Posted on 04/18/2005 8:50:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A graduate student was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in prison and ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution for firebombing scores of sport utility vehicles.
William Jensen Cottrell, 24, was convicted in November of conspiracy to commit arson and seven counts of arson for an August 2003 vandalism spree that damaged and destroyed about 125 SUVs.
Prosecutors estimated the total damage was about $2.3 million.
U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner sentenced Cottrell to 100 months and ordered him to pay $3.5 million in restitution. Cottrell hung his head upon hearing the sentence.
The judge said he felt sorry for Cottrell, a doctoral candidate in the physics department at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
"What a talent to have wasted," Klausner said. "There's only one person to blame for that, and I'm sure Mr. Cottrell understands that it's him."
Vandals who targeted dealerships and homes in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles set the vehicles on fire and used spray-paint to deface them with slogans such as "Fat, Lazy Americans," "polluter," "smog machine" and "ELF," an acronym for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group.
Cottrell told the judge he was sorry for "any suffering" he caused to owners of the dealership and SUVs that were damaged during the attack. He said his political and environmental beliefs will not change - but his actions will.
"There's no way I'd ever be involved with anything like this remotely," he said.
Cottrell was acquitted of using a destructive device - Molotov cocktails - in a crime of violence. That was the most serious charge he faced and it carried a sentence of at least 30 years in prison.
Defense lawyers argued that Cottrell had agreed with two friends to spray-paint vehicles, but was surprised when they began to hurl Molotov cocktails.
Federal prosecutors have identified former Caltech students Tyler Johnson and Michie Oe as "fugitive co-conspirators" in the case. It is believed that both have fled the country.
Prosecutors also alleged that Cottrell tried to minimize his role and place the blame on Johnson and Oe.
Cottrell was arrested in March 2004 after authorities tracked e-mails that Cottrell, using an alias, sent to the Los Angeles Times. He told the newspaper in the e-mails that he was involved in the SUV attacks and affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front.
Klausner in January denied Cottrell's bid for a new trial. Cottrell had claimed the court improperly barred his attorneys from presenting evidence that he suffered from Asperger's syndrome, a type of autism that he claimed made it difficult for him to understand the intentions of the alleged accomplices.
Not quite long enough in my book, but I will take it. let it be a shining example of what leftist idiocy does to a person. He looks pretty enough to have a boyfreind in the joint too.
I wonder if his parents think they wasted their money sending those checks to CalTech. They should have bought a deluxe motor home with the money and enjoyed traveling around the country.
John Kerry throws a Molotov cocktail like a girl.
Bump!
I just love a story with a happy ending :o)
What a Nitwit.I'll bet a PhD in Physics pays pretty good.This guy has totally trashed his future.Some of these libs are way out there.Whatever happened to all the "peace and love"?
Yeah, he shoulda gone to Wayne State and done an internship for GM working on the hyrdogen fuel cell technology if he was so concerned about the environment.
[Anti-Environmental Wacko Sarcasm Torpedo ARMED. FIRE!]
And you know, if he had gone that route, and there had been any pyrotechnics, he could have just said "Remember the Hindenberg?" *COUGH* *still a few glitches in the technology* *COUGH*
Cheers!
You mean you aren't always logged in? ;-)
I'm just trying to catchup on some stuff from earlier..
"Activist?"
I love how the media labels leftist terrorists as "Activists"
well, that will make him think twice
8 years in the Federal Penn. means... 8 years...
None of this sentenced for 40 years, paroled in 3, sort of crap we see elsewhere.
Find out where mommy and daddy are sending the money, and you'll find your perps...
Oh, you know he's not going to spend all that time in prison really. This kind of a sentence is just for media show-&-tell. Later it will be commuted, overturned, he'll be out early because of goood behavior etc...
Yeh, I'll bet. He'll spend 8 years being a terrorist in waiting. With a little luck, he'll tick off the wrong guy and get an early release from prison. Feet first.
Don't be surprised if this useless little nitwit gets a professorship at some liberal arts diploma factory when he gets out of the slammer.
BUMP
I disagree. I see an endowed chair at a top-ranked university in his future - if he survives the next 8 years or so.
So9
I remember he went after all the most expensive...Hummers, and the like. Can I kick his ass before he goes in??
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