Sentencing postponed for white supremacists in attempted temple bombing

Scott Sonner

Monday, Oct. 30, 2000 | 11:47 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Federal prosecutors promised one of the white supremacists who pleaded guilty to an attempted firebombing of a Jewish temple that he would be sentenced to no more than 15 years in prison, his lawyer said Monday.

But sentencing for Scott Hudson, 24, and four others who admitted their roles in the attack on the Reno synagogue last year was postponed in U.S. District Court and rescheduled for Dec. 1 because of a dispute over similar state charges.

The five skinheads could face prison sentences of 30 to 40 years under the maximum penalties outlined for the federal hate crime and other bomb-related charges.

Hudson's lawyer, Michael Kennedy, said Hudson's guilty plea was based on the condition that he not be sentenced to more than 15 years.

"If it's more than that, he can withdraw his plea," Kennedy said. Hudson was the only one of the five whose plea included such a condition, he said.

U.S. District Judge David Hagen had been scheduled to sentence all five young men from Nevada and California who admitted to conspiring to throw a Molotov cocktail at the Temple Emanu-El Jewish Synagogue last Nov. 30.

A plastic liter bottle filled with cement shattered a temple window, but the gasoline bomb that followed fell to the ground and only scorched the sidewalk.

Kennedy and lawyers for the others asked Hagen for the delay Monday until a dispute with Washoe County prosecutors is resolved regarding similar charges the men face in state court, where a preliminary hearing is scheduled Nov. 30.

Kennedy said Nevada law clearly prohibits "double jeopardy," of trying a suspect twice for the same crime.

"The state charges that are pending are for the exact same acts," Kennedy said.

"The plea-bargain was a package deal. Either everyone accepted it or everyone goes to trial," he said.

Deputy U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said he wasn't bothered by the delay.

"This it not a big deal," Bogden said.

"They can do whatever they want in state court. We have our pleas and I anticipate we'll go forward on Dec. 1 with the sentencing," he said.

County prosecutors said Monday they didn't intend to decide whether to drop the state charges until after the federal sentences have been imposed.

"We're waiting to see what happens in federal court," said Karl Hall, chief deputy district attorney.

If the sentences are not stiff enough, the county might proceed on its own, he said.

Part of the dispute stems over a disagreement about whether the men should be given credit for time served in jail since their arrest Dec. 5, 1999. Hall acknowledged "there is an issue as to whether there is double jeopardy.

"We haven't crossed that bridge yet," he said.

Federal prosecutors said the group singled out the temple because of its religious affiliation.

A grand jury indictment said the defendants were "self-avowed 'skinheads' who advocated white supremacy and the oppression of black, Jewish and other minority persons."

Hudson, Carl DeAmicis, 26, Christopher Hampton, 23, and Daniel McIntosh, 20, pleaded guilty to a series of federal charges, including conspiracy against the rights of citizens. The four also pleaded guilty to damage to religious property and using fire or explosives to commit a felony.

Joshua Kudlacek, 19, faced a lesser prison sentence because of his limited role in the attack. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the rights of citizens, damage to religious property and bombing property in and affecting interstate commerce.

Hampton and Kudlacek are from Reno. Hudson is from Reno and Esparto, Calif. Police described DeAmicis and McIntosh as drifters who moved between Reno, Sacramento and Auburn, Calif.

The indictment said the five met at the Sundowner Hotel-Casino in downtown Reno "where the hatred of Jews was discussed and advocated." At that meeting, they targeted the temple and bought gasoline for the firebomb at a 7-Eleven.

McIntosh threw a concrete-filled container at the window in attempt to break it "to facilitate the firebombing" and DeAmicis threw the Molotov cocktail at the same window, the indictment said.