By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — It took jurors only nine minutes Tuesday to reach a guilty verdict against Robert Neil Joos Jr.

Joos was convicted on a pair of federal weapons charges despite taking the stand in his own defense and denying ownership of the 15 firearms that authorities confiscated from his home last year. Federal agents also seized 19,000 rounds of ammunition and some blasting caps from Joos’ rural McDonald County homestead, which authorities previously said was part of a 200-acre “retreat location” used by white supremacists.

Denials

Joos, a former Eagle Scout and Air Force Academy cadet, was the lone witness to testify in his own defense, taking the stand Tuesday against the advice of his defense attorney. He denied owning any of the guns that were found at his home during a June 2009 raid by dozens of state and federal law enforcement officers.

“Some of that stuff I’ve never seen before,” he said, referring to the carts of weapons and ammunition that the prosecutor presented as exhibits.

Joos also denied being an anti-government white supremacist, taking aim at testimony Monday by an undercover agent who recounted visits to Joos’ property and conversations with the defendant.

Joos said he believes he has been persecuted by the government “ever since I started studying for the ministry.”

He also alleged that he was prevented from presenting witnesses in his defense during the trial in U.S. District Court in Springfield. He made the same claim when he was convicted in McDonald County Circuit Court of operating a motor vehicle without a valid license several years ago. That felony conviction formed part of the basis of the federal charges of being a felon in possession of firearms and explosives.

“The jury is never going to hear the whole truth,” Joos said.

Defense contention

Joos’ defense attorney, Darryl Johnson, contended that the government’s case suffered from “gaps” and “unanswered questions.”

Federal prosecutors never showed Joos’ fingerprints on any of the weapons or ammunition, Johnson said. The property was actually owned by Joos’ family. At least several other people had access to the building where the weapons were found, and authorities never traced the ownership of the weapons themselves, Johnson said.

Jim Kelleher, assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, countered that the case turned on possession, not ownership, of the materials. In his residence, Joos had 19,000 rounds of ammunition — enough to fill a Bass Pro Shops showroom, the prosecutor said.

“It’s almost difficult to argue this case because the evidence of possession is overwhelming,” Kelleher told jurors.

Biography

Joos devoted much of his testimony to his personal biography and achievements. He said he was a St. Louis native and the son of a chiropractor, and that he excelled in academics, physical fitness and the Boy Scouts before entering the U.S. Air Force Academy. He spent 2 1/2 years there before he was discharged for failing an aeronautical engineering course, and he later graduated with a degree in engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, he said.

He said he often worked as a handyman, in Colorado Springs, Colo., and later when he moved to McDonald County in the 1980s. He said that as an avid outdoorsman, he has always had a strong interest in recycling and sometimes served as a “consulting engineer” for “underground housing.”

Joos said he was raised in the Lutheran faith and later became an ordained minister in the “Christian Israelite” faith. Long-bearded and long-haired, Joos said “vows” he has taken bar him from cutting his hair, drinking alcohol or taking drugs.

He established a branch of the Christian Israelite faith in McDonald County called Sacerdotal Church of David. The church leases the 200-acre property from Joos’ family, and Joos described what federal authorities called his residence as an office for the church, replete with books on church law.

‘Front’

Kelleher called the church a “front.”

“Religion is Mr. Joos’ way to do what he wants,” he told jurors, saying that the defendant “fantasized about duking it out with the evil federal government.”

Joos, 57, was identified during the trial as an associate of brothers Daniel and Dennis Mahon. The Mahons await trial in Arizona federal court in relation to a February 2004 mail bombing that injured Don Logan, the director of the diversity office for the city of Scottsdale, Ariz. Logan is a black man. Two others were injured in the attack.

The Mahons, according to authorities, already knew Joos and had visited his property for firearms and other training.

“The Mahons had said often, ‘You got to meet this guy,’” an undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testified Monday.

Authorities said Joos also furnished undercover agents with instructions on how to make a bomb after one of the agents said he had a problem with some “Kenites.” Joos denied that allegation, too.

Witnesses had described the 200-acre property as a remote compound near the community of Cyclone, between Powell and Pineville on Big Sugar Creek. Joos, the undercover agent said, referred to the caves on the property as potential defensive positions in case of a government attack.

A sentencing hearing for Joos is still to be set. He faces a total of 20 years in prison. He has indicated that he plans to appeal his conviction.

Federal law makes it illegal for anyone who has been convicted of a felony to be in possession of firearms or ammunition.

Joos has a 1997 felony conviction for unlawful use of a weapon and a 2004 conviction for operating a motor vehicle without a valid license.

Joos at one point refused to get a driver’s license, saying during a court hearing in 2002 that it was against his religion, and that he could “make no covenant with the heathen government.”





IQ

Robert Joos Jr. previously testified that he scored a 156 on an IQ test.