Suspect flip flops murder stories

Defendant: It was all tales, legends

Adrian Apodaca took the stand at his murder-for-hire trial in West Palm Beach to tell a federal jury not to trust what he told an FBI informant two years ago.

Apodaca, one of the founders of the white supremacist Vinlanders Social Club, faces life in prison if convicted of multiple charges stemming from a plot to kill an Atlanta drug dealer over a debt owed to white nationalist organization in South Florida. Everyone else involved in the plot, including the victim, was an FBI agent.

The FBI opened an investigation into Apodaca after he allegedly bragged to an informant that he had committed multiple murders in Arizona and New Mexico, including the crossbow-shooting death of a man named Robert “Machete Bob” McGuire, whose body was found months after Apodaca moved to South Florida in 2015.

“Think about how farfetched those stories sound. They’re ridiculous. Outlandish,” said Apodaca, 45, whose appearance in court — his red hair neatly combed, his goatee trimmed, his long-sleeved dress shirt accented with a striped tie — bore almost no resemblance to the skinhead-influenced look of his official

mugshot.

Federal prosecutors Lawrence LaVecchio and Paul Schwartz introduced evidence aimed at persuading jurors that Apodaca was more truthful when he was bragging about his exploits than he was when he testified Monday. The lead detective in the “Machete Bob” murder testified that Apodaca was taking credit for the murder and exposing details about it months before the body was discovered.

Apodaca has not been charged in the murder, but remains a person of interest, the detective said.

Apodaca said he was introduced to the team of undercover FBI agents by the agency’s informant inside the Davie-based Dirty White Boys Motorcycle Club. The informant, identified in court as Steven Watt, testified that he is a white separatist who believes unprovoked violence harms the cause. He said he has gone into hiding following Apodaca’s arrest, which exposed him as an FBI tipster.

But Apodaca said he lied to Watt and to the undercover agents, even when they fed him the tale of a debt owed by an Atlanta drug dealer.

“They drew me in,” he said. “I just needed to make some money...I was entertaining what I thought was organized crime.”

He said he suggested killing the Atlanta drug dealer because it was the natural progression of the conversation he was having with the lead undercover agent. He said he never intended to carry out the crime.

Apodaca was arrested last October after traveling from Broward County to Georgia. Agents seized a 54-inch metal garrote, a pistol, ammunition, gas masks, a bulletproof vest, knives, zip ties and other items from him when he was arrested.

Defense lawyer Neison Marks is expected to argue that Apodaca was the victim of an entrapment scheme and that there is no proof he committed any of the 20 or so killings that he supposedly bragged about. Apodaca has a long history of severe mental illness and hospitalizations, starting when he was 13, though prosecutors have pointed to statements Apodaca made to the informant and agents suggesting he faked mental illness to manipulate the justice system.

Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra.

Apodaca