David Guy McKay told jurors in his federal trial that the informant, Brandon Darby, had mentioned the possibility of building the devices and that because Darby was an older, more experienced and nationally known activist, he greatly influenced the 23-year-old McKay.
If Darby "were just another guy, I'd have no reason to be in this courtroom," McKay said.
There is no dispute that McKay and his former co-defendant, Bradley Neil Crowder, made the Molotov cocktails while staying in a fellow activist's St. Paul apartment while the GOP convention was in town. But while Crowder pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain, McKay is arguing that he was entrapped by Darby, who had made a name for himself as a street activist and then became an FBI informant.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Paulsen, who is prosecuting the case, pressed McKay on cross-examination, pointing out that he gave a confession to the FBI, spoke about the case with a former girlfriend and even wrote a letter to the judge in which he said he was taking sole responsibility for his actions.
"Did you say, 'I am completely responsible for my own actions'?" Paulsen asked after reading the letter into evidence.
"Yes, sir," Darby replied.
Moments earlier, Paulsen got McKay to acknowledge that he and Crowder — and not Darby — bought the components to make the Molotov cocktails, bought the flammable gasoline and then assembled the devices.
"But you claim it was all Mr. Darby's idea," Paulsen said.
"The idea came from Brandon Darby," McKay replied.
McKay denied planning to use the Molotov cocktails and said comments he made to Darby about using the firebombs on cars in a police parking lot — even if police were in the cars — were the bluster of a revolutionary willing to talk the talk but not walk the walk.
"I was trying to prove myself," he said.
McKay grew up in the West Texas oil town of Midland but has most recently lived in Austin. He is accused of making and possessing unregistered firearms, which is how federal law classifies a Molotov cocktail. He's also accused of possessing Molotov cocktails that lacked serial numbers.
He was arrested Sept. 3 after the St. Paul police SWAT team raided the apartment he'd been staying in, about half a mile from the Xcel Energy Center, where GOP delegates were meeting. A member of the department's bomb squad searched the building's basement and found eight Molotov cocktails.
Crowder and McKay assembled the firebombs Aug. 31, but Crowder wasn't in the apartment when it was raided. Instead, he was being detained after his arrest in street protests Sept. 1.
McKay took the stand Wednesday afternoon as the first defense witness. Moments earlier, Paulsen had rested the government's case after calling seven witnesses, including Darby.
Under questioning by defense attorney Jeffrey DeGree, McKay described his early years ("My parents were two very eccentric people," he said) and how he shuttled between Midland and Austin when his parents divorced.
He laid out his journey from a guy with a modest interest in politics to an angry revolutionary who built Molotov cocktails to a disillusioned activist who saw the futility of mass protests in St. Paul and quickly came to scorn the anarchists and anti-authoritarians who had taken to the streets.
"When you look at seeing yourself do that, what do you think?" DeGree asked him.
"It was a pointless endeavor," McKay said. "We were walking in circles for about an hour and a half. I don't know. Just pointless."
McKay said he'd come to the convention after he got involved in an Austin group with Crowder, who was more politically minded than he was. It was in Austin that they met Darby, who Tuesday testified that the FBI asked him to infiltrate the group to see whether they planned illegal activity during the convention.
He soon wanted to be someone Darby liked, McKay said.
"Is it safe to say he's someone you looked up to and admired?" DeGree asked.
"Yes, sir," McKay replied, going on to explain that he liked Darby's view of the world and liked that Darby "wanted to be around the right kind of people, people who were true in their beliefs."
McKay and Crowder had come to St. Paul with a trailer full of riot shields they'd made out of purloined plastic highway safety barrels; their instructional video of how to make them is still on YouTube. But Darby had warned the FBI about the shields, and St. Paul police seized them a day or so after they got to town.
It was after the shields were seized that McKay and Crowder wanted to exact revenge on the police, the government claims. But McKay said Darby came up with the suggestion to build Molotov cocktails, and Crowder found instructions on how to make them online.
McKay said he went along with the plan.
"I was angry and I was on board," he testified. "I was willing."
He said they went to the Wal-Mart on University Avenue and bought some components used to make the devices.
"Why didn't you just not do that?" DeGree asked him.
"Stupidity," McKay replied, shaking his head in apparent disbelief at his own actions. "Thinking back on it now, I didn't know the ramifications."
The trial is to continue this morning.
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