Mesa man indicted in Nevada court for manufacturing ammo without license

PHOENIX — Douglas Haig, a Mesa man accused of selling armor-piercing ammunition to the Las Vegas gunman, was indicted on one count of engaging in the business of manufacturing ammunition without a license.

Haig was indicted in the U.S. District Court of Nevada on Wednesday, court documents showed. The charge made no mention of the Las Vegas attack.

Court documents said Haig “willfully engage[d] in the business of manufacturing and importing ammunition, and in the course of such business did ship, transport and receive ammunition in interstate and foreign commerce” between July 2016 and Oct. 19, 2017.

Prosecutors in Arizona charged Haig, 55, with conspiring to make and sell armor-piercing ammunition in February. If convicted, he faces a maximum five-year prison sentence, up to $250,000 in fines, or both.

Prosecutors said in a statement that Haig sold armor-piercing ammunition throughout the United States, including Nevada, Texas, Virginia, Wyoming, and South Carolina.

Haig told investigators that he reloads ammunition, but doesn’t sell such cartridges to customers — and that none of the ammunition recovered in the Las Vegas attack would have tool marks consistent with his reloading equipment, prosecutors said.

The prosecutors also said Haig’s fingerprints were found on reloaded unfired .308-caliber cartridges inside Paddock’s hotel room.

It is unknown whether the ammunition he sold to Paddock was used in the attack.

Authorities had previously said that armor-piercing ammunition recovered inside of Paddock’s room had tool marks consistent with Haig’s reloading equipment.

Marc Victor, an attorney in metro Phoenix who represents Haig, says his client will aggressively fight the Nevada charge.

Victor also said he expects a separate federal case filed earlier this year in Arizona that charges Haig with manufacturing armor-piercing bullets will be dismissed in the coming days as a result of the Nevada indictment.

Victor said he was preparing to provide prosecutors with a response to evidence turned over in the Arizona case, but the prosecutors instead went ahead and indicted him in Nevada.

“We are disappointed by that,” Victor said.

Haig said he and Paddock met at a Las Vegas gun show and that he legally sold tracer rounds to Paddock weeks before the concert shooting that killed 58 people.

“He said he was going to go out to the desert to put on a light show, either with or for his friends,” Haig said earlier this year.

“I can’t remember whether he used the word ‘with’ or ‘for.’ But he said that he was going out at night to shoot it with friends.”

The criminal complaint from Arizona said Haig told investigators that when Paddock bought ammunition at his home, Paddock went to his car to get gloves and put them on before taking a box to carry the tracer ammunition.

Paddock killed himself in a hotel room near the shooting as authorities closed in on him about an hour after the attack.

A federal firearms license is generally required to legally manufacture armor-piercing ammunition.

But people who receive permission from the government to make such ammunition wouldn’t need a license if they aren’t considered to be in the business of selling ammunition.

The criminal complaint filed in Arizona said Haig didn’t have a license to make armor-piercing ammunition.

Haig has since closed his ammunition business.

Haig, who hasn’t entered a plea in the Arizona case, is scheduled to make his first court appearance in the Nevada case on Sept. 5.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Follow @KTAR923