Prosecution Rests in Fincher Case

FAYETTEVILLE — The prosecution finished calling witnesses early this afternoon in the Wayne Fincher federal case.

The defense was going over it's part of the case in the judge's chambers out of the hearing of the jury before returning to open court.

Earlier Thursday, an expert testified that guns seized by federal agents at the Washington County home of Hollis Wayne Fincher are machine guns as defined by federal law and were not properly registered.

“It’s a machine gun,” Earl Griffith, a firearms expert with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, told jurors as he examined one of the guns seized.

Fincher, 60, a lieutenant commander of the Militia of Washington County, is charged in federal court with possessing three homemade, unregistered machine guns and an unregistered sawed-off shotgun. He is being tried this week in federal court in Fayetteville.

According to police, two of the .308-caliber machine guns, homemade versions of the Browning model 1919, allegedly had Fincher's name inscribed on them and a reference to the Constitutional right of citizens to bear arms. The other firearms were 9 mm STEN design submachine guns and a sawed off shotgun.

Griffith said it appears the guns were bought as kits and the necessary parts to make them fully automatic were made by Fincher or others in this country.

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