RICHMOND, Va. – Friends and acquaintances said some of the men accused in a terror plot to start a race war and commit other crimes were unlikely suspects.
The news that she was dating an alleged white supremacist, who parents were also connected to a terror plot, left Kristi Leigh almost speechless.
She was dating Ronald Beasley Chaney III. She said she met him five months ago while at her job in Richmond. She said Chaney was trying to turn his life around and was working as an electrician.
"He's a sweet guy, like, I would've never really thought of this at all,” Leigh said.
"We all had a good time,” she said. “We were always happy."
Leigh said she broke up with Chaney just a week ago.
Ronald Beasley Chaney III, Robert Doyle and Charles Halderman
Documents reveal that, Robert Doyle and Chaney and others ascribing to a white supremacist version of the Asatru faith met inside a home on Candlelamp Lane in Chesterfield.
The FBI received information that during a meeting there in late September members discussed acting out their extremist beliefs by shooting or bombing occupants of black churches and Jewish synagogues and plotting to kill an Oklahoma gun store owner.
It also alleged that Doyle met up with Charles Halderman of Henrico to plan the murder of a local jeweler, rob an armored truck and harm a Virginia gun store owner.
The crimes were to provide the proceeds to purchase land, weapons and training for the so-called coming race war. But they were apparently foiled by the FBI.
Shortly after the FBI raided the Chesterfield home, father Ronald Beasley Chaney Jr. and his wife were arrested in Highland Springs, on weapons and drug charges.
Ronald Beasley Chaney Jr.
"I don't know who they are,” Leigh said. “I didn't even know their names.”
“And he would tell me names about everybody, but I've never heard of their names,” Leigh added.
She said her ex-boyfriend is a respectable person who showed no sign of racial hatred. She said her brother-in-law is a black man, and he never had an issue with Chaney either.
Despite her disbelief, she said it was no secret that Chaney was recently released from prison for malicious wounding and robbery charges.
She said he talked about being in the penitentiary.
"He didn't ever say anything bad about people in there,” Leigh said. “I never heard anything bad about any races, nothing.”
Leigh said she had no knowledge of the alleged terror scheme and is glad she wasn't exposed to it.
"I have a daughter and I have to protect her,” she said. “And I don't want her to grow up around that --not only for myself -- I don't want her to be around that.”
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