BRIDGEPORT — A Milford man who is alleged to be a member of a white supremacist group pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempting to conspire to steal weapons from an Ansonia apartment and selling a firearm to a convicted felon.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office, William R. Bolton, 32, pleaded guilty to one count of robbery conspiracy related to interstate or foreign commerce and one count of sale of a firearm to a convicted felon. He will be sentenced Nov. 5 by U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall.

Bolton and three other men are identified as members or participants in a white supremacist group called the Connecticut White Wolves, or Battalion 14.

Bolton faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000.

On March 18, a federal grand jury in New Haven returned a seven-count indictment charging Bolton and four state residents on conspiracy and firearms charges for allegedly trying to sell rifles and shotguns, as well as grenades, to a white supremacist group outside the state.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in January 2009, Bolton was involved in planning with a group to burglarize or rob the Ansonia apartment of an individual who assembled firearms from parts obtained over the Internet.

There was thought to be about $400,000 worth of semiautomatic and automatic weapons in the apartment. Bolton and his co-defendants planned to break and enter the apartment when the gun assembler was not home, but they said that if he were home during the burglary, they planned to assault him, knock him out, and tie him up, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The burglary/robbery was never tried, after Bolton and a co-defendant later learned that the gun assembler had moved out and taken the firearms inventory to an unknown location.

In March 2009, Bolton met with two of his co-defendants and an undercover witness to negotiate the sale of a rifle to the witness, who identified himself as a member of an out of state white supremacists’ group. When the subject of registering firearms came up during the discussion, the witness told the men, “I’m a convicted felon, I don’t register nothin’,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Bolton later purchased hacksaw blades and helped saw off the barrel of the rifle being sold. After the witness purchased the rifle for $300 in cash, a co-defendant ordered Bolton and one other co-defendant to throw the sawed-off barrel into a river from a bridge in the Devon section of Milford. Continued...

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Bolton stated, “I’ll get rid of it,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

A co-defendant, Edwin Westmoreland, 27, of Stratford, pleaded guilty June 29 to one count of sale of a firearm to a convicted felon, and one count of conspiracy to sell firearms to a convicted felon and to make and transfer unregistered firearms consisting of explosive grenades. He awaits sentencing.

The three other co-defendants are awaiting trial.

The case is being investigated by local, state and federal authorities.

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