‘Conspiracy Granny’ is off the hook
Feds dismiss the case linked to Sutherland Springs killings
Federal prosecutors have moved to dismiss gun charges against a conspiracy theorist accused of harassing families of Sutherland Springs massacre victims.
Jodie Mann, who called herself “Conspiracy Granny,” made statements in 2018 that resulted in her being charged with helping her thenboyfriend, Robert Ussery, break the law barring felons from possessing firearms.
But Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia last week said Mann had been subjected to an “unlawful seizure” when she was detained and questioned in May 2018 as authorities investigated Ussery. He and Mann allegedly claimed that the Nov. 5, 2017, mass shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs was a hoax.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Stephenson moved Wednesday to dismiss “all counts against Jodie Marie Mann.”
Ussery — who ran a website for conspiracy theorists and called himself “Side Thorn” — pleaded guilty in August to illegally possessing a firearm. He was convicted in 1984 of burglarizing a vehicle in the Houston area.
Mann challenged the evidence that led to her indictment. Her lawyers argued that statements she made admitting that she aided Ussery in his gun violation were inadmissible in court because she’d been unlawfully detained.
Wilson County sheriff ’s deputies initially investigated the pair after being called to First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, 35 miles southeast of San Antonio, on March 5, 2018. Then-pastor Frank Pomeroy, whose 14-year-old daughter was among the 26 people killed at the church, told the deputies that Mann and Ussery had been threatening him and claiming the mass shooting was a hoax.
Deputies obtained a warrant for a Gopro video camera Ussery had and viewed the footage, which showed Ussery had placed a gun in his truck. At one point, Ussery told Mann that if police asked about the gun, that Mann should say it was hers.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Texas Rangers took over the investigation, and staked out Ussery’s home on May 23, 2018. They lured him to another location to arrest him for the gun seen in the Gopro footage. Mann was with him in a Chevrolet Spark.
Ussery was booked into jail. Mann was handcuffed and instructed to sit on the curb next to the car while the officers searched the vehicle. At the same time, officers searched Ussery’s rural property near Lockhart and found several more firearms.
Garcia said in his ruling that Mann should have been released when the agents were done searching the vehicle. Instead, Mann remained handcuffed and was questioned before she was let go. She was later charged.