A jury in Columbia County found David Elliot Moran, 49, and Charles Thomas Newcomb, 45, guilty of one count each of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder after they and a third guard, who was also a KKK member, were captured in recorded conversations discussing their sick plans with an FBI informant, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
%u201CThese Klansmen plotted to murder a black inmate after he was released from prison, but swift action and clever investigative tactics on behalf of investigators foiled their plot and may have saved a life,%u201D Bondi said. %u201CWe will continue to work daily to ensure the KKK or any other hate-filled organization is unable to inflict violence on the citizens of our great state.%u201D
Moran and Newcomb were arrested in 2015 along with Thomas Jordan Driver, 27, after the trio sought out and enlisted an FBI informant to kill the former inmate as retaliation for a previous fight he had with Driver, Bondi said.
Both Driver and Moran were officers at the Department of Correction Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler, while Newcomb was a former correction officer. Driver pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder in March and was sentenced to four years in prison. All three were members of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, investigators said
. ---
It's not the end of the world, but we can see it from here.