Prosecutor: Synagogue firebombing suspects vowed to finish job

Sunday, Dec. 19, 1999 | 10:39 a.m.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Bogden said one of the suspects called the failed Nov. 30 strike against Temple Emanu-El Jewish Synagogue "just a temporary setback."

Bogden detailed the suspects' plans Friday at the initial federal court appearances for Scott Cody Hudson, 23, Joshua Andrew Kudlacek, 18, and Christopher Hampton, 22.

The three men were among five people indicted by a federal grand jury in the attempted firebombing. Hampton is the reputed leader of a local skinhead group.

Carl Barry DeAmicis, 25, and Danie Austin McIntosh, 19, made an initial appearance earlier last week in U.S. District Court in Reno.

All five, who remain at the Washoe County Jail, are expected to enter pleas during a formal arraignment on Tuesday.

In response to Bogden's pleas, U.S. Magistrate Robert McQuaid ruled Friday that Hudson would be a danger to the public if released. Hudson was on parole in California at the time of the incident.

Bogden told McQuaid that the plan to attack the synagogue was hatched in the Reno hotel room where Hudson was staying while working on a local project for a Lodi, Calif., construction company.

Hampton scouted out the best part of the synagogue to attack, and DeAmicis threw a Molotov cocktail toward one of its windows after the group drove back there, the prosecutor said.

The makeshift bomb shattered a window but did not break through. Damage was minimal, but it was the third attack on the synagogue this year.

Bogden said that following the unsuccessful attack, Hudson told his friends, "This is not a failure. This is just a temporary setback."

The group then returned to Hudson's hotel room and began crafting plans to return to the synagogue and destroy it, Bogden said.

A sixth defendant, Jonna Stewart, 17, is being held in juvenile detention because of her age.

Steps are being taken to have Stewart certified as an adult for prosecution in state court.