Dwight Herschel Green, 56, was found guilty on charges of traveling across state lines to commit murder, as well as possession of multiple firearms by a convicted felon. The verdict, delivered in U.S. District Court in Rome on Thursday, was unanimous.
“It was a good outcome,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Jones.
According to prosecutors, Green paid an FBI informant $200 to buy fragmentation grenades that he planned to throw through the window of a Malone Drive home in Rome.
The informant, Brian Moses of Cedar Bluff, Ala, said he immediately went to the authorities out of fear that Green would go through with his plot to kill an entire family, including an infant. Moses said Green believed the family members were cops or “snitches.”
Moses recorded conversations with Green during a four-day period in April 2009. On the recordings, Green can be heard discussing the baby’s death, saying, “I ain’t proud of that kid being there, but it ain’t bothering me that much, ya know?”
Moses also said Green had made plans to kill his brothers-in-law, and even talked about shooting one of them with a crossbow.
The defendant took the stand on Wednesday and told the court that he did not remember any of his conversations with Moses, stating he was drunk or high during that time period. He also said that much of the time he was just joking with Moses.
Green, an admitted convicted felon, claimed that multiple firearms found in his home, including an assault rifle found under the sheets in his bed, were not his.
Jones called this a case of “selective amnesia.”
“Everything he said on the stand was unbelievable,” he said in his closing.
Green’s attorney, Giles Jones, said from the beginning this case stemmed from Green’s anger and feelings that his wife, Debbie, had been cheated out of money. Giles Jones said his client was grieving the loss of his wife, who died just two months before the recordings were made.
But her family said claims they cheated her out of money were false.
“We loved our sister,” said her brother, Randall Clifton of Cedar Bluff, Ala.
Clifton testified in court Wednesday, saying the siblings had a good relationship with Debbie Green and even paid the couple’s bills when Green was out of work.
Clifton told the Rome News-Tribune that the family was pleased with the verdict.
Green is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday, May 19, and could face 10 years for each charge.
Read more: RN-T.com – Update Green found guilty of plotting murders sentencing set for May 19
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