Douglas Haig is charged with conspiracy to manufacture and sell armor-piercing ammunition.
Douglas Haig, an Arizona resident who sold ammunition to Las Vegas mass murderer Stephen Paddock, was arrested by the FBI on Friday for violations of federal gun laws. Haig stands accused of conspiring to manufacture and sale armor-piercing bullets.
While armor-piercing bullets are not illegal in every instance, Douglas Haig is not licensed to sell such ammunition.
The FBI alleges that two unfired .308-caliber (7.62mm) rounds found in Stephen Paddock’s hotel room at Mandalay Bay had Douglas Haig’s fingerprints on them. Those same rounds had tool marks from Haig’s workshop.
The bullets in the cartridges were armor-piercing, with an incendiary capsule in the nose.
Douglas Haig and his lawyer, Marc J. Victor, contend that the tracer bullets Haig sold were not armor-piercing — at least when they were sold to Stephen Paddock.
Douglas Haig’s Home Searched
The arrest and prosecution of Douglas Haig has been over 3 and 1/2 months coming. On October 19, 18 days after the Mandalay Bay shooting that cause 58 deaths and over 500 injuries, the FBI searched Douglas Haig’s home in Mesa, Arizona.
They seized ammunition that the agency claims is armor-piercing, according to a complaint filed by the FBI. According to that complaint, Douglas Haig does not have a license to manufacture armor-piercing ammunition.
Sold Ammo at Las Vegas Gun Show
In Friday’s hearing, investigators alleged that Douglas Haig and an associate sold four or five 10-round packages of .308-caliber incendiary ammunition to Stephen Paddock at a Las Vegas area gun show which took place in August.
It is not clear whether the two rounds found in Stephen Paddock’s hotel room were from the 10-round packages of ammunition. It is also unknown if Stephen Paddock fired any ammunition he might have bought from Douglas Haig.
Mandalay Bay Shooting
On October 1, 64-year old Stephen Paddock opened fire from his 32nd-floor suite at the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay hotel, casino, and resort. Paddock fired into a crowd of 22,000 people attending a music festival. In the resulting hail of fire, 58 people were killed, 422 people were injured from stray fire, and 850 others were injured in the panicked rush to escape the concert area.
By the time authorities reached Stephen Paddock’s room, he was dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Paddock had been at the Mandalay Bay for days, slowly sneaking guns and ammunition into the room, while making preparations for his own death. He wired $100,000 to his longtime girlfriend, Marilou Danley, in the Philippines, presumably to help Danley buy a house in her native country.
Law enforcement continues to investigate Stephen Paddock’s role in the crime, though they still cannot say why he committed such a heinous act. Meanwhile, prosecutors have fought to keep court documents and FBI files secret, as the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Associated Press, and other media groups seek Freedom of Information disclosures.
Prosecutors Planned Another Arrest
Las Vegas prosecutors recently told a district judge they wanted their documents sealed for a while longer, because they thought they might have an arrest to make within the next week in relation to the Mandalay Bay shooting. That arrest appears to have been Douglas Haig.
The 55-year old Douglas Haig appeared before the court this week and was released on his own recognizance, with special conditions stipulated. He is expected to appear before the court again on February 15 for a preliminary hearing. The maximum penalty for manufacturing armor-piercing bullets is a $250,000 fine and up to 5 years in prison.
Marc J. Victor Denies Armor-Piercing Cartridges
Marc J. Victor, who is representing Haig in court, had no comment when a CNN reporter spoke to him outside the court. According to KNXV, Mr. Victor declined comment, saying, “My first obligation and only obligation is to my client.”
In a Friday morning news conference back in Mesa, Marc J. Victor said that the tracer ammunition Haig sold to Stephen Paddock was not armor-piercing. Instead, Victor said the ammmunition “was not modified in any way…from manufacturer’s specs.”
