GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Jury selection begins Tuesday in the case against two men accused in the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The first trial against Adam Fox, of Wyoming, and Barry Croft, from Delaware, ended in a hung jury.
The Feds have decided to try the two again.
At the previous trial in April, the jury acquitted Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta in the wild plot to kidnap Whitmer over COVID 19 restrictions ordered by the state during the pandemic. But the jury could not reach a decision on Croft and Fox.
Prosecutors said Fox discussed the plot while living in the basement of a Wyoming vacuum cleaner sale and repair shop.
The trial revealed a plot that began to take shape in June 2020 when over a dozen men, upset with the government, met in Ohio.
Among them were two FBI informants.
The idea went beyond just talk, with training sessions taking place in a makeshift camp near Jackson, Mich.
The plan was to kidnap the governor from her cottage near Elk Rapids. The group discussed placing explosives to take out nearby bridges to slow police response, and snipers taking out the governor’s security detail. Prosecutors said the group went as far as surveilling the governor’s cottage at night.
Two scenarios were discussed, including taking her to Wisconsin for trial or leaving her stranded on a boat in the middle of Lake Michigan.
But as the plot continued to develop, so did the FBI’s role.
By September, undercover FBI agents infiltrated the group.
But did that effort cross the line from investigation to entrapment?
That was the defense’s claim after indictments were issued in October 2020 against six of the plotters, including Fox and Croft.
The judge later denied a motion from defense attorneys to throw out the case based on an entrapment defense.
Eventually, two of the defendants, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Kidnap charges and agreed to testify for the government.
The trial for Fox, Croft, Harris and Caserta began in early April.
By the end of the testimony, jurors decided the government did not prove its case against Harris and Caserta, while they couldn’t decide the case against Croft and Fox.
News 8 will cover the case both online and on-air beginning with jury selection Tuesday.