Furrow Had No Regrets, Prosecutors Say

After surrendering to the FBI, avowed white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. declared he had no regrets about shooting five people at a Jewish community center in Granada Hills and then killing a Filipino American mail carrier, according to federal prosecutors.

In a 61-page document filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, prosecutors said Furrow told federal agents he was at war with the “Jewish-controlled” American government.

He also admitted gunning down postal worker Joseph Ileto to instill fear in nonwhites living in the United States, the prosecution brief said.

This was the first public confirmation by prosecutors of details from Furrow’s interview with FBI agents a day after the Aug. 10, 1999, shooting rampage.

Besides substantiating published accounts of Furrow’s interrogation, the prosecution document revealed several new details.

Furrow admitted a desire to murder nonwhite law enforcement officers, it said, and he prepared himself by packing a fully automatic rifle loaded with steel-core, armor-piercing ammunition on his drive from the state of Washington to Los Angeles.

“He was prepared to use it to shoot any nonwhite law enforcement officer who stopped his vehicle,” the prosecution said.

Even while behind bars, the government charged, Furrow continued to threaten to kill nonwhites, including a Latino inmate and several guards at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where he is being held without bail.

Furrow was also said to have threatened violence against a woman whom he lived with, and vowed to deliver her son’s head to her on a platter.

The prosecution brief was filed in response to a defense motion challenging the government’s grounds for seeking the death penalty against Furrow. Prosecutors had cited lack of remorse as one reason.

In their challenge, Furrow’s federal public defenders accused the government of putting him in “an unconscionable Catch-22” that violates the 5th Amendment protection against forced self-incrimination. If he expresses remorse, he invariably admits his guilt, they argued. If he remains silent, he is viewed as lacking remorse.

While acknowledging Furrow’s right against self-incrimination, prosecutors said in their brief that they based their claim solely on Furrow’s voluntary statements and actions. They denied encroaching on his constitutional rights.

Furrow reportedly confessed to the San Fernando Valley shootings and his motive when he turned himself in to FBI agents in Las Vegas after eluding a nationwide manhunt.

The government said his remarks were not “fleeting or spontaneous reactions” but rather “deliberate and callous statements he made to federal agents after reflecting on his crimes overnight, watching television coverage of the incidents and deciding to surrender so that his boastful message could be communicated to others.”

The defense has not yet moved to suppress Furrow’s statements to FBI agents, but is expected to do so sometime next month.

In addition to claiming that Furrow showed no remorse, prosecutors cited five other aggravating factors to justify their decision to seek the death penalty.

These included charges that he committed an act of terrorism after substantial planning, that he was motivated by religious and racial hatred and that he would strike again if given the chance.

The defense motion has challenged those grounds, contending that they were vague, overly broad and duplicative.

U.S. District Judge Nora Manella will hear arguments on the death penalty issue June 5.

Furrow, 37, is scheduled to go to trial in mid-December on 16 criminal counts, including three that stem from Ileto’s slaying and that carry a possible death penalty. He also is charged with violating the civil rights of the five people wounded at the North Valley Jewish Community Center.