Global Security Newswire

A Texas couple is scheduled to be sentenced May 4 after pleading guilty to charges that included stockpiling chemical weapons in an east Texas storage facility, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Nov. 14, 2003).

In November, William Krar pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a dangerous chemical weapon, AP reported. While Krar faces up to life in prison, officials said he is expected to be sentenced to less than 20 years in prison. Krar’s common-law wife, Judith Bruey, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess illegal weapons and faces up to five years in prison, AP reported.

Last year, federal agents raided storage units Krar and Bruey had rented in east Texas and found stockpiles of illegal weapons and containers of chemicals, including 800 grams of nearly pure sodium cyanide, according to AP. U.S. authorities said that if the discovered chemicals had been mixed together, they could have created a weapon powerful enough to kill everyone within a 30,000-square-foot building.

Agents also reportedly found pamphlets on making chemical weapons, along with antigovernment and racist literature (Associated Press/Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram, March 13).