Alleged white-supremacist leader pleads guilty to gun charge

Columbus Dispatch/February 14, 2002
By Robert Ruth

A Delaware County man identified as a leader of a white-supremacist group reportedly is cooperating with federal authorities after pleading guilty to a gun charge.

The FBI called Danny William Kincaid, 56, of Galena, the leader of the Ohio branch of the Aryan Nations.

The Aryan Nations, which once had its headquarters in Idaho, wants to establish a separate, all-white nation in the northwestern United States.

On Dec. 21 during a closed-door hearing in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Kincaid pleaded guilty to selling guns without a license.

The charge carries up to five years in prison, but Kincaid probably will be sentenced to far less because of his cooperation.

An additional 26 firearms- and bomb-related counts are expected to be dismissed when Kincaid is sentenced later this year. Those charges accuse him of being a felon in the possession of a pipe bomb and 35 guns, including shotguns, rifles, revolvers, semiautomatic pistols and assault rifles.

Most of the details about Kincaid's case, including his plea bargain, have been sealed.

Gordon Hobson, a federal public defender representing Kincaid, and Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment yesterday.

"It's under seal,'' Hobson said.

Limited information is available in computerized court records. But according to those records, Kincaid pleaded guilty before Judge James L. Graham to the charge of selling firearms without a license between Oct. 7, 2000, and July 2.

Kincaid was arrested July 5 shortly before FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents; Delaware County deputy sheriffs; and Columbus Fire Division bomb-squad members raided the home of a relative with whom Kincaid was staying.

The arrest came after a 13-month investigation and repeated complaints from neighbors about gunshots being fired in the back yard of the relative's property.

In 1965 in Marion County, Kincaid was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison after he was convicted of breaking and entering.

Seven years later, he was placed on probation after he pleaded guilty to drug charges in Tampa, Fla.