A second defendant in U.S. v. Valerie Hayes pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal in Harrisonburg federal court last Monday.
Jennifer Amnott is the wife of Frank Amnott, who entered a guilty plea more than a year after his 2018 arrest. Both will testify.
Jennifer Amnott was charged with taking part in a conspiracy to kidnap five children from two Old Order Mennonite families in July of 2018. Under the agreement, two charges will be dropped: Count Two, conspiracy to kill witnesses, and Count Three, the kidnapping of parent 1.
Jennifer Amnott was asked by Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon if she wished to say anything to the court after entering her plea.
“I participated in the plan,” she said, “and because of that, I’m as guilty as much as anyone else.”
The hearing was attended by several members of the Old Order Mennonite community: the couple whose house was broken into, their parents, and a handful of others on hand to lend support.
Judge Dillon noted that the couple had decided not to make victims’ statements. The two nodded their heads and respectfully smiled to acknowledge their decision, which is in keeping with the belief to not judge not, lest ye be judged.
The community has also chosen to forgive the four involved, according to Deacon Lawrence Wenger, a leader of the couple’s congregation.
“This is our choice, as that’s what God commands,” he said.
Judge Dillon ordered presentencing reports before her judgment, with the date to be set in the coming days.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Walsh shed new light on the alleged conspiracy through the government’s statement of facts, which stated that the Florida couple had gone to Hayes’s Maryland home to visit and celebrate their anniversary in July of 2018.
“During the time that J. AMNOTT and F. AMNOTT were staying at Hayes’s residence in Maryland, the three of them continually discussed the children and the planned “recovery” mission, i.e. the kidnapping,” the statement read. “Hayes told J. Amnott that the plan was to ‘rescue’ the children and that they were in a compound with adults pretending to be Mennonites. Hayes told J. AMNOTT that these adults were operatives, who were dangerous and trained with weapons. Hayes described, and J. AMNOTT understood, that the plan was to take the children in daylight or to subdue any adults located on the premises by using force if necessary.”
All preceding court documents have stated that Hayes had identified three of the five children as her own. The statement of fact in Jennifer Amnott’s plea agreement, however, is the first time a “compound” of weapons-trained “operatives” have been mentioned.
Frank and Jennifer Amnott were two of the four co-conspirators, which also included alleged ringleader Hayes and her boyfriend, Gary Blake Reburn.
According to the Justice Department, Hayes met the Florida couple through a mutual friend in 2014. The Amnotts, whose attempted pregnancies all ended in a miscarriage, were desperate to have a child.
When Hayes and the Amnotts met, Hayes introduced herself as a federal agent who was involved in dangerous, covert missions and that she could facilitate the adoption of endangered or neglected children.
The government alleges that after Hayes told the couple that two bogus attempts had failed, she asked the Amnotts to join her in a rescue mission that included taking her children and two others from two couples, who they would then execute by gunfire to eliminate witnesses.
The Amnotts would then adopt one of the older children, who they had named Caleb.
The allegations state that the children of the first family were two daughters, one 2 years old and the second 8 months old. The children at the second home were described as less than 8 years old.
Jennifer Amnott’s role was to watch Hayes’s three biological daughters in Hayes’s home while Jennifer’s husband, Frank Amnott, and Hayes travelled to Dayton to surveille the homes of the two families whose homes they planned to enter and take their children. She remained in touch with her co-conspirators by way of more than a thousand text messages.
On July 28, Hayes requested her boyfriend, Gary Blake Reburn, join the effort for “an extra set of eyes and hands.”
Then, on the night of July 29, Hayes knocked on the door dressed in a cape dress and a covering, the clothing worn by Old Order women, to look like a member of the community and hopefully increase the odds that the couple would let them in.
When the father went to greet them and saw that Amnott and Reburn were armed, he tried to close the door, but they were able to force their way in. The men took the father down to the basement, where he was laid on the floor and his wrists zip tied behind his back. Amnott held him at gunpoint while Reburn returned upstairs to help Hayes find the children.
The three did not know that the mother had been able to grab the couple’s cordless phone, run across the road, hide in a cornfield and dial 911.
The nearest deputy who was dispatched arrived to find Hayes, Reburn and the mother standing in front of the house. The mother told investigators that she was afraid to say anything out of fear that the deputy would be shot.
With Hayes convincing him that she and Reburn were neighbors, the deputy directed them to take the mother and drop her off at Krossroads Kountry Store, which was located at the corner, for her safety. The couple did so, then fled the scene.
While that was happening, the deputy entered the house to make sure the daughters were safe. He then continued to search the home, eventually finding the father and Frank Amnott in the basement. Amnott was arrested and taken into custody without incident.
Hayes and Reburn returned to their home to meet Jennifer. Within days, the three fled to Scotland, where they were arrested four months later. After fighting extradition for seven years, the European Court of Human Rights denied their plea.
The three were then taken to the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail and arraigned at Charlottesville federal court last October.
Among those who attended the hearing was Keith Knicely, one of the on-call drivers who take Old Order Mennonites to places they can’t reach by horse and buggy. He is very close to members of the community, which includes many cousins.
He said he’s frustrated by the opinions of some who are unfamiliar with Shenandoah Valley Old Order Mennonites.
“They are not backwoods, they are intelligent, and not as closed in as you think.”
Multiple hearings in the case have been held between arraignment and Amnott’s plea hearing. Last week, Reburn’s attorney, Christopher Leibig, filed a motion that his client and Hayes be tried separately, which Judge Dillon has taken under advisement.
That and other motions will be addressed during a hearing on Oct. 27 in Charlottesville federal court.
The trial is scheduled to begin on Feb. 1 and is expected to last the whole month.
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