April charged Aguigui in the 2011 deaths of his wife and their unborn child. Sgt. Deirdre Aguigui was found dead July 17, 2011, in her Fort Stewart apartment.
Civilian prosecutors in the Long County case have said money from the more than $500,000 life insurance payout Aguigui received after his wife’s death was used to fund F.E.A.R.
An Article 32 hearing, similar to a civilian grand jury, was held in that case earlier this month. The hearing’s presiding officer, Maj. John McLaughlin, will report to Fort Stewart commanders whether there’s enough evidence to try Aguigui in a court-martial.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.