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.
"I see an endowed chair at a top-ranked university in his future....."You've got a point there.It wouldn't be the first time a felon has been embraced by the academic left.
Sounds fair to me - I would think that fire-bombing an occupied structure ought to be closer to the murder end of things than the arson end. There should also be a bonus charge for people who don't even think to look around before they act...
Sounds like this little puke tried a lot of excuses from blaming his buds to some bogus illness - sounds like he has not accepted any responsibility at all-maybe 8 years will change his tune about his stupid liberal beliefs! Another example of a spoiled kid who never had to suffer consequences! He should have gotten 8 yrs per car and the fine not 8 years total! He'd better grow up and get some smarts while he's inside!
Sounds like this little puke tried a lot of excuses from blaming his buds to some bogus illness - sounds like he has not accepted any responsibility at all-maybe 8 years will change his tune about his stupid liberal beliefs! Another example of a spoiled kid who never had to suffer consequences! He should have gotten 8 yrs per car and the fine not 8 years total! He'd better grow up and get some smarts while he's inside!
Sounds like this little puke tried a lot of excuses from blaming his buds to some bogus illness - sounds like he has not accepted any responsibility at all. Maybe 8 years will change his tune about his stupid liberal beliefs! Another example of a spoiled kid who never had to suffer consequences! He should have gotten 8 yrs per car and the fine not 8 years total! He'd better grow up and get some smarts while he's inside!
What came to mind to me was Gomer Pyle saying "surprise, surprise,surprise"....LOL
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