OKLAHOMA CITY – A federal judge sentenced a Spokane man to 39 years in prison Tuesday for firebombing a Jewish temple. The defendant raised his hand in a stiff-armed Nazi salute as the judge turned her back and left the courtroom.
Sean M. Gillespie, 21, was found guilty in April of three bombing-related charges for hurling a Molotov cocktail at Temple B’Nai Israel here on April 1, 2004. His act, which caused only minor damage to a brick wall and a glass door, was captured on a security videotape.
Gillespie, who once belonged to the white supremacist group Aryan Nations, was convicted of carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, damaging a building used in interstate commerce and having an unregistered destructive device.
Associated Press
Rock Island: Large wheat harvest expected
The state’s wheat growers expect to harvest their biggest crop in five years, but fears about low prices remain.
A large U.S. crop and large wheat crops in other countries have pushed prices down. Growers hope to make up in volume what they lose to that trend, and to rising fuel costs and shortages of trucks and rail cars, said Tom Mick, chief executive officer of the Washington Wheat Commission in Spokane.
“The current situation, it’s kind of price-depressing. We can only hope this will turn around,” Mick said.
At current prices, growers won’t be rushing to sell but will hold their wheat and hope the market improves, said Kevin Whitehall, manager of the Central Washington Grain Growers Association in Waterville.
Associated Press
Yakima: Kansas man held in fatal shooting
A man has been arrested in a shooting death northwest of Toppenish as Yakima County investigators tried to resolve discrepancies in witness accounts that supported his claim of self-defense.
Bail was set Monday at $1 million for Judd Stephen Hurst, 26, of Overland Park, Kan., who remained in jail for investigation in the shooting death of William Rodriguez, 19, of Toppenish.
Associate d Press
Idaho: Man accused of faking death arrested
A Washington state man accused of faking his own death to avoid charges of kidnapping and attempted rape has been arrested in Bonner County.
Tony W. Desautel, 35, of Coulee Dam will be brought to Spokane County to face charges, officials said.
Authorities searched for his body in the Columbia River for three weeks after his wet and scratched-up horse was found July 10 near an Elmer City boat launch, saddled and bridled but riderless.
Associated Press
Mattawa: Three die in car-truck collision
An infant, a toddler and their mother died following a crash that investigators blamed on a truck driver who apparently fell asleep at the wheel on Highway 243 near this southwest Grant County town.
Maria Y. Diaz, 22, and her daughter, Karla Diaz, 9 months, died when their 1988 Toyota Celica was rear-ended Thursday by an International semitrailer rig hauling batteries for Exide Technologies. Another daughter, Briselda Diaz, 23 months, died the next day at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane.
Mark Nesbitt, 40, of Spokane apparently had set the heavy rig on cruise control and fallen asleep shortly before the mother slowed down to turn off the highway to pick up her husband, Washington State Patrol trooper Richard Magnussen said.
The crash, the latest in a number of accidents that have resulted in death and injury along that stretch of highway, remained under investigation, Magnussen said.
Associated Press
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