RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted three Virginia men accused of plotting to shoot up or bomb synagogues and black churches.
The Richmond-area men were originally charged last month. A federal magistrate found probable cause to send the case to a grand jury, which recently returned a three-count indictment.
Court records show that Robert C. Doyle, 34; Ronald Beasley Chaney II, 33; and Charles D. Halderman Jr., 30, are charged with a robbery conspiracy. The government claims the men conspired to rob an unnamed silver and coin dealer and use the money to stockpile weapons, buy land and train for a race war.
The men — all of whom have extensive criminal backgrounds, according to the FBI and court records— are being held in jail without bond.
According to an FBI agent’s affidavit filed when the men were first charged, Doyle and Chaney subscribe to “a white supremacy extremist version of the Asatru faith,” a sect that emphasizes Norse gods and traditions.
The affidavit does not link Halderman to Asatru, but U.S. Magistrate Roderick Young mentioned that defendant’s ties to a white supremacist group in a hearing last month.
