Calif. student gets 8 years for SUV vandalism

MSNBC ^ | 4/19/2005 | MSNBC

[NY.SS-Bar9]

  MSNBC.com

Calif. student gets 8 years for SUV vandalism
Sentenced for 2003 spree that torched Hummers, other gas guzzlers

Reuters

Updated: 9:45 p.m. ET April 18, 2005

LOS ANGELES - An aspiring physicist was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on Monday and ordered to pay $3.5 million for his role in a spree of arson and vandalism that targeted gas-guzzling Hummers and other sports utility vehicles.

Rejecting pleas for clemency from William Cottrell, a 24-year-old doctoral candidate in physics at the California Institute of Technology, U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner added more time to the sentence after finding that Cottrell was trying to sway consumers with his anti-SUV message.

The slogans Cottrell spray-painted onto vehicles included “Fat Lazy Americans,” “No Respect for Earth” and “SUV = Terrorism.”

Cottrell, who admitted only spray-painting and testified he did not know that two friends were bringing Molotov cocktails, promised he would never break the law again. The two friends have fled the country to avoid prosecution, authorities said.

“I want nothing more than to be a physicist,” Cottrell said. ..............

Lawyers mount autism defense
Cottrell’s attorneys asked for the five-year mandatory minimum sentence saying that their client has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism marked by impaired ability to understand social situations.

.....

But Judge Klausner said high intelligence should work against a defendant, not in his favor. ..........

[Anvilhead]

I've heard them referred to as "Club Feds". Do you know anything about that? Are there different levels of Fed prison?

I want him to serve his time. I just don't want him serve it in a summer camp.

ELF is a terrorist organization and it's members deserve to be treated as such.

[samtheman]

Great. Great. Great.

[freedumb2003]

I wonder what his DU name is

"BubbasBabe"?
"DontDropTheSoap"?
"CallMeJenny"?

[gridlock]

Lawyers mount autism defense: Cottrell’s attorneys asked for the five-year mandatory minimum sentence saying that their client has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism marked by impaired ability to understand social situations.

When they are promoting the message, they say he is a gifted physisist... practically a doctor... and one of the leading lights of the age. When it comes to sentencing they say he is dumber than a box of rocks.

[Triggerhippie]

I read somewhere, I can't recall where, that he was a member of DWARF.

Democrats With A Radical Filosophy (sic).

Or was it TROLL? The Radical Organization of Luddite Losers...

[DustyMoment]

The dude got what he deserved. I have no sympathy for him and hope that he serves every single second of the sentence handed down.

Unfortunately, the criminally insane 9th Circuit will probably agree to overturn his sentence on the grounds that it was "too harsh" or that he's "misunderstood" and has a "mental disease" or some other leftist claptrap.

I am sick and tired of having to pay the freight for liberals who want to destroy things for everyone else and have us pay their way through life. It is time to end the free ride that prisoners have gotten since the beginning of the prisoner's rights movement in the 60s.

Let them do their time . . . . . all of it hard!!

[BadAndy]

"Rejecting pleas for clemency... U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner added more time to the sentence after finding that Cottrell was trying to sway consumers with his anti-SUV message. The slogans Cottrell spray-painted onto vehicles included “Fat Lazy Americans,” “No Respect for Earth” and “SUV = Terrorism.”

What a great judge. Hammer the little anti-American creep. Maybe he can teach physics to the homeboys on D-block.

[clee1]

Oh yeah. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has several levels of facilities for inmates, depending on their crime, history, threat level, escape potential, etc.

This punk will likely wind up in a low security camp, and will spend his time doing menial labor.

However, if he gets in a fight, breaks rules, or wises off to a guard, he'll find himnself in a much worse place quickly.

[Redleg Duke]

So typical of the pampered, excessively educated but morally ignorant chattering class.

[OldSmaj]

“I want nothing more than to be a physicist,” Cottrell said. ..............

Well, har-de-har, nitwit, now you get to be a convicted felon.

Screw you. And all the other nitwits that played your silly-ass games that you thought would be taken as "youthful indiscretions".

We are surrounded by idiots.

[Aquinasfan]

If this had been someone connected to a "Right Wing" group, the headline would have screamed the fact. But because it's a left wing, liberal, extremist group that most of the media agrees with, very little is made of the fact he belonged to ELF, a terrorist group.

Worth repeating.

[Teacher317]

But Judge Klausner said high intelligence should work against a defendant, not in his favor

The law rewards stupidity, and punishes intellect. Like taxation, we'll get more of what we reward, and less of what we penalize.

[Kenton]

Rejecting pleas for clemency from William Cottrell, a 24-year-old doctoral candidate in physics at the California Institute of Technology

He'll probably be the smartest guy in the prison yard... why, I bet they'll call him "perfesser"...

“I want nothing more than to be a physicist,” Cottrell said. .............."

Aaaa-yup! Well, kiss that one goodbye... you might get another crack at that in a few years, after you've done your time. If you can find a company that hires convicted felons...

Just consider this a valuable post-graduate course in life, one which you've apparently missed up to this point - called "Long-term Consequences of Antisocial Behavior 101".

[sergeantdave]

He's an eco-fascist terrorist. He should get 20 to 40 years. Send him to a rock retreat to make pebbles.

I noticed that terrorist sympathizers at MSNBC made no mention that this slug is a terrorist.

[lowbridge]

The slogans Cottrell spray-painted onto vehicles included “Fat Lazy Americans,” “No Respect for Earth” and “SUV = Terrorism.”

But its not terrorism when he and his friends commit vandalism and arson?