| 2003 Abbeville, South Carolina Right-of-way Standoff |
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The 2003 Abbeville right-of-way standoff was a 14-hour Standoff that took place on December 8 , 2003 in Abbeville , South Carolina , between alleged Extremist s and self-proclaimed " Sovereign Citizens " Arthur, wife Rita, and son Steven Bixby; and members of the Abbeville city Police department, the Abbeville County Sheriff 's office, the South Carolina Highway Patrol , the South Carolina Department Of Transportation , and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division . The standoff, which resulted from a dispute between the Bixbys and the state of South Carolina over a highway widening project, resulted in the deaths of two lawmen, Abbeville County Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Daniel "Danny Boy" Wilson, 37, and State Constable Donald "Donnie" Ouzts, 61, as well as the near total destruction of the Bixbys' West Abbeville residence. All three Bixbys were taken into police custody after surrendering late in the evening of December 8. By August 2006, the Bixbys remained in jail in South Carolina, awaiting trials for various offenses that could result in death sentences for Arthur and Steven Bixby, and up to 30 years in prison for Rita Bixby. On February 19 , 2007 , a Chesterfield County jury found Steven Bixby guilty on 17 counts, including both murders as well as several lesser charges of kidnapping and conspiracy. On February 21 , 2007 , this same jury recommended that Steven Bixby receive two death sentences for the murders and 125 years in prison for the lesser charges. Bixby is scheduled to be executed on April 22 , 2007 ; it is highly unlikely, however, that Bixby will actually be put to death on this date, as his case is subject to at least the automatic appeal afforded by South Carolina law in capital cases. Bixby is currently on South Carolina's Death Row at the Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville . EVENTS LEADING TO THE STANDOFF The elder Bixbys, both staunch believers in Libertarian politics, emigrated to Abbeville from New Hampshire in the early 1990s. Their son Steven followed shortly thereafter. They moved into a small home situated at 4 Union Church Road, near the junction of South Carolina Highway 72 , Union Church Road, and Horton Drive, in West Abbeville. The parcel of land surrounding the Bixby residence was subject to an 1960 Easement granted by a previous owner, Haskell Johnson, to the state of South Carolina, allowing for the South Carolina Department Of Transportation (SCDOT) to expand its Right-of-way on the portion of the property adjoining Highway 72, should it desire to widen this highway in the future. It was debated, however, whether Haskell's granting this easement to the state was properly recorded by the Abbeville County Register Of Deeds . When the 1960 easement was granted, it was permissible under state law to record highway right of way instruments in the records vault at the SCDOT headquarters in Columbia. For many years now, the SCDOT has also recorded at local county courthouses. In this situation, the 1960 easement was only on file in the SCDOT records vault, and not at the Abbeville County courthouse. Ironically, the road improvement project which contributed to this incident did not require the use of the entire area subject to the easement. Because the project would change a nearby intersecting road, much of the easement could have been abandoned by the SCDOT and would then have reverted to the full ownership of the Bixby family. This was explained to the family by an individual working as a right of way agent under contract to SCDOT. These right of way agents normally explain the project and, if property or a property interest is being obtained from a landowner, offer some amount of just compensation. Since the Bixbys were not losing any property, and might even have regained a portion of the easement, the right of way agent did not offer them any just compensation. All three Bixbys had a history of running afoul of the law in various ways in New Hampshire; this continued in Abbeville, as well. Both Arthur and Steven Bixby had spent time in jail; back in New Hampshire, Arthur had served a month in 1981 for Contempt Of Court , while in 1998, before his divorce, Steven was Book ed in Abbeville for Wifebeating . In addition, Steven's New Hampshire Driver's License had been revoked for excessive Traffic Violation s; when he failed to show for Probation hearings stemming from these violations, a warrant was issued for his arrest. As South Carolina will not Extradite an offender facing less than one year in prison, Steven Bixby escaped the nine months in prison that he would have faced for these probation violations, when he moved to Abbeville. Rita Bixby, on the other hand, seemed to favor abusing the law rather than breaking it outright. Indeed, Rita had a long history of filing seemingly frivolous lawsuits in New Hampshire courts; one such lawsuit attempted to gain title to land belonging to the Bixbys' neighbors. This suit was dismissed by the court, but an undeterred Rita Bixby attempted (unsuccessfully) to hold a Sheriff's Sale of the property in question. The Bixbys also frequently attempted to bypass traditional legal processes by filing bogus claims and suits in "common law courts", claiming that they were "sovereign citizens" and hence had the right to pursue legal action in whatever manner they desired. In the early 2000s, the state of South Carolina began widening Highway 72 from the Georgia state line to just east of Abbeville. As a result of this project, the state determined in late 2003 that it would need to exercise its easement to secure a strip of the Bixbys' land approximately ten feet in length. Angered by what they believed to be an unconstitutional theft of their property, the Bixbys sent numerous written appeals to various state officials, arguing that the easement in question had been obtained illegally. Some of these appeals, laced with references to the New Hampshire state constitution, invocations of the New Hampshire State Motto , and fierce statements underscoring the Bixbys' seeming willingness to die for what they believed in; did not arrive at state offices until after the standoff had concluded. In early December 2003, as officials with the South Carolina Department of Transportation began staking out the portion of the Bixbys' land to be taken for the highway project, the Bixbys posted signs on their property prohibiting trespassing by "goverment {Link without Title} agents and all others". Arthur Bixby also attempted to sabotage survey work by removing stakes from the yard and throwing them into the middle of Highway 72. Some believe that it was during this time that the Bixbys began heavily fortifying their home in preparation for a standoff with police or the government. Such a standoff began in the late morning hours of December 8 , 2003 , when Danny Boy Wilson arrived to warn the Bixbys against disrupting the Highway 72 widening project. THE STANDOFF Early on December 8, 2003, a highway worker contacted police after Arthur and Steven Bixby had made threatening statements, and again disrupted the laying out of survey stakes along Highway 72. Abbeville County Sheriff's Deputy Sgt. Daniel "Danny Boy" Wilson responded to this complaint, arriving at the Bixbys' home around 9:15am, only to be shot by Steven Bixby at point-blank range with a 7mm Magnum rifle. Deadly Domains: Standoffs with Extremists - ADL Wilson's body was then dragged inside the Bixby residence, where it would be held hostage for the next fourteen hours. After attempting to contact Wilson to no avail, authorities sent State Constable Donald "Donnie" Ouzts to investigate. Within minutes, Ouzts was fatally shot as well. In the meantime, Rita Bixby, from the Abbeville Arms apartment rented by Steven, phoned the South Carolina Attorney General's office, leaving the following message with a secretary: ''...this is Rita Bixby and I live at 4 Union Church Road...I've talked to you before, and they have; the state has decided they were going to come in and take our property. My husband and my son are there and there is a shootout going on because they're not going to take our land. No one has approached us and asked us if they could negotiate or anything. They just simply came onto our land and started taking it and there is a shootout there.'' Rita then effectively took the entire apartment complex and its surroundings hostage, threatening to randomly shoot bystanders if either her husband or her son were harmed by the police. Throughout the late morning and into the afternoon, members of various law enforcement agencies as well as Abbeville residents who had befriended the Bixbys attempted to negotiate with the family, to no avail. A SWAT unit came from Columbia by helicopter, followed by a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division armored tank. At one point, nearly 200 law enforcement agents surrounded the Bixby residence. A constant barrage of gunfire, up to a thousand rounds of ammunition in five minutes, emanated from the small house, thwarting attempts by police to retrieve Wilson's body or capture the residence. So heavy was the gunfire, in fact, that the police had to be resupplied several times with ammunition. Media estimates have pegged the actual number of rounds fired in the tens of thousands. According to South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart, the level of gunfire from the Bixbys was worse than anything he had encountered in his 30-year career. Indeed, many Abbeville residents living over a mile from the site of the standoff reported hearing the continuous gunfire. By late afternoon, SWAT officers were able to negotiate Rita Bixby's surrender, though she refused to assist in negotiations with Arthur and Steven. Upon searching Steven's apartment and Rita's vehicle, authorities discovered numerous high-powered firearms, as well as a large quantity of what has been described as anti-government literature. Around 7:15pm, two hours after Rita's surrender, police breached the Bixbys' front door with a 10-foot steel Battering Ram attached to an armored tank, breaking a Propane line and starting a fire, which several officers extinguished, in the process. A surveillance robot, armed with Tear Gas and 5X intensity Pepper Spray , was dispatched into the house, but was unable to enter due to the large quantity of debris blocking the front door. The robot was, however, able to return video of Danny Boy Wilson's handcuffed, lifeless body lying in a pool of blood. In an attempt to recover Wilson's body, a SWAT unit stormed the house; surprised by the earlier blaze, the Bixbys were caught off-guard for a moment, as they ceased firing long enough for the officers to drag the body from the house. By 10pm, after hours of constant firing from both sides and the release of over twenty canisters of tear gas and pepper spray into the nearly destroyed Bixby home, Steven Bixby surrendered to police. About an hour later, a critically wounded Arthur Bixby also surrendered and was flown to a Greenville hospital, where he later recovered. Upon entering the house for the first time, officers found a total of nine firearms, including Wilson's, as well as a large library of legal texts and articles related to Militia uprisings. They also found several different Will s made out by the Bixbys, and numerous Suicide Note s. THE AFTERMATH On December 9 , 2003 , Steven and Rita Bixby were arraigned in Abbeville County on various charges related to the deaths of Wilson and Ouzts. Steven was charged with two counts of murder and one count of Criminal Conspiracy , while Rita was charged with Accessory before the fact to murder, criminal conspiracy, and Misprision of a Felony . Arthur Bixby was later arraigned on charges similar to those against Steven. Under South Carolina law, both Arthur and Steven Bixby clearly face the Death Penalty on the murder counts. Prosecutors originally planned to seek the death penalty for all three Bixbys, but on August 23 , 2006 , Circuit Judge Alexander Macaulay ruled that the death penalty was not an option in Rita's case, a ruling that prosecutors will appeal to have overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court . Following their arrests, the Bixbys were largely defiant and unrepentant of their actions. Steven's parents expressed pride at their son's desire to defend his land at any cost, and categorized the deaths of Wilson and Ouzts as mere collateral damage. In court, Steven Bixby addressed a judge: ''Why did I do it? I didn't do it... [the government ''started it. And if we can't be any freer than that in this country, I'd just as soon die...When are the people going to wake up...and realize you may be next?'' Steven, who likened the standoff to the events at Waco and Ruby Ridge , also claimed that when Wilson first arrived, the deputy had actually attempted to kick down the Bixbys' front door. All three Bixbys were initially held in the Abbeville County jail, awaiting trial. For a brief period in 2005, Steven Bixby was moved to the , 2006 One reason for the first delays was the sudden death of Circuit Judge Marc Westbrook in a September 2005 traffic accident; another reason was the considerable debate of both the defense and prosecution over both the venue of the trial and the county from which a Jury Pool would be selected. In early 2006, Macaulay agreed with Steven Bixby's defense that it would be nearly impossible to seat a truly impartial jury of Abbeville County citizens; in July 2006, Macaulay ruled that potential jurors would come from Chesterfield County . Despite initial concerns over security at the 100-year-old Abbeville County Courthouse, Eighth Circuit Judicial Solicitor Jerry Peace ruled on August 29 , 2006 , that the trial shall be held in Abbeville County. On this same day, a motion was filed by Steven Bixby's defense to have Steven's stepbrother Dennis Smith evaluated for competency to testify in Steven's trial. Smith, who now resides in New Hampshire, resided with Arthur and Rita Bixby at the time of the standoff, and was present in Steven's Abbeville Arms apartment when Rita had been threatening to shoot bystanders. In April 2006, Donald Sullivan of Wilmington, North Carolina , who had taken a personal interest in the Bixby case, filed a " Next Friend " motion in the Abbeville County court on Steven's behalf, seeking to have the charges against him dismissed. This motion, which was considered highly unorthodox by the court, was rejected. Sullivan, who believes that the Bixbys were merely three more victims of an overly aggressive and antagonistic government, maintains a Web Site that seeks to exculpate the Bixbys from any wrongdoing, and in fact, seeks to present their case as one of self-defense. NOTES EXTERNAL LINKS
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