When Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer learned in summer 2018 that fugitive Shawn Christy was possibly headed to his home in Texas, his first thought was to join the search.

When authorities told him that wasn’t possible, he took steps to protect his young daughters and their mother.

“You talk about the most helpless feeling. When you go overseas and fight for your country, then you come back here and can’t do anything to protect your family,” Meyer said.

While U.S. Marshals and FBI agents pursued Christy during a three-month manhunt in the Summer of 2018, the McAdoo resident allegedly broke into a home, which Meyer owns in rural Kentucky.

Meyer took to the witness stand Friday morning in the fourth day of Christy’s federal trial. Jurors also heard recordings of phone conversations and in-person meetings which Christy had in the days following his arrest on Sept. 21, 2018 in Ohio.

At the outset of the manhunt, Christy is charged with making online posts threatening to kill police, as well as President Donald Trump and Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli.

Christy is on trial in federal court facing charges including threats against the President of the United States, threatening communications and interstate transportation of a stolen firearm. He is representing himself in the case.

On Friday, Meyer testified that on Aug. 9, 2018, he was in Austin when he learned that there was a break-in at a home he owned in Kentucky. Prior to the break-in, marshals believed that Christy had traveled to the area using stolen vehicles.

A mail carrier Jeep belonging to Meyer’s brother was stolen as well.

During Meyer’s testimony, prosecutors played surveillance camera video from the house, which show someone who appeared to be Christy approaching the house with a sledgehammer, walking through the house, and then taking the Jeep.

Meyer testified that shortly after the break-in, Christy’s father Craig posted on social media that he believed Shawn’s next stop was Austin.

Concerned for his family’s safety, Meyer decided to hire armed guards to protect his daughters and ex-wife Bristol Palin, costing him thousands of dollars per week, until Christy was caught.

Jurors saw many posts which Craig Christy made on his own Facebook page and his Facebook group, Shawn Christy Political Prisoner news, during the manhunt. Some of them included responses from Meyer.

On cross examination, Christy asked Meyer why he made posts taunting Christy during the search, as well as a comment suggesting that he was disappointed that Shawn survived the manhunt.

Meyer said that comment expressed how he felt with Christy posing a threat to his family.

“Any day you have to go to work, leave your kids at day care and wonder if you’re ever going to see them again, that’s how I felt,” Meyer responded.

Meyer’s ex-mother in law, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, once had a restraining order against Shawn Christy because of alleged harassment. Meyer said that Shawn and Craig Christy harassed him as well.

Meyer said that the father and son would attack his service, call him a fake war hero, and make fun of his anxiety resulting from traumatic experiences in combat.

“If I was in the hospital and posted a picture, his father would literally make fun of the type of issues I was having,” Meyer said.

Despite that, during the search Meyer and Craig Christy found common ground in wishing that Shawn would turn himself in peacefully. In one post, Craig Christy asked Meyer to help him find his son. Meyer said he agreed, because he actually did not want anyone to get hurt — police officers or Shawn Christy.

“I empathized with him in that moment, as a father,” Meyer said.

Jailhouse recordings

Following Meyer’s testimony, jurors on Friday heard recordings of calls and meetings between Christy and supporters in the days following his arrest. They marked the conclusion of the prosecution’s case.

Christy objected to the evidence, saying that the recordings were made without a warrant and he was not provided with Miranda rights.

In the calls, a man who agents identified as Christy openly talks about his alleged crimes, including the break-in at the Meyer home, and stealing vehicles from businesses in McAdoo and West Virginia.

He said he would go up to a week without food before having to steal again.

“I would go about a week without eating then gorge myself for 2-3 days. The old Daniel Boone style. You kept weight on that way,” the man identified as Christy said.

He said that he found Meyer’s house by opening every mailbox in the area until he found one with mail addressed to Meyer. He also admits to taking loan documents from Meyer’s business.

He also said that the crimes were so easy to commit that he believed that the marshals were sitting back and letting him commit them.

“Why are you on my case and why are you letting me commit crimes? And why are you just watching me?” he said.

Christy’s defense

Christy began to present his case before the court recessed for the week, calling his mother and father to testify.

He asked his father Craig about damage to the family’s home when officers served a search warrant on June 20, 2018.

On cross examination, the prosecution confronted Craig Christy about his Facebook posts and asked whether he was encouraging or even helping his son during his odyssey.

Craig Christy said that throughout the search, he wanted Shawn to turn himself in. He said he met with the Secret Service multiple times each week.

Under cross examination by an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Craig Christy acknowledged that he thanked Mohawk tribal police for not turning Shawn over to Canadian authorities early in the search.

The prosecutor asked Craig Christy whether he told officers, after Shawn Christy allegedly stole guns from his uncle’s house, that the officers should ‘put him down’ if they had to.

“Hardest statement I’ve ever had to make,” Craig Christy said.

Craig Christy said that he did not welcome the fame that his son received. But he did acknowledge making a post following his son’s arrest that said the heroes of the manhunt were the Allentown office of the FBI, an Allentown-based agent, Duane “Dog” Chapman, and himself.

Prosecutors pressed Craig and Karen Christy about whether they believed Shawn actually intended to carry out his threats to kill the president and Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli.

Craig Christy said he took Shawn’s threats seriously from the beginning, as evidenced by him reporting it to federal authorities. But he said he didn’t believe Shawn had the ability to go through with it. Karen Christy said she agreed.

“I know he would never do that. People say a lot of things on Facebook,” she said.

Karen Christy added further testimony about the damage to her home during the June 20 search. She also denied that Craig was in constant communication with Shawn during the search. She said she tried to help law enforcement by providing information and encouraging Shawn to turn himself in.

Karen Christy said that her son was motivated to prove that he was a victim of police corruption in a 2017 assault case in McAdoo. Christy officially became a fugitive in May 2018 when he skipped a court date in that case. She said no one, including FBI, Secret Service and U.S. Marshals, have ever stood up for her son.

“Everything he has ever worked for has been taken away from him,” she said. “No one has ever stood up for his rights.”

Testimony in the trial is expected to conclude on Monday with Christy taking the stand in his own defense, followed by closing statements.