US Man Connected to Australian Shooters Secures Plea Bargain with Federal Attorneys
An American citizen linked with the perpetrators behind the deadly Wieambilla shooting that claimed the lives of six individuals – among them two Queensland police officers – has accepted a watered-down plea deal.
Arizona-based Donald Day Jr. will appear in court on 21 October after finalizing the bargain with American authorities.
The convicted felon, known online as “Geronimo's Bones”, is expected to plead guilty to a sole offense of unlawfully possessing guns and bullets in a deal to be approved by the judiciary in the current month.
Links to Australian Shooters
Authorities confirmed clear connections between Day and Gareth and Stacey Train through online posts.
This couple, along with Nathaniel Train, murdered Queensland police officers Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow, and neighbor Alan Dare at a isolated location in Wieambilla, Queensland in 2022.
They were killed in a final shootout with police, following a extended standoff at the rural site.
US prosecutors said Day communicated via social media with the Trains during the period of the deadly ambush.
Day referred to Queensland officers as “malignant, malformed and malevolent”, and said they should be shown “absolutely no quarter”, informing them he wanted to be at Wieambilla physically.
Court documents detailed how Gareth and Stacey Train had uploaded an end-times video on YouTube after the incident, stating authorities “came to kill us and we killed them”.
“Failing to stand against these evil forces makes one a coward … We will meet you at home, Don. With love,” the Trains said.
Weapons Stockpile and Legal Proceedings
Legal records show Day accumulated a collection of multiple powerful guns and numerous bullets of ammunition at a country estate in Heber, Arizona, that was outfitted with a gun range, weapons room and sniper hide.
“The guns and ammo were stored in the trailer I occupied with S.S., within a space we named the 'gun room',” Day said in the plea deal filed in the legal system.
Day said he regularly accessed both the weapons storage and the weapons, and also trained others on how to use the guns correctly.
The bargain will result in charges dropped that pertain to the accused issuing threats to officials and federal agents.
According to legal files, Day had been banned from owning guns and arms because of his history of violent crimes.
Day, who has completed two years in detention, faces a highest sentence of up to 15 years imprisonment in prison or a fine of $250,000 (A$381,500), but the plea deal stipulates he will be judged under the low end of the legal sentencing standards.
