A New York City man charged with building homemade bombs to attack soldiers, police or even the George Washington Bridge has pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge.
Jose Pimentel entered the plea Wednesday to attempted criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism. It was less than a week before his scheduled trial in a rare state-level terrorism case.
The 29-year-old has been promised a sentence of 16 years in prison. He would have faced a minimum of 15 years to life if convicted of the top charge, a high-level weapons possession offense as a terrorism crime.
Jury selection had been due to start Monday.
Authorities called the case a dramatic example of the threat of homegrown, one-person terrorism plots. Pimentel’s lawyers have portrayed it as an example of overzealous policing in the years since Sept. 11.
(AP)
2 Responses
This terrorist is not very smart. If he wants to damage the George Washington Bridge, all he needs is a few yellow traffic cones.
How could some idiot attorney call policing after 9/11 overzealous? I think New Yorkers have a legitimate concern when it comes to counter terrorism.