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Ex-Fighter Pilot's Hearing Tumultuous, Fruitless

Abner Aust is a decorated 30-year veteran who flew fighter jets in two wars. The Air Force wants him to speak at a pilots reunion in May, but Aust culd be back in state prison by then.

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By BILLY TOWNSEND | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 4, 2007

Updated: 12/04/2007 11:51 am

Previous: From Fighter To Felon, Still A Wanted Man

BARTOW - Byron Hileman limped back into the courtroom after a brief pre-hearing conference with his client, 86-year-old flying ace-turned-felon Abner Aust.

Hileman, a veteran Polk County defense lawyer, turned toward the gallery and shook his head at the two Aust friends who hired him. "He's impossible. I'm sorry."

Looking on were Brenda Aust and Doris Maddox, Aust's second and third wives, respectively. They'd come to urge a judge to send Aust back to prison for 15 years for violating his probation by unsuccessfully soliciting someone to kill Brenda Aust. A bailiff pre-emptively had separated them because they were talking too much.

All that happened before Judge Randall McDonald took to the bench to oversee another strange, contentious and inconclusive day in the ongoing saga of Aust, a retired Air Force colonel who shot down Japanese warplanes over Tokyo during World War II.

Tuesday's hearing was supposed to determine whether Aust would return to state prison for 15 years, which is the sentence the state is seeking. But, as McDonald and the court soon learned, Aust fired Hileman in that pre-hearing conference; therefore, the sentencing hearing was delayed again.

For now, Aust will remain the oldest inmate in the Polk County jail.

Hileman, speaking for Aust, told the judge that Aust didn't think Hileman, who had a toe amputated in a medical procedure the week before, was paying enough attention to him.

"I've been in the middle of medical emergencies, both my own and my family, over the last three weeks," Hileman told the judge. "That is a matter of indifference to Mr. Aust."

Hileman also told the judge that no psychological examination had been performed on Aust because he had refused to pay for it unless Hileman personally picked up the check at the county jail in Frostproof.

Hileman had hoped to use that evaluation to argue that Aust no longer is a threat to anyone and "to suggest to the court a remedy somewhat less harsh than what the state is proposing."

Instead, McDonald allowed Hileman to honor's Aust's request that he withdraw. The judge gave Aust 60 days to find a new lawyer, and Aust, who has a regular Air Force pension, said he has written letters to three candidates.

Aust has been incarcerated since 2000, when he was convicted of solicitation of arson for trying to have Brenda Aust's house, which used to be Aust's house, torched.

In 2002, he was convicted of solicitation of murder while in prison in the Panhandle after offering to pay a convict or the convict's brother to kill his ex-wife, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors say the second conviction violated the probation of his first conviction. He was returned to Polk County to answer for that charge and could face 15 additional years in prison.

Aust, his friends and supporters say that no one was harmed and that he's not a threat. They suggest his difficult divorce from Brenda Aust led him to lash out verbally.

Brenda Aust attended Tuesday's hearing but stormed out afterward, slapping camera lenses, using profanities and refusing to speak to anyone with the media. As she stepped on an elevator, she said coverage of the Aust case has placed her in danger.

Aust's third wife, Doris Maddox, described Aust as a dangerous and devious man who is a threat both in and out of prison because of his military pension and access she claims he has to additional money.

"My life and Brenda's and our families are in danger," Maddox said. She and Aust were together for 16 years after Aust's divorce in the early '90s, Maddox said. But they were only married for three, from 2000-2003, she said.

Aust flew P-51 Mustangs and jet fighters during a 30-year career that spanned World War II and the Vietnam War.

Reporter Billy Townsend can be reached at (863) 284-1409 or wtownsend@tampatrib.com.

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