Jury convicts Calif. man in courthouse bombing
By JULIE WATSON Monday, Jun. 06, 2011
SAN DIEGO: A federal jury convicted a man Monday for a scheme in which he persuaded his girlfriend to bomb the San Diego courthouse so he could turn her in to the FBI for reward money.
The jury found Donny Love Sr. guilty on all 10 charges, including the use of weapons of mass destruction for the being the mastermind behind the May 4, 2008 backpack bombing incident that shattered glass doors at the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Courthouse, the same building where he was convicted Monday.
During the two-week trial, prosecutors said Love carried out the elaborate plan because he was in financial trouble and faced significant jail time from two pending state criminal cases.
Love instructed Rachelle Lynette Carlock and Ella Louise Sanders to purchase explosive powder and to steal bomb-making materials. Prosecutors say Love and others constructed pipe bombs at his residence in Menifee in Riverside County.
According to testimony presented at trial, Carlock and Eric Reginald Robinson drove from Love's residence to San Diego with a backpack containing three pipe bombs, and Carlock then detonated the bombs at the front doors of the federal courthouse.
After the bombing, Love met with FBI agents and offered to provide information in return for $75,000 in reward money, and help in dismissing two state court convictions for which he was facing six years in prison, prosecutors said.
Carlock, Sanders, and Robinson pleaded guilty for their participation and are awaiting sentencing.
The defense had argued that Love's girlfriend and two others who pleaded guilty to the bombing falsely accused him in hopes of receiving shorter sentences.
Love faces at least 30 years in prison and is expected to be sentenced Nov. 14. His lawyer, Robert Boyce, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Read more: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/06/06/1519728/jury-convicts-calif-man-in-courthouse.html#ixzz1OkGwLYfe
This truly was an ingenious plan. He should be given a reduced sentence for persuading his girlfriend to go along with such an idiotic scheme. She should be charged with felony dumbness.
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