The world nearly didn’t notice Isaac G. Aguigui, the former Cashmere man now charged with masterminding a terrorist plot and ordering the murders of two people to disguise it. Although he and fellow soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia were arrested on murder and conspiracy charges in December 2011, news of his Aug. 10 indictment on state terrorism charges was nearly eclipsed by the Republican National Convention and a Gulf Coast hurricane that shared his first name.

Georgia state prosecutors say Aguigui, 21, coaxed fellow Army enlistees to join a militia group called FEAR (“Forever Enduring, Always Ready”), with identifying tattoos, an arsenal of $87,000 worth of guns and ammo — most of it purchased while he was on leave in Wenatchee — and ambitions to seize Fort Stewart’s armory, blow up a public fountain in nearby Savannah, poison the Washington state apple crop, and even assassinate the president.

Aguigui is accused of trying to cover up these plots by ordering the December 2011 killings of former soldier Michael Roark, 19, and his girlfriend Tiffany York, 17, after Roark left the Army with knowledge of FEAR’s activities. One of the members, Army Pfc. Michael Burnett, pleaded guilty and testified against Aguigui. Another FEAR associate accused of helping to burn evidence of the murders pleaded guilty October. Yet another, identified as a drug dealer who sold marijuana, cocaine and Ecstasy to the militia group, pleaded guilty and told prosecutors he too was targeted for death by Aguigui after providing FEAR with a bad batch of Ecstasy.

All told, 11 current or former military enlistees have been charged with crimes. Aguigui and two other men face murder charges — and Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey said last week the July 2011 death of his pregnant wife, Sgt. Deirdre Wetzker Aguigui, also remains under investigation.

“There may be some development on that in the very near future,” said Isabel Pauley, the civilian assistant district attorney leading the FEAR prosecutions. “That’s quite possible.”

Aguigui, the homeschooled son of a Cashmere family, remains incarcerated in Ware County Jail in Waycross, Ga., 70 miles southwest of Fort Stewart. “Because there are so many defendants in that case, they’re having to be spread out to many different counties,” Pauley said. “So that’s why he is where he is.”

Aguigui and two alleged conspirators may face the death penalty if convicted. His next court date has not been scheduled.

Jefferson Robbins: 664-7123

robbins@wenatcheeworld.com