* Had bought inert explosives from undercover FBI agent
* Sentences lighter than what prosecutors had asked for
(Updates with third man sentenced)
By Kim Palmer
AKRON, Ohio, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Three self-described
anarchists who pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up a four-lane
highway bridge near Cleveland were sentenced to prison on
Tuesday by a federal judge.
Douglas Wright, 27, Brandon Baxter, 20 and Connor Stevens,
20, pleaded guilty on Sept. 5 to conspiracy to use a weapon of
mass destruction, along with other related charges.
U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. gave Wright 11 1/2
years, Baxter just under 10 years and Stevens 8 years in prison.
After serving their sentence, they will be on probation for life
– they will have to regularly check in with law enforcement
officers.
Prosecutors had asked for 30 years for Wright and 25 years
for Baxter, who they claimed had violent criminal pasts and were
the leaders of the failed plot. Prosecutors had sought 19 years
for Stevens.
The sentences constitute “a big rejection of the
government’s position,” Stevens’ defense attorney, Terry
Gilbert, said outside of the courthouse.
The men were three of five accused of plotting in April to
blow up a bridge 30 miles (48 km) south of Cleveland that runs
through Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
They were arrested after leaving two toolboxes at the base
of the bridge that contained inert C-4 explosives purchased from
an undercover FBI agent.
After placing what they thought to be active explosives, the
five men drove to a restaurant and used a cellphone to try to
set off the bomb. FBI agents have said that the public was never
in danger.
A fourth suspect, Anthony Hayne, 35, pleaded guilty in July
and agreed to testify against the others in a trial that was to
have started in September. Hayne is expected to face more than
15 years in prison when he is sentenced on Wednesday.
The fifth suspect, Joshua Stafford, has been undergoing
competency testing.
Supporters of the three men packed the Akron courtroom on
Tuesday.
FATHER SAYS SON WAS MANIPULATED
Andy Baxter, father of Brandon Baxter, told the court his
son was manipulated by an FBI informant.
“Why don’t they send someone in these groups to calm them
down rather than instigate?” Baxter asked.
James Stevens, father of Connor Stevens, told U.S. Attorney
Duncan Brown he knew his son was guilty but added, “So are you.”
Connor Stevens told the court he would get his high school
equivalency degree and attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in
prison.
“I thought that trying to improve the world was futile,” he
told the judge. “Today I am not the same person.”
The FBI has said the men had no ties to foreign militant
groups. They considered several possible plots, starting with
smoke grenades and then moving up to explosives, prosecutors
said in court documents.
The investigation into the group began in October 2011 when
the informant met the five men at an anti-Wall Street Occupy
Cleveland rally. Authorities paid the informant more than $5,000
as part of the investigation, according to an FBI affidavit.
U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach told reporters after a
hearing in September that his office was not spying on protest
groups such as Occupy and did not entrap the five men.
The Ohio FBI undercover operation was one of a number of
stings by federal authorities in recent years aimed at
preventing attacks by foreign and domestic militants.
A Moroccan man pleaded guilty in June to attempting a
suicide bombing of the U.S. Capitol in Washington in February.
An undercover agent drove the suspect on the day of the planned
attack.
Authorities also used undercover officers to gather evidence
at the Chicago summit of the NATO military alliance in May.
Three men described as anarchists were arrested then and accused
of attempting to make Molotov cocktails to hurl at police.
(Editing by Mary Wisniewski, Bill Trott and Mohammad Zargham)
