Colorado Springs man sentenced to 2+ years in federal prison after pleading guilty to gun crime

A man who has properties in both Colorado Springs and Cotopaxi was sentenced this week after pleading guilty in the U.S. District Court for Colorado in Denver to having a gun after a previous conviction of a felony. He was also ordered to forfeit all 11 firearms and ammunition. 

Chad Edward Keith, 42, was sentenced on Tuesday to 27 months in federal prison for possessing firearms after previously being convicted of a felony. 

One of the properties owned by Keith is a 2.6-acre property in the town of Cotopaxi. A 13-page federal arrest warrant describes the property as having multiple underground bunkers -- one of which can allegedly protect from an electromagnetic blast -- 10,000-gallon water cistern, a 462-foot-deep well and being "100% OFF GRID."

Keith is also an alleged white supremacist who purportedly wanted to start a school at his property in south-central Colorado to teach high schoolers about weapons and white supremacy.

Keith bought two adjacent properties and is alleged to have been planning to build a school for kids younger than high school age with an "anti-Semitic curriculum." 

During a search of his Colorado Springs address, agents found a flyer with pictures of various congressmen and senators with images of the Star of David on their foreheads. The placement of the Stars of David was suggestive of firearms bullseye targets.

"Coloradans can rest easier knowing that a dangerous person is behind bars," said United States Attorney Cole Finegan in a statement. "Together with our law enforcement partners, we remain committed to making sure that violent felons are prohibited from possessing weapons."

"The FBI is committed to keeping communities safe. This commitment includes ensuring that individuals who are prohibited from owning firearms do not acquire them. In this case, a convicted felon was found to be in possession of 11 firearms," said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek in a statement. "Addressing community safety concerns is a priority for the FBI, and we will continue to work with our partners to remove illegal weapons from the hands of offenders."

Eleven guns, along with ammunition, were seized by federal agents at Keith's properties in Cotopaxi and Colorado Springs in March 2023. He could not legally possess those guns because of a previous conviction of having a destructive device. Keith pleaded guilty in 2003 to one count of possessing a "destructive device," a felony, for which he was sentenced to four years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

While his indictment doesn't detail that original conviction, news articles and court documents from 1999 through 2004 show a man with the same name and age as Keith having been charged and later convicted of planting a homemade bomb in the bathroom of Coushatta High School in Coushatta, Louisiana, where a Chad Edward Keith, 18 years old at the time, was a senior.

The bomb was detonated, causing damage to the school, but it was evacuated before it could go off and no one was injured, according to the Associated Press.

He was also arrested by the Fremont County Sheriff's Office in April of last year on charges of driving without a license and being a fugitive of justice.

An FBI arrest affidavit states agents began receiving tips in 2020 about Keith having guns and attempting to obtain more. 

In his indictment, Keith allegedly expressed antisemitic viewpoints to the FBI informant. He "has described himself as both a "National Socialist" and a Nazi. I know from my training and experience that the term "national socialism" describes a white supremacy ideology consistent with Nazism," a special agent with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force wrote in her application for an arrest warrant.

The informant also said Keith frequently made comments disparaging Jews and how he was unhappy that Jews control all financial and scientific aspects and run the world.

Keith has been in federal custody since his arrest last March because a judge concluded he was a flight risk and was dangerous.