Father of Marysville school shooter convicted of gun charges

SEATTLE _ Raymond Lee Fryberg Jr., the father of the teen who killed four classmates at Marysville-Pilchuck High School last fall, was convicted of federal firearms charges by a jury in U.S. District Court in Seattle.tmpplchld The verdict came Tuesday afternoon after about a day of jury deliberations following a three-day trial before U.S. District Judge James Robart.tmpplchld Fryberg was convicted of six counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, including the .40-caliber Beretta pistol his son, 15-year-old Jaylen Fryberg, used to kill four classmates. One of the victims, a cousin of Fryberg’s, survived with a gunshot wound to the face.tmpplchld Jaylen killed himself with the same handgun.tmpplchld The school shooting was never mentioned in the trial, which alleged that the senior Fryberg, a member of the Tulalip Tribes, purchased a number of firearms despite the government’s contention that he was the subject of a tribal domestic violence protective order that had been issued in 2002. Fryberg, 42, pleaded no contest in tribal court to violating the order in 2012, according to federal prosecutors.tmpplchld The government says that should have prevented him from purchasing firearms, but alleged that flaws in the instant-background check system allowed him to “slip under the screen” of several databases.tmpplchld Prosecutors claimed Fryberg lied when he filled out firearms purchase forms in which he declared, under penalty of perjury, that he had not been convicted of a domestic violence crime.tmpplchld During the trial’s closing arguments on Monday, Fryberg’s Seattle attorney, John Henry Browne, accused the government of appealing to the jury’s emotions by showing photographs of each of the six firearms _ including the handgun used in the school shootings and two assault-style semi-automatic rifles _ that Fryberg had purchased at the Cabela’s store in Tulalip after 2012.tmpplchld Fryberg, Browne said, assumed the purchases were legal and pointed out that he was even able to obtain a concealed-carry permit for a handgun, which requires a more stringent background check than purchasing a firearm. Browne said Fryberg was never properly served with the protection order, and that there were questions about whether the order was ever filed with the court.tmpplchld The police officer who was supposed to file it _ who was the brother-in-law of Fryberg’s ex-girlfriend who had sought the order _ is dead and could not be cross-examined.tmpplchld Fryberg claimed he was never given a copy of the order and did not know it existed, despite his no-contest plea in 2012.tmpplchld “He is not on trial for anything else,” Browne said. “Not for how many guns he owns,” or what they may have been used for. The government, he claimed, “is trying to turn this case into something it is not.”tmpplchld Assistant U.S. Attorney Ye-Ting Woo said the issue was not whether Fryberg was able to purchase the guns because of “gaps in the system,” including the fact the tribal court domestic violence protective orders and convictions often are not entered into national databases.tmpplchld “The system relies on the purchasers to tell the truth,” she said.tmpplchld tmpplchld The investigation into Fryberg’s gun ownership began in October 2014 when the FBI was trying to determine ownership of the gun that was used in the school shootings. The senior Fryberg had purchased that gun from Cabela’s in January 2013, a year after prosecutors alleged a permanent protective order against him had been filed in Tulalip Tribal Court.tmpplchld A search warrant filed in U.S. District Court stated that agents found several firearms lying unsecured in the home.tmpplchld A 1,400-page report detailing the investigation into the school shooting said Jaylen Fryberg apparently brought the handgun to school in a backpack. He texted several friends to meet him in the lunchroom that day, Oct. 24, and also sent a text to his father and other family members detailing his funeral plans.tmpplchld Minutes later in the cafeteria, Fryberg pulled out the Beretta handgun from the backpack and shot five classmates, killing Zoe Galasso, Gia Soriano and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, all 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15. All were shot in the head.tmpplchld tmpplchld Nate Hatch, 15, was shot in the jaw and spent about two weeks in Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.tmpplchld The report indicates that Fryberg, 15, was angry over a breakup with a girlfriend as well as a fight he had with a fellow student in the days before the shooting.tmpplchld However, the team of investigators said it could not determine a definitive reason for the shooting.tmpplchld tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (c)2015 The Seattle Timestmpplchld Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.comtmpplchld Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.tmpplchld