Caltech grad student won't be retried in SUV bombings

A Caltech graduate student whose conviction and sentencing for a 2003 bombing spree against SUVs in the San Gabriel Valley was overturned in September won't be retried, the U.S. attorney's office has decided.

Instead, William Cottrell will be resentenced Monday on the one remaining count of conspiracy where his conviction still stands, a charge that carries a 10-year maximum, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.

Cottrell, 29, was convicted in 2004 for arson attacks on the night of Aug. 22, 2003, that damaged or destroyed 125 vehicles at dealerships and in residential areas of Duarte, West Covina, Arcadia and Monrovia. Two fellow graduate students who were alleged accomplices in the environmental protest left the country and escaped prosecution.

  In September, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Cottrell's convictions in seven of the eight counts against him and vacated his 100-month sentence, about two-thirds of which he had already served.

Mrozek declined to say why prosecutors decided against a retrial. "I'm not going to comment on our deliberative process inside the office," he said.

But he said that the remaining count carries a 10-year maximum sentence and that "it is certainly within the judge’s discretion to reimpose the 100-month sentence he initially received and that is what I expect we will argue on Monday."

The resentencing hearing will be before U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner, in whose court Cottrell was tried five years ago. The 9th Circuit panel reversed the District Court ruling because Cottrell had not been allowed to present evidence during his trial that his suffering from Asperger's syndrome prevented him from forming the specific intent to commit the arson attacks.

At trial, Caltech professors testified that Cottrell was a brilliant and promising physics scholar and his attorneys had appealed for leniency from the judge.

-- Carol J. Williams

Comments

[JoeS]

Domestic Terror is OK if you are a liberal.

[nobody33]

"Environmental protest?" ummm is that what we are calling domestic terrorism now?

[ferenc]

criminals usually have brilliant minds.let the owners of the vehicles he damaged deal with him, one on one in a dark alley.

[Tom]

Why am I not surprised that the 9th Circuit found a way; and if they can't find one, they make one up, to prevent a duly convicted criminal from serving their sentence?

Let's hope the judge sentences him to the maximum of 10 years on the count the 9th Circuit let stand (until they overturn that conviction, too, after appeal of the sentence) and he enjoys spending the time in the company of an all latino or black wing of a state prison, and nights with a horny and violent roomie. One day his gutless co-conspirators will be caught and hopefully convicted and sentenced to the same.

[TheBigPicture]

What a great defense, Asperger's syndrome which prevents anyone from forming the specific intent to commit any crime...You can do anything you want an go unpunished...I wonder if that works in civil court for the 125 SUVs he has to buy...

Did all three suspects have Asperger's syndrome...

I need to know who the attorney was in case I go on a crime spree sometime in my life...

[kooo]

Had the prosecution allowed the defense to present their "bs" syndrome, and then got convicted anyway because it is not convincing, the appeals would have failed... At least this guy served some time in jail... maybe he needs some 'you bet your 'asspercream' after he's released due to some jail experiences... hee hee.

[Tom Bates]

They forgot the "TWINKE DEFENSE" dam!