Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 20 december 2017

Man gets 28 years in plot to behead conservative blogger

David Wright, who’s 28 land, Texas.
years old, was sentenced The plot to behead Geller,
by a judge in Boston’s of New York, was nev-
federal courthouse two er carried out. Instead,
months after jurors found Wright’s uncle Ussamah
him guilty of conspiring Rahim told Wright on a re-
with his uncle and a Rhode corded phone call that he
Island man to kill blogger decided to go after “those
Pamela Geller on behalf of boys in blue,” referring to
the terror group. police. Wright told his un-
Wright’s attorneys had cle that was “beautiful”
asked for a 16-year sen- and encouraged him to
tence, saying he should delete all the data from his
be given the chance to re- computer before carrying
deem himself after serving out his attack.
his time. Wright insisted he Hours later, Rahim was fa-
never really wanted to hurt tally shot by authorities
anyone but pretended to after he lunged at them
support the Islamic State with a knife when they ap-
group to get attention on- proached him in Boston.
line. Prosecutors said Wright
Prosecutors and Geller collected dozens of grue-
wanted Wright to get life some Islamic State vid-
in prison. Prosecutors por- eos and documents that
David Wright, second from left, is depicted standing before Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell, left,
with attorney Jessica Hedges, second from right, and Nicholas Rovinski, right, during a hearing in trayed Wright as the lead- encouraged violence
federal court in Boston. er of the conspiracy to against Americans, includ-
(Jane Flavell Collins via AP) kill Geller, who has spear- ing a manifesto that said
By ALANNA RICHER Islamic State-inspired plot a Prophet Muhammad headed scores of events America’s days are “num-
Associated Press to behead a conservative cartoon contest was sen- across the nation to decry bered.” In court docu-
BOSTON (AP) — A man blogger who upset Mus- tenced Tuesday to 28 years Islamic extremism, such as ments, they accused him
convicted of leading an lims when she organized in prison. the cartoon contest in Gar- of trying to “deceive” the
court into believing that he
Prosecutor: never meant any harm.
Wright, who was more
Driver in deadly school bus crash was on phone than 500 pounds when he
was arrested, testified dur-
ing the trial that he started
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) came in at 3:20 p.m. Judge Don Poole said Tues- Walker’s attorney, Aman- sharing Islamic State pro-
— The driver in a Tennes- Authorities said Walker was day that out-of-town jurors da Dunn, had said previ- paganda because he was
see school bus crash that speeding in November will be drawn for the trial. ously that nothing on Walk- desperate for attention
killed six elementary school 2016 when he wrecked Poole also rejected a pub- er’s phone before Nov. 21 and an escape. But he
students took a cell phone the bus on a curvy road in lic records request from a is relevant, adding pros- said the plan to kill Geller
call at the time of the crash, Chattanooga while carry- news outlet that sought ecutors downloaded ma- was just “trash talk” and
a prosecutor said Tuesday. ing 37 children. Walker’s jail phone calls in terial “which significantly claimed he never believed
According to the Chat- The 25-year-old faces 2016. predate(s) the accident.” his uncle was serious about
tanooga Times Free Press 34 charges, including six Also in court, Pinkston con- The issue of phone calls, attacking police.
, Hamilton County District counts of vehicular homi- tended that he wants to among others, will be dis- The third man charged,
Attorney General Neal cide. use as evidence phone cussed further at a hearing Nicholas Rovinski, of War-
Pinkston said in court that Walker made bond and is calls in the week before the Feb. 5. wick, Rhode Island, plead-
Johnthony Walker received out of jail. He must use GPS crash, saying they could Dunn did not immediately ed guilty last year to con-
a call at 3:17 p.m. that day monitoring and can’t drive show calls with the same return email and office spiracy, testified against
that lasted nearly four min- motor vehicles pending person and a pattern of voicemail messages from Wright and is sched-
utes. Pinkston said the first trial, which is set to begin conversations on the after- The Associated Press seek- uled to be sentenced
911 call about the crash Feb. 27. noon of the crash. ing comment.q Wednesday.q