Gunfire at the Compound

Two FBI agents drove onto a family compound on an Indian reservation and were killed in a gun battle; their cars were struck by more than 125 bullets, while only five casings came from the agents' own weapons. Prosecutors alleged the defendant was in a red and white vehicle the agents had followed onto the property, and relied on ballistics linking a rifle recovered later from a highway explosion to a casing found in one agent's car, and on an agent's revolver later found in a motor home bearing the defendant's thumbprint. Two co-defendants had already been acquitted at a separate trial. The defence argued the defendant was the victim of an FBI frame-up built on manufactured evidence and intimidated witnesses.