JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Warsaw, Missouri, man is facing life in prison after he was recently convicted of a plot to murder immigrants and Border Patrol agents at the Texas-Mexico border, according to a federal judge.
Jonathan Schmidt O’Dell, a member of a hate group he started called the "2nd American Militia," and a Tennessee man named Bryan Perry planned to kill immigrants crossing the border and kill any officers that attempted to stop them, a press release from the United State Attorney's Office said.
O'Dell was also found guilty of the attempted murder of FBI agents after he shot at them during his arrest, among numerous other charges.
The man made widespread Missouri news after he escaped jail in 2023. O'Dell and a second inmate escaped a jail in Rolla on Sept. 29 after breaking out of a holding cell. He was eventually captured two days later after a witness who knows him personally reported him to be in possession of a stolen vehicle, the sheriff's department said on its Facebook account. The stolen vehicle was recovered when O'Dell was recaptured.
"Evidence introduced during the trial indicated that, throughout the summer and fall of 2022, Perry and O’Dell recruited and attempted to recruit other individuals to join the 2nd American Militia, a group they co-founded," the release said. "They advertised a recruitment event in Warsaw prior to leaving for the U.S.-Mexico border."
During O'Dell's initial arrest, FBI agents found six firearms, 23 magazines filled with ammunition, 1,770 rounds of various other ammunition, 11 spent casings, two sets of body armor and numerous other tactical gear at his residence.
A sentencing hearing will be scheduled for a later date, but O'Dell's charges comes with a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison.
