A New York City man charged with building homemade bombs to attack soldiers, police or even the George Washington Bridge has pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge.
Jose Pimentel entered the plea Wednesday to attempted criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism. It was less than a week before his scheduled trial in a rare state-level terrorism case.
The 29-year-old has been promised a sentence of 16 years in prison. He would have faced a minimum of 15 years to life if convicted of the top charge, a high-level weapons possession offense as a terrorism crime.
Jury selection had been due to start Monday.
Authorities called the case a dramatic example of the threat of homegrown, one-person terrorism plots. Pimentel’s lawyers have portrayed it as an example of overzealous policing in the years since Sept. 11.
(AP)
This terrorist is not very smart. If he wants to damage the George Washington Bridge, all he needs is a few yellow traffic cones.
How could some idiot attorney call policing after 9/11 overzealous? I think New Yorkers have a legitimate concern when it comes to counter terrorism.