5 men face charges in ‘ritual sacrifice’ of farm animal

ROME, Ga. — The killing of a farm animal during what authorities have said was a “ritual sacrifice” during a training camp in Georgia for a white supremacist group has led to charges against five more men.

Patrik Mathews, William Garfield Bilbrough IV, Brian Mark Lemley Jr., Brandon Gregory Ashley and Duncan Christopher Trimmell were charged last week with aggravated animal cruelty and all but Trimmell were also charged with livestock theft by a Floyd County grand jury, according to an indictment first reported by the Rome News-Tribune.

Mathews, Lemley and Bilbrough were also arrested in Maryland and Delaware on federal felony charges in January 2020.

Floyd County prosecutors identified the animal, which they say was beheaded during a meeting of the group in October 2019, as a ram. Federal prosecutors have said it was a goat.

The killing happened at a training camp in north Georgia that prosecutors have said was organized by The Base, a white supremacist group that espoused using violence to accelerate overthrowing the U.S. government.