Murder suspects Anthony Peden and Christopher Salmon will be in court Thursday in Long County. The two are scheduled to go before Judge Robert Russell III at 9 a.m. regarding their involvement in the December 2011 deaths of Tiffany York, 17, and Michael Roark, 19.
The men have been charged with firing the shots that killed the teenagers at Morgan Lake in Long County. They also are believed to have been members of the anti-government militia, Forever Enduring Always Ready, which, according to earlier court testimony, had goals of bombing Forsyth Park in Savannah, establishing a compound in Washington state, assassinating the president and eventually overthrowing the U.S. government.
FEAR members Isaac Aguigui and Michael Burnett already pleaded guilty for their involvement in the teens’ deaths and were sentenced. According to testimony from both of them, the militia members reportedly lured the victims to a wooded area near the lake by inviting Roark to shoot at targets in Long County. Aguigui said the plan did not involve killing York, and he told Roark not to bring her. When Roark let her come along anyway, the group members decided to kill York to avoid leaving a witness. Aguigui said Peden shot York as she was getting out of the car, and then Salmon shot Roark in the head. Their bodies were discovered by local fishermen. The militia members said they killed Roark because he was getting out of the military and knew too much.
Burnett pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter in August 2012, and Aguigui pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in July 2013. During a military court martial last week, Aguigui was also found guilty of the July 17, 2011, murder of his wife, Sgt. Deirdre Aguigui, and her unborn son. Aguigui, who already was serving two life sentences for the deaths of York and Roark, was sentenced to a third life sentence without the possibility of parole for his wife’s murder. All four men are former soldiers.