MARQUETTE, MI (AP)-- The trial of two men linked to more than 4,000 pounds of explosive materials is expected to take two or three days in Marquette Federal Court.
Ken Kassab of Brimley withdrew his guilty plea to unlawfully transporting a mix of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. That means he and co-defendant John Lechner face trial together.
Attorneys in the case held a pretrial conference with Judge R. Allan Edgar on Monday.
Lechner is a farmer and builder from Sault Ste. Marie who's accused of buying and hiding the explosives. He isn't charged with plotting to detonate the mixture. But in a recorded conversation, he told an informant that he would become a mercenary “when the people decide to take the government back.”
