Posted on 11/23/2004 10:15:37 AM PST by presidio9
A Caltech graduate student was convicted Friday of firebombing sport utility vehicles at a Hummer dealership last year to protest the American auto industry's contribution to environmental pollution.
After deliberating less than a day, a federal court jury found William Jensen Cottrell, a 24-year-old doctoral candidate in physics, guilty of seven counts of arson and one count of conspiracy.
Cottrell, who testified that SUV dealers were "evil," faces at least five years in prison when he is sentenced in March.
But he was spared an additional 30 years behind bars, mandatory under federal law, when the jury acquitted him of the most serious charge of using a destructive device during a crime of violence.
Two other suspects in the Aug. 22, 2003, string of arsons and vandalism are fugitives. Tyler Johnson, a Caltech graduate, and his girlfriend, Michie Oe, have been named as unindicted co-conspirators. They are believed to have fled the country.
"The U.S. attorney's office is pleased that justice has been served," said Beverly Reid O'Connell, the lead prosecutor, after Friday's verdict. The hunt for the other two suspects is continuing, she said.
Cottrell, Johnson and Oe are blamed for causing nearly $5 million in property damage during a nighttime escapade in which about 125 vehicles and a building were damaged or destroyed at four auto dealerships in the San Gabriel Valley.
The case attracted wide attention after the Earth Liberation Front, a loose association of militant environmentalists, claimed responsibility.
Prosecutors offered no evidence during the eight-day trial that Cottrell was connected to the ELF, although his lawyer suggested that Johnson and Oe were tied to the group.
The defense contended that Johnson and Oe duped Cottrell into joining them on what was supposed to be a foray to spray-paint environmental protest slogans on gas-guzzling SUVs.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
It is time to make Eco Terrorist acts like this and act of terrorism.
The Watermelon jihadists declared Jihad on America after 9/11. It is past time to find them, arrest, try them and send them to jail.
Don't be stupid, Miss O'Connell.
Justice wasn't served. Justice didn't even get the waiter's attention.
This guy and his friends should be doing 30 at the very least.
How can someone be that smart and yet that stupid...
Scumbag's lucky I wasn't on the jury. No one would have left the deliberations until he got those other 30 years.
The ability to study and do well on tests has nothing to do with real world intelligence.
ELF needs immediate eradication.
Terrorists simply must die and their organizations squished.
It's the Liberal way...
I suspect Billy is going to learn something very intimate about physics on his first prison date.
Ya think?
Californicated Blue state scum.....
Never will viscosity equations have taken on such real-world relevance.
Well, at least Mr. Cottrell may now learn first-hand and up-close. The Hot PC Topic of "Opression" of prisoners behind bars.
On his knees with a shank to his throat.
In open and locked down cells.
The showers.
Bent over a work shop table.
Yes, Mr. Cottrell is going to receive a fine Post Doctoral Education.
In Social Darwinism!
Couldn't happen to a more deserving "student"!
Jack.
he'd better pack a dress :) LOL
I'll trade you two packs of cigarettes for him.
I don't think justice was served at all.
He deserved the full charge of using a destructive device during a crime of violence.
I've spent the last 12 years working with pHd physicists, some are very bright all the way around, and others plug a power strip into itself and then bitc# that nothing works (true story).
"...viscosity..."
;OD
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