Plea deal in theft of high-tech gear from Fort Gordon

By RUSS BYNUM

The Associated Press

A Georgia man facing federal charges that he impersonated an Army soldier while swiping high-tech gear from the military has agreed to plead guilty, his defense attorney said Tuesday.

A plea hearing for 35-year-old Anthony Todd Saxon was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Augusta, where Saxon was arrested at Fort Gordon last June. Prosecutors say Saxon wore a combat uniform and was carrying military gear, including a live anti-personnel mine, though he had been discharged from the military 16 years earlier.

"My client decided, based on legal advice, to enter into a plea agreement with the government," said Danny Durham, Saxon's defense attorney. "We believe it's in his best interest to handle it in that way."

Durham declined to discuss details of the plea deal. Federal prosecutors had no comment on the case, said James Durham, an assistant U.S. attorney.

In pre-trial hearings, investigators and witnesses described Saxon as a man so obsessed with the military that he moved his family to Georgia in late 2009 under the guise he'd taken a job at Fort Gordon. Neighbors saw Saxon in uniform often and assumed he was a soldier. Before his arrest, he'd convinced his family he was about to deploy to a war zone.

But prosecutors say Saxon hasn't served in the military since 1994, when a congenital heart condition caused him to be discharged from the Florida National Guard.

After moving to Georgia, prosecutors say, Saxon posed as an Army master sergeant wearing a combat uniform with rank and insignia and visited Fort Gordon at least 10 times. He's accused of, at least once, using the uniform to fool military officials into giving him equipment — a laser targeting sight.

When Saxon was arrested June 15, authorities found a camouflage bag containing an M-14 anti-personnel mine, flash-bang grenades and night-vision devices. In his car, they found more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and a Kevlar helmet.

A grand jury indicted Saxon on seven federal counts including impersonating a soldier, theft of government property and possession of explosives by a convicted felon. Saxon was convicted of grand theft in Florida in 1996.

Saxon's attorney has said that, despite his obsession with the military, there's no evidence he intended to harm anyone.