The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 5

The Cincinnati Enquikek FROM PAGE A1 A6 Friday, February 20, 1998 WE Witness: Man's freedom at stake Harris said. The man who reportedly confessed to the crime was brought into court from the Queensgate jail, where he is being held on a gun charge. When asked about his involvement court for his second trial on Jan. 12, he had reason to be hopeful. One eyewitness no longer thought he did it.

And another woman had come forward, saying that someone else a man who bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Macinnis had admitted to the crime. She passed a polygraph test but was not permitted to testify. At the second trial, the original witness was called to testify. He told jurors he did not want to be there and said he had made a mistake in blaming Mr.

Macinnis. He was shown a photograph of the man who reportedly confessed and said that man could have been the culprit. But assistant prosecutor Steve Adams urged jurors to believe the witness' initial statement, not the recanted version. The second eyewitness testified she wasn't sure Mr. Macinnis was the gunman.

When shown a photograph of the person who reportedly has claimed responsibility, she faltered even more. Since the trial ended, she has signed an affidavit saying she was mistaken but had been afraid to admit it during the trial. "She was scared that she would have been charged with perjury' Mr. residue would have indicated that he had recently fired a gun. Without gunpowder residue, a gun or fingerprints on a shell casing recovered at the scene, there is no physical evidence tying Mr.

Macinnis to the crime. The entire case, according to attorneys and court documents, hinges on the three eyewitnesses, two women and a man. "To me, it is all just like one big misunderstanding," Mr. Macinnis said from the Hamilton County Justice Center. "People were saying it looked like me or something.

I couldn't even attempt to do something like that. I couldn't try to hurt nobody." Four months after his arrest, he went to trial. The initial eyewitness, a man, refused to testify, saying he had been mistaken in blaming the shooting on Mr. Macinnis. Two other women testified, along with Mr.

Macinnis' girlfriend and his mother's boyfriend. On Oct. 9, the jury reported it was deadlocked, with at least eight members voting for acquittal, sources say. "I came back here and didn't come out of my room (cell) for days," Mr. Macinnis said.

"I was so upset." When Mr. Macinnis walked into CONTINUED FROM PAGE Al intervene, Mr. Macinnis will be sent to prison to begin serving a seven-year sentence for a crime he insists he did not commit. "I feel sorry for what happened to them, but I didn't do this," Mr. Macinnis said at his sentencing.

"I think that's very possible," the judge replied, "but the jury has made their decision." In a hearing several days later, Judge Crush told Mr. Macinnis the outcome would have been different if he had opted for a bench trial, in which the judge delivers the verdict. Building the case It was 3:02 a.m. when someone fired a round of shots at a group of people returning from a fishing trip. Joey Macinnis says he was home, in bed.

So does his girlfriend, Lisa Arnett, and the boyfriend of Mr. Macinnis' mother, Joan Powers. Police never talked to them before charging Mr. Macinnis. They also did not swab Mr.

Macinnis' hands to test for gunpowder residue, which still would have been detectable 12 hours after the shooting. The presence of in the drive-by, the man refused to testify, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The third witness was the only one to remain firm in her identification of Mr. Macinnis, although she likely had a poor view, attorneys say. She was in the passenger seat of a van and says she looked through the driver's-side window and saw the shooter for less than a second.

Today, she is Mr. Macinnis' last hope. If she refuses to acknowledge a possible error several sources say she has admitted as much outside of court Mr. Macinnis will begin serving his prison term. "I'm scared.

Real scared," Mr. Macinnis said. "I don't think it's right. It just makes me think how many other people went to prison for something they didn't do. I don't think it's right at all." The Associated PressCraig L.

Moran William Leavitt center, and Larry Wayne Harris, right, are escorted by a U.S. marshal from their arraignment in Las Vegas on Thursday. Anthrax: Ohio man charged in plot to use agent IGNMJRES TORE cnEsrvun hills mall, ky, location onlyi PIIOtlE 344-2053 rannrnnirrpniTO Lf LMJYJU rn UVJ threat because he had trained Iraqis in biological warfare in the 1980s. "We personally armed Saddam Hussein with enough anthrax, cholera and typhoid and plague to kill everybody in the world 10 times over," he said. "We personally provided all his military with the instructions of how to conduct biological warfare." One of the Iraqis "divulged to me that she was also heavily involved in biological warfare offense, offense that would be used against the United States of America," Mr.

Harris said during the 1997 trial. "They refer to the United States as the Great Satan and they see the biological warfare as an excellent agent to be used against the Great Satan." Mr. Wharf's attorney, Tom Eagle, a Middletown criminal defense attorney, said Mr. Wharf was influenced by the older man's anti-government views. "I'm a naturally non-skeptical person I watch The Files, so I'm not beyond believing some unusual theories," Mr.

Eagle said. "But his claims are just so fanciful and I honestly can't say I saw any hard proof of anything." Mr. Harris graduated from Ashland University in north-central Ohio in December 1987 with a bachelor of science degree in comprehensive science, spokesman Sam Renfroe said. He also attended Ohio State University from 1972 to 1976 but did not get a degree then, spokeswoman Ruth Gerstner said. He returned and completed an associate of arts degree in 1985.

He also took continuing education classes between 1985 and 1991, she said. Mr. Harris told the Warren County jury his study and work in biological warfare had come at Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Detrick, both in Maryland, and at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. Fort Detrick referred calls about Mr. Harris to FBI headquarters, where representatives said they had no information on Mr.

Harris' work history. The other two bases could not confirm that he had worked there. The Lancaster Police Department's only contact with him came during the bubonic plague incident. He pleaded guilty in the case, saying he never meant to hurt anyone, and was sentenced to 18 months probation. Mr.

Harris pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud on April 24, 1997, with U.S. District Judge Joseph Kin-neary presiding. In return, the government dropped two additional counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud. Under his plea agreement, Mr. Harris was sentenced to 18 months of probation and 200 hours of community service.

He also was ordered not to misrepresent his credentials in any forum or publication in particular, "the defendant is prohibited from claiming association with the Central Intelligence Agency." The court also prohibited Mr. Harris from "conducting any experiments with or obtaining any infectious diseases, bacteria or germs except at approved laboratories in conjunction with verified employment." According to depositions in the case, officials at the Maryland lab became suspicious when Mr. Harris called to complain about not receiving the vials via Federal Express. They called the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which called Lancaster health officials, who called police.

Mr. Harris said the plague bacteria were to be used by his company, Small Animal Laboratories, to research plague in rats in the western United States. But the Ohio EPA approval number he gave the Maryland lab was assigned to a Columbus company. "Everyone was pretty shocked then when it happened, but no one's surprised now," said Lancaster Police Deputy Chief Randall LuU, who interviewed him for several hours after tne 1995 arrest. Enquirer reporters Ben L.

Kaufman, Michael Hawthorne, Kathleen Hillen-meyer and the Associated Press contributed to this report. CONTINUED FROM PAGE Al "wipe out the city" and last year laid out a plan to unleash bubonic plague on New York City subways. The FBI said the pair were trying to arrange to buy the informant's testing equipment for $2 million up front and another $18 million later. Anthrax is an infectious disease that usually afflicts only animals, especially cattle and sheep. But anthrax spores can be produced in a dry form suitable for weapons and can be fatal to humans even in microscopic amounts.

In a Warren County courtroom last year, Mr. Harris explained the threat that anthrax poses. "Take a single vial of anthrax and take a simple five-gallon pump-up spray can like you'd use to spray the bugs with, put some meat broth in it, we call it nutrient broth, and an aquarium air pump. Add the contents of that vial to it. Now let that sit for two days," he said from the witness stand of a friend's trial.

"Then take a commercial paint sprayer and go up the Hudson River we've already ran military models of this and spray it out. Within 48 hours, 400,000 people will be dead. There is no symptoms till after about 48 hours. At that point in time, once you start showing symptoms, you are dead." Mr. Leavitt, who has no criminal record, owns a microbiology lab in rural Logandale, about 60 miles north of Las Vegas, and another in Frankfurt, Germany, according to an affidavit prepared by FBI Special Agent John H.

Hawken. The affidavit said the informant first met Mr. Harris at a Denver science convention last August, and met Mr. Leavitt about six weeks ago. The three were working on a project to test a device to supposedly "deactivate" viruses and bacteria, the affidavit says.

The men also had contacted the source "some time ago" about testing E.coli and Bacillus subtilis bacteria, and on Tuesday told the source they had other organisms to test, including Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus anthracis, the FBI said. The FBI confirmed the informant's claims to be a research scientist, specializing in cancer research. The source had two felony convictions for conspiracy to commit extortion in 1981 and 1982, but the FBI said there was no deal cut for his cooperation. FBI agents spent Thursday night searching the home Mr. Harris shares with his wife, Carol.

The white frame home, with its electronic fence and Dobermans in the back yard, is in a residential neighborhood about 30 miles southeast of Columbus. With helicopters hovering and reporters lining the street, neighbors said the scene was reminiscent of the aftermath of his 1995 arrest. "What everybody around here is worried about is, is it getting out?" said Tammy Denney, who lives a few houses from the Harrises. Some were upset that Mr. Harris, author of a self-published book called Bacteriological Warfare: A Major Threat to North America, was still living among them after his previous arrest.

"I didn't know him too well, but I never wanted to know him he's scary," said Delilah Leui, 88. "A lot of us thought they should have put him away when he was arrested before." Mr. Harris explained many of his beliefs when he testified last summer at the Warren County trial of his friend Stephen Michael Wharf. Mr. Wharf, 23, of Carroll, Ohio, was convicted of robbery, failure to comply with police order, receiving stolen property and having a weapon while under disability in a case also accusing him of threatening to shoot a state trooper.

Mr. Wharf led police on a chase from Clermont to Warren County, then aimed a rifle at an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper as the pursuit ended near Paramount's Kings Island. Mr. Harris testified he attended church with Mr. Wharf and shared Aryan Nation literature with him.

He also said he taught Mr. Wharf how to defend himself in case of biological warfare, which the two believed would fulfill a biblical prophecy of a plague released upon the land. Mr. Harris said he understood the I- 'Percentage off original prices. Intermediate markdowns may have been taken.

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