Couple Guilty in White Supremacist Arms Plot : Courts: North Hills pair agreed to sell illegal weapons to an undercover agent posing as a racist, jury finds.

A North Hills couple were convicted Friday of conspiring to manufacture and sell illegal weapons to an undercover FBI agent and an informant who posed as white supremacists seeking to buy machine guns and silencers.

Rejecting a defense of entrapment, a jury in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles convicted reputed white separatist Christian Nadal on 15 counts of selling and transferring illegal weapons, and Doris Nadal on a single conspiracy count, acquitting her of three other charges.

They were led away together after U.S. District Judge Ronald S. W. Lew revoked Doris Nadal’s bond, ruling that she posed a flight risk and that she had been convicted of a crime of violence. Her husband has been in custody since before the trial.

As the verdicts were announced Friday, Doris Nadal sat stone-faced and Christian Nadal glanced back several times, once raising his eyebrows, at friends and family members in the courtroom.

Defense attorneys said they will appeal the convictions.

The Nadals and seven other people were arrested in July and August after an 18-month federal investigation into white supremacist groups in Southern California.

The prosecutors, assistant U.S. attorneys Gregory Jessner and Lawrence S. Middleton, said they were pleased with the outcome.

Joel Levine, Christian Nadal’s attorney, maintained that his client was the victim of entrapment.

Thomas Nishi, the attorney for Doris Nadal, said he will appeal, but declined further comment.

Christian Nadal, 35, could receive a maximum sentence of 145 years in prison and his wife, 41, could be sentenced to five years. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 6.

A co-defendant, Christopher Berwick, an Acton machinist, pleaded guilty last week to conspiring to manufacture and sell illegal weapons. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Central to the trial were the actions of government informants and undercover agents. FBI Agent Michael E. German, who posed as a white supremacist named Mike McCarthy, testified that he purchased weapons from the Nadals at three locations. All but one of the meetings were clandestinely taped.

German also testified that neither he nor informant Joe Allen had pressured the Nadals into the weapons transactions.

In contrast, Levine maintained throughout the trial that his client was targeted by the government because of his political views and that he was a victim of entrapment. He noted that Nadal sold weapons only to the undercover operatives and that he had not made a profit on the transactions.

Federal agents who searched the Nadals’ house found Nazi literature and paraphernalia, according to warrants made public in July. A Nazi skull-and-helmet coin bank and a framed photograph of Adolf Hitler on a bookshelf were discovered in one room.

Christian Nadal was portrayed during closing arguments as a racist extremist who was eager to commit the crimes to support his belief that white supremacists should unite and arm themselves.

Jessner emphasized testimony that Nadal said he wanted to make grenades for his grenade launcher, use atomic weapons to force minorities to leave the country and drop bombs on South-Central Los Angeles. Nishi raised the entrapment issue at the beginning of the trial, but during closing arguments he said prosecutors mistakenly believed that his client holds the same views as her husband.