U.S. Attorney’s Office seeks 3 1/2 year sentence for man who stole copper wire in Kandahar

The U.S. Attorney's Office is asking a judge to sentence a man to 41 months in prison for theft of copper wire while he was working at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan in 2013. However, his attorney is arguing that Benjamin Guidry should serve only eight months.

Guidry, who was reportedly part of a theft ring at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan in 2013, was found guilty of theft of government property by a jury in November 2016 in Burke County. He was found not guilty of a second count of bribery.

Guidry is scheduled to be sentenced Monday in Bismarck. North Dakota Supreme Court records list Bowbells as the address for an Benjamin Guidry, born in 1975.

In its sentencing memorandum, the U.S. Attorney's Office argues that the crime merits the stiffest possible sentence, which would be a range of 33 to 41 months. They also want Guidry to serve three years supervised probation.

"The present offense occurred in an active war zone," the prosecution wrote in its argument. "Defendant stole materials from Kandahar Air Field (KAF) in Afghanistan, in February 2013, and apparently sought to take the materials off base to be sold out in Afghanistan. The fact this theft occurred on an active military base in Afghanistan posed special law enforcement challenges, drawing on vital and slim resources by Army's Criminal Investigative Command. At the time of the events in the indictment (and continuing today), the area around Kandahar Airfield was a combat zone involving ongoing military operations, and was a target of incoming Taliban attacks."

The prosecutor says that a witness is prepared to testify that the area is a Taliban stronghold and there were ongoing hostilities at the time that Guidry stole the copper wire.

"Given these facts, the Defendant's criminal activity, which involved the theft of materials from Kandahar Airfield to be sold off base, was particularly reckless," they wrote.

In his memorandum, Schultz argues that Guidry had no prior criminal history and was merely a "cog in the wheel" of the theft ring. Schultz writes that Guidry played a minimal role in the exchange. His "boss" in the theft ring had promised him two months of back pay and a plane ticket home to drive the truck containing copper wire and leave it somewhere near the exit, according to his testimony. Someone else was supposed to drive the truck off the airfield.

"(Guidry) drove a truck in exchange for what he thought would be back pay and a plane ticket home," wrote Schultz. "And repeatedly asked if the wire belonged to the government, and repeatedly checked for government markings on the wire. He has no criminal history before this event, and none after; the need to rehabilitate is non-existent. The public needs no protection from (Guidry). A middle-aged man with zero criminal history enticed by the promise of money and home should not receive a long prison sentence for driving a truck and having to improvise on the fly when his criminally-minded supervisor fails to show up for the deal, especially since there is no restitution."

Schultz also writes that a long prison sentence would mean Guidry would likely have to move his wife from Canada to the United States, since Canada would likely no longer allow him to cross the border to visit her. Guidry also has to pay child support for a child in Louisiana and would lose his job with a long prison sentence.

According to court documents, Guidry was arrested following a government sting operation at Kandahar in February 2013.