CYANIDE CASE Man gets 11 years in prison

His longtime companion was sentenced to almost five years.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
TYLER, Texas -- A frail and stooped man, described by prosecutors as a purveyor of poison and a friend to would-be terrorists, was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison Tuesday for possessing enough cyanide to kill a huge store full of people.
William Krar, 63, showed little emotion when U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis said he was "very concerned" by what Krar had stacked in a storage shed, including machine guns, silencers, a half-million rounds of ammunition and 800 grams of nearly pure sodium cyanide -- enough, when turned to gas, to fell everyone in a one-story, 30,000-square-foot building.
A provider of military surplus goods, Krar pleaded guilty to possessing a dangerous chemical weapon. The sentencing capped a bizarre criminal case that began when a package of fake ID documents -- mailed by Krar with a note that said, "We would hate to have this fall into the wrong hands" -- was inadvertently shipped to the wrong person.
Before being told Tuesday that he would spend 11 years and three months in prison without a chance for parole, Krar tried to convince the judge that he is not a terrorist.
"In my 63 years, I've never been in this much trouble. For the record, I'm not a terrorist or a separatist. I never desired to hurt anyone or this country that I love," said Krar, dressed in an orange jail suit, his hands clasped behind him. Authorities are still at a loss to explain what Krar planned to do with his stash.
Also sentenced
After he was led from the courtroom, Krar's longtime companion, Judith Bruey, 55, stood before Davis after pleading guilty to conspiring to possess illegal weapons. Bruey remained silent, her head down, as Davis sentenced her to 57 months, or almost five years, in federal prison. Like Krar, she was given no chance of parole.
Bruey's attorney, Eric Albritton, said his client is a well-meaning person whose strong love for Krar clouded her judgment. "She's a proud American, loves her country," Albritton said, adding that Bruey "had no idea" that sodium cyanide -- enough to cause a catastrophic event -- was stored in their rented storage shed in Noonday, Texas.
The lawyer said Bruey "strikes me as being an average, middle-aged housewife," while he considered Krar as being a "sort of odd-type fellow."
Krar was more than just odd, he was potentially dangerous, said Matthew Orwig, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. Orwig said Krar was known to have associated with anti-government militia members, though the "specific plans" of what he was going to do with his cache of weapons, explosives and chemicals were unknown.
Threat 'neutralized'
Nevertheless, said Orwig, the capture and prosecution of Krar amounted to an "existing threat that was neutralized" and "it's good this was stopped at an early stage."
Orwig also said that the Krar inquiry "has tentacles into other investigations." He declined to elaborate or say whether additional arrests are expected.
Despite his courtroom proclamation of loving America and his plea agreement with prosecutors, Krar has not been forthcoming on what he planned to do with the cyanide or the guns and explosives, FBI supervisory agent Pete Galbraith said after Tuesday's sentencing.
"We've received limited cooperation from Mr. Krar or the other defendants," said Galbraith, referring to Bruey and a younger woman whom Krar had introduced to people as his girlfriend. No criminal charges have been filed against the woman, who has since moved to New Hampshire.
In tracking Krar, who had moved to Tyler from New Hampshire in 2001, the FBI questioned "hundreds of individuals from around the country," Galbraith said.