Plea agreement rejected
Bridge near Hoover Dam was blocked by a vehicle loaded with ammunition
A court commissioner rejects a plea deal as too lenient for a QAnon conspiracy follower who blocked a bridge near Hoover Dam with a vehicle loaded with ammunition. A future hearing will determine what’s next in the case against Matthew Wright.
The court rejected the plea agreement as too lenient for a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory who blocked a bridge near the Hoover Dam with an armored vehicle loaded with ammunition.
Matthew Wright, 32, had reached a plea deal that would have netted him less than a decade in prison.
But at his sentencing hearing on Monday, Commissioner Billy Sipe rejected the plea agreement because of its lenient prison term.
A future hearing was set to determine the next steps in the case that started in June 2018, when Wright drove an armored vehicle onto the bridge and blocked traffic for about an hour.
Wright, 32, of Henderson, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas, initially faced such a slew of charges following his arrest in June 2018 that he could have faced life imprisonment. However, Wright struck a deal with prosecutors that had him pleading guilty to three charges, including one for making a terrorist threat.
The terrorism charge, under the deal, was designated as non-dangerous.
The presumptive sentence range, under Arizona state guidelines, was less than a decade.
The attorney for Wright, Michael Denea, told the court his client did not intend to use the weapons in his vehicle. Denea argued to the court that this was a misguided act of protest and that Wright simply wanted to hand out literature in a high-profile fashion.
“He at no time intended on engaging law enforcement or anyone else in any act of violence using the weapons in his vehicle,” Denea told the court.
Sipe took a dim view of that argument. “He was there for combat. There’s no question about that,” Sipe said from the bench. “He wasn’t there to hand out literature. He could have done that in the parking lot.”
Wright declined to make a statement to the court. He referred to a statement he filed with the court. That statement was not available in court records reviewed The Republic on Monday.
Steven Wright, the father of Matthew Wright, told the court he didn’t think his son intended violence on the bridge. “I believe that, truthfully, he neither planned nor intended danger or harm to anyone else.”
Steven Wright said he thought his son “naively viewed himself as a patriot” and didn’t realize the legal gravity of his actions.
Robert Moon, a deputy county attorney, said it was unclear what Wright intended. If a random shooting was on his mind, Moon said, “He had come to his senses by the time he got to the bridge.”
The fact Wright did not actually fire his weapons, Moon said, meant that the potential life sentence was probably not a realistic outcome.
However, Moon said, there was “the potential for great violence.”
Moon said that Wright was wearing an armor-plated vest and that many of the weapons and ammunition in the vehicle were found in the cab where Wright was sitting.
“If he is a peace-loving person,” Moon said, “why does he have the guns and all this ammunition, and why is he wearing this armored vest?”
Wright had modified the van that had also served as his living quarters,
court papers say. He armored it and drilled holes for gun barrels, documents say.
There was no mention of QAnon during Monday’s hearing.
On June 15, 2018, Wright made the half-hour drive from his parents’ home in Henderson to the Mike O’CallaghanPat Tillman bridge that soars 890 feet above the Colorado River. That river serves as the boundary between Arizona and Nevada. The border between the states is the midpoint of the bridge, which is about a mile from Hoover Dam.
Wright blocked traffic with his van. At least one witness told police she saw a gun poking out of the holes in the van.
Demea, arguing on Wright’s behalf, said that was impossible since a steel barrier in the vehicle separated the front of the vehicle from the living quarters in the back where the hole was drilled.
At one point, Wright held out a sign that read “Release the OIG report.”
Authorities said that sign referenced an Office of Inspector General report concerning former FBI Director James Comey, who had been fired by President Donald Trump. That office had already released a report on Comey, but Wright was apparently referencing a rumored second report that contained explosive details.
Word of that second report had circulated among followers of “Q,” a purported government agent who has been leaving cryptic messages on online bulletin boards for the past three years. Adherents of the conspiracy theory believe Q has been alerting citizens to real goings-on in the government, most of which involve Trump rooting out deepseeded corruption.
Followers of the theory expect a “great awakening” that will involve mass arrests of officials in previous administrations, some for crimes against children.
QAnon has become more visible at Trump rallies and other public protests. In Oregon, a supporter of QAnon won the Republican primary for one of that state’s two U.S. Senate seats.
Wright, in a letter from jail addressed to Trump, indicated that he was a follower of Q. He apologized to the president for actions which Wright said “did not represent the American people to the best of my ability.”
Wright offered his assistance to Trump should it be needed. He closed the letter with the phrase, “For Where We Go One, We Go All,” a phrase that has become a slogan among QAnon followers.
He signed the letter: “A humble patriot.”
Wright, in another letter, this one addressed to various politicians and law enforcement officials, wrote that he was not a seditionist, nor did he wish to fight the government.
“I understand that the evil and corruption is limited to a select few in power and that the greater good is doing its best to combat this,” Wright wrote. “I never meant harm to my brothers and sisters. I simply wanted the truth on behalf of all Americans, all of humanity for that matter.”
Wright’s stand off with law enforcement from both Arizona and Nevada lasted for about an hour. He then drove to the Arizona side of the bridge.
Officers flattened his tires with stop sticks, but Wright continued to drive toward officers. He then turned into the desert and traveled along a dirt road for four miles before getting stuck trying to cross a small canyon.
He exited the vehicle and was immediately taken into custody.
Inside his van, according to court records, officers foundfour firearms and 900 rounds of ammunition.