Accused of intending to bomb GOP convention: Angry activist or entrapped victim?

Is David Guy McKay an angry activist who decided to make firebombs to strike police who derailed his plans to disrupt the Republican National Convention?

Or is he the victim of entrapment, a naive follower goaded into more radical action by a government informant bent on getting someone arrested?

Those were the substance of the opening statements Monday on the first day of the federal trial for McKay, 22, of Austin, Texas. The trial is expected to last all week.

The trial has garnered national attention, not so much for what McKay allegedly did or didn't do. No explosives were ever used. Rather, the intrigue and legal debate arise from the actions of activist-turned-informant, Brandon Darby, 32.

At the heart of the case -- and what the jury must determine -- is whether Darby himself planted the seeds for destruction in the minds of McKay and his friend, Bradley Crowder, 23. Or whether he, as Darby and federal officials say, turned government mole when protesters' plans for the convention became too violent. Crowder pleaded guilty Jan. 8.

"At no time did he encourage, incite or persuade them to do anything," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Paulsen told the jury of Darby. "He did not want to see people get hurt at the Republican National Convention."

But Jeff DeGree, McKay's attorney, offered a different version of events.

McKay, Crowder and Darby started attending meetings of the Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee in the spring of 2008. Last summer, Paulsen said, McKay and Crowder made 35 shields from highway traffic barrels. And, on Aug. 28, 2008, McKay, Crowder and Darby were part of a group that drove to St. Paul in a rented van pulling a trailer containing those shields, Paulsen said.

From shields to cocktails

Darby told police:

On Aug. 31, St. Paul police searched the trailer and confiscated the shields. That night, McKay and Crowder and others bought gasoline, motor oil and tampons to make Molotov cocktails, Paulsen said.

On Sept. 1, police arrested Crowder and McKay on suspicion of disorderly conduct. After McKay got out -- Crowder stayed in jail because he didn't have an ID -- he told Darby of his plan to use those bombs on police cars, Paulsen said. Darby again tipped off police.

Paulsen told the jury that McKay later confessed to making the bombs. And that's all jurors have to consider, Paulsen said.

DeGree, however, said the government went too far.

Taking it upon himself?

"This is a case of a government informant who took it upon himself to make things happen," he told jurors in his opening statement. "To make a revolution happen."

Darby showed McKay and Crowder jujitsu moves and lambasted protesters for looking like "a bunch of tofu-eaters," saying, "You better start eating meat to bulk up and prepare for this," DeGree said.

"Brandon Darby went crazy when that happened, [saying,] 'We're not going to take this lying down. You've got to do something about it,'" DeGree said.

McKay made the bombs but never intended to use them, DeGree said. Disillusioned and disappointed by the chaos of the protests, he stashed the bombs in the basement of the triplex where he was staying. "He knew it was a stupid idea," DeGree said

But Darby, DeGree said, kept prodding. And in the end, he said, McKay told Darby "what he wanted to hear."