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A local pastor testified during the trial of former Grace College professor Dr. Mark Soto Wednesday that he was forced to move his family out of town after he became scared for his life.
Soto faces three counts of corrupt business influence and three counts of intimidation after being indicted by a grand jury in February 2016 along with Kevin Bronson, an Aryan Brotherhood member, and former Kosciusko Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine.
Prosecutors contend Soto used a series of threats to extort money for a book and/or movie deal about Bronson’s life story.
Nate McLaurin, a pastor at Christ Covenant Church, Winona Lake, testified of the fear he felt when he thought outlaw bikers were coming to kill him and his family. He said Bronson told him the Aryan Brotherhood would make him watch as they killed his children.
He called Tyler Silveus, a friend, to come over and get his family to safety.
“I looked at my wife, not knowing if it would be the last time I would ever see her; looked at my kids, not knowing if it would be the last time I would ever see them either,” McLaurin said.
After his family was out, he sat and waited. No one came.
McLaurin believes the threat was made because he asked for contact information of Bronson’s superior in the Aryan Brotherhood, referred to as “Sky Blue.”
McLaurin testified that a couple of hours after he asked to talk to Sky, Soto called him and told him he had crossed a line and bikers were coming from Fort Wayne to take action on him and his family.
McLaurin had been working with Soto and Bronson on making a movie about Bronson’s life. McLaurin was first introduced in late 2012 to the two men at a coffee shop, McLaurin said.
McLaurin then told jurors the story that the two men told him that Bronson was an ex-member of the Aryan Brotherhood. Bronson had converted to Christianity and had been working on changing his life. Bronson said that he intervened with the Brotherhood to stop a death contract on some Elkhart County police and prosecutors, according to McLaurin.
As punishment for intervening, the gang forced Bronson to sit on a “ghost council” for the gang. No explanation as to what a ghost council is was provided during testimony.
The only way the gang would allow Bronson to be free was if Bronson made a movie detailing the “horrific power of the Aryan Brotherhood,” but the gang was OK if the movie had a “redemptive end,” McLaurin said.
