[Ppnews] RNC protester sentenced to 2 years on bomb charge

[Political Prisoner News]

RNC protester sentenced to 2 years on bomb charge

A Texas man gets two years in prison for making 
Molotov cocktails to disrupt Republican National Convention.

By <http://www.startribune.com/bios/10646161.html>JAMES WALSH, Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/45055942.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Last update: May 15, 2009 - 12:15 AM

The first of two Austin, Texas, men to plead 
guilty to making Molotov cocktails during last 
summer's Republican National Convention was 
sentenced to two years in federal prison Thursday.

Bradley Neal Crowder, 23, who pleaded guilty in 
January, had come north to St. Paul in August as 
part of a group from Texas that intended to 
disrupt the convention, prosecutors said. He and 
David Guy McKay, 22, were indicted for filling 
eight wine bottles with a mixture of gasoline and 
motor oil while they stayed in an apartment not 
far from St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center, site of the convention.

McKay, who pleaded guilty in March, is scheduled to be sentenced May 21.

U.S. Chief Judge Michael J. Davis sentenced 
Crowder to three years supervised release after his prison term is completed.

Crowder and McKay's case gained national 
attention for the FBI's use of an undercover 
informant, longtime activist Brandon Darby, who 
participated in early planning meetings by the 
Texas group and rode north with the men to St. 
Paul in a rented van. Darby said he began working 
with the FBI when the group's plans for the 
convention turned violent. McKay insisted at his 
trial that Darby had entrapped him into making the explosives.

That claim helped end McKay's first trial with a 
hung jury. McKay dropped that claim and pleaded 
guilty at the beginning of jury selection for his 
second trial, after it became clear that 
prosecutors were going to call Crowder to 
testify. It was believed that Crowder's testimony 
would contradict McKay's version of events.

Investigators say the men made the Molotov 
cocktails with the idea of using them to get back 
at police, who had seized a trailer filled with 
homemade riot shields and helmets that the Texas 
group planned to use during demonstrations.

The bombs never left the apartment building where they were made, however.

James Walsh • 612-673-7428




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