Post by L Roebuck on Oct 14, 2006 8:36:37 GMT -5
Man could get more prison time for dealing in artifacts
Former Grants Pass insurance agent and amateur archaeologist convicted of trying to hire a hit man now found guilty of illegally attempting to sell American Indian remains
An amateur archaeologist serving a prison sentence for trying to hire a hit man to kill a former business partner has been found guilty of attempting to sell American Indian artifacts stolen from public lands in 2002 and 2003.
Jack Lee Harelson, already serving a 10-year sentence, faces up to two more years in prison for the most recent conviction, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Cardani in Eugene. He will be sentenced Dec. 19.
Harelson acknowledged before Judge Ann L. Aiken this week that the government would be able to prove he hired another man to assist him in offering to sell archaeological resources dug up illegally on federal lands in Oregon and Nevada, according to court records.
He had hired a government informant. Harelson, a former Grants Pass insurance agent, was convicted in 1996 of stealing artifacts and the mummified remains of two Indian children from Elephant Mountain Cave in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. He was later fined $2.5 million in a civil case involving the excavation. Detectives learned that Harelson was interested in hiring a hit man to kill people involved in his conviction. An informant told Harelson he knew a hit man, who did not really exist, and Harelson offered to pay him with opals to do the job, according to tape recordings.Harelson was tried twice in Oregon on charges that he had paid an intermediary to arrange murders. He was acquitted in 2004 on two such charges.
But a Jackson County jury last year found him guilty of trying to hire a hit man to kill Lloyd Olds of Brookings, Harelson's partner in a Nevada opal-mining venture. The jury acquitted him of trying to solicit the murder of an Oregon State Police lieutenant. The local case will be featured in a Monday program on Court TV. Jackson County Deputy District Attorney Tim Barnack and Oregon State Police Lt. Walt Markee were interviewed for the upcoming "Grave Robber" episode of "The Investigators." The show is scheduled to air at 10 p.m. on local Charter cable channel 67.
Article
Former Grants Pass insurance agent and amateur archaeologist convicted of trying to hire a hit man now found guilty of illegally attempting to sell American Indian remains
An amateur archaeologist serving a prison sentence for trying to hire a hit man to kill a former business partner has been found guilty of attempting to sell American Indian artifacts stolen from public lands in 2002 and 2003.
Jack Lee Harelson, already serving a 10-year sentence, faces up to two more years in prison for the most recent conviction, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Cardani in Eugene. He will be sentenced Dec. 19.
Harelson acknowledged before Judge Ann L. Aiken this week that the government would be able to prove he hired another man to assist him in offering to sell archaeological resources dug up illegally on federal lands in Oregon and Nevada, according to court records.
He had hired a government informant. Harelson, a former Grants Pass insurance agent, was convicted in 1996 of stealing artifacts and the mummified remains of two Indian children from Elephant Mountain Cave in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. He was later fined $2.5 million in a civil case involving the excavation. Detectives learned that Harelson was interested in hiring a hit man to kill people involved in his conviction. An informant told Harelson he knew a hit man, who did not really exist, and Harelson offered to pay him with opals to do the job, according to tape recordings.Harelson was tried twice in Oregon on charges that he had paid an intermediary to arrange murders. He was acquitted in 2004 on two such charges.
But a Jackson County jury last year found him guilty of trying to hire a hit man to kill Lloyd Olds of Brookings, Harelson's partner in a Nevada opal-mining venture. The jury acquitted him of trying to solicit the murder of an Oregon State Police lieutenant. The local case will be featured in a Monday program on Court TV. Jackson County Deputy District Attorney Tim Barnack and Oregon State Police Lt. Walt Markee were interviewed for the upcoming "Grave Robber" episode of "The Investigators." The show is scheduled to air at 10 p.m. on local Charter cable channel 67.
Article