Furrow to Plead Guilty in Slaying, Anti-Semitic Attack

In a deal that would spare him a possible death sentence, white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. has agreed to plead guilty to murdering a Filipino American mail carrier and seriously wounding five people at a San Fernando Valley Jewish community center in a 1999 shooting rampage.

Furrow, a 39-year-old mechanic from Washington state, would receive a mandatory life prison sentence under terms of his agreement with federal prosecutors.

Because there is no provision for parole in the federal criminal justice system, he could be expected to spend the rest of his days behind bars.

“We are very relieved that we were able to persuade the government that death was not an appropriate resolution of this case,” chief federal public defender Maria E. Stratton, whose office is representing Furrow, said Tuesday.

Stratton said defense lawyers and prosecutors concluded independently that Furrow was suffering from serious psychiatric problems.

U.S. Atty. Alejandro N. Mayorkas declined to comment Tuesday.

Furrow, who has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest in the Aug. 10, 1999, hate-crime attacks, is expected to enter his plea at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Nora Manella this morning.

He had been scheduled to go on trial in April in the slaying of postal worker Joseph Ileto, a capital crime, and the wounding of a receptionist, a teenage counselor and three children, ages 5 and 6, at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills. In the community center shootings, Furrow is charged with violating the victims’ federal civil rights.

Former U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, who approved the decision last year to seek the death penalty against Furrow, was reportedly briefed about the plea negotiations before she left office last week.

The families of the four children shot at the Jewish Community Center declined to comment Tuesday night. The families of Ileto and the community center receptionist could not be reached.

Furrow, a follower of the racist and anti-Semitic hate group Aryan Nations, has a history of violent emotional outbursts.

Last October, his team of federal public defenders filed a sealed notice with the court of their intention to raise a mental illness defense during his trial.

Although Furrow has agreed in writing to plead guilty, there is a possibility that the deal could unravel when he appears before Manella.

According to former acquaintances, Furrow is given to sudden mood swings. From time to time, he has threatened to fire his lawyers but later recanted. Since his arraignment more than a year ago, he has declined to attend any pretrial proceedings.

Before accepting his plea, Manella must be satisfied that Furrow reached his decision freely. She is required to ask the defendant about his emotional state, whether he is under the influence of any drugs or medications that might impair his judgment, and whether he was pressured in any way to sign the agreement. She also must remind him of his constitutional rights. Only then would he be allowed to enter a guilty plea.

When he surrendered in Las Vegas a day after the shootings, Furrow told FBI interrogators that he wanted his rampage to serve as “a wake-up call to America to kill Jews.”

Furrow had driven to Los Angeles from his home in Washington state in a van loaded with an assortment of weapons and all of his personal belongings, according to law enforcement accounts.

Over a period of days, he allegedly scouted out several Jewish institutions for attack, including the Museum of Tolerance, the Skirball Cultural Center and the University of Judaism.

He reportedly told the FBI that he decided against attacking those facilities because security was tight, and that he finally settled on the North Valley Jewish Community Center where, according to the 16-count federal indictment, he entered a building and fired more than 70 rounds before fleeing.

Authorities said Furrow then drove to a nearby shopping center, where he abandoned his van and stole another vehicle at gunpoint. A few hours later, he happened upon Ileto, 39, delivering mail in a residential neighborhood of Chatsworth.

Furrow allegedly walked up to Ileto, thinking he was Latino or Asian, asked him to mail a letter and then opened fire with a handgun. Ileto was hit by nine bullets. He died at the scene.

In a 61-page court affidavit, FBI agents said that Furrow admitted wanting to kill nonwhite law enforcement officers, and that he prepared himself by packing a fully automatic rifle loaded with steel-core, armor-piercing ammunition on his journey from Washington.

Even while behind bars, the government charged, Furrow has continued to threaten to kill nonwhites, including a Latino inmate and several guards at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center, where he is housed. Furrow was said to have threatened violence against his former wife, vowing to deliver her son’s head to her on a platter.

The federal public defender’s office tried unsuccessfully to have Furrow’s confession suppressed, but Manella denied its motion.

An only child, Furrow is the son of a retired Air Force enlisted man. He grew up around military bases in the West. Classmates at various high schools and community colleges described him as a loner.

In 1989, he showed up at the Aryan Nations’ World Congress at the group’s 20-acre compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler said Furrow volunteered for guard duty and bought a uniform that he wore proudly.

During a similar meeting in 1995, Furrow met and became romantically involved with Debra Mathews, the widow of Robert Mathews, the founder of the Order, a neo-Nazi group. Mathews died in a 1984 shootout with authorities after a murder-robbery rampage.

Butler presided at Furrow’s wedding in 1996. He and Debra Mathews parted about a year later. Mathews complained to friends that Furrow, unable to keep a steady job, had grown sullen and angry.

In October 1998, he was admitted to a Kings County, Wash., psychiatric institution. Released after two weeks, he tried to commit himself to a private facility. While being interviewed, he became angry and threatened staff members with a knife.

Police were summoned and Furrow was arrested. He eventually pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months in jail. He was released in May 1999 with time off for good behavior.

Three months later, he packed his possessions and headed south to Los Angeles.

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Times staff writers Jocelyn Stewart and Roberto J. Manzano contributed to this story.