Ferguson-bombing plotters get 7 years

ST. LOUIS -- Two St. Louis men were sentenced Thursday to seven years in federal prison for planning a foiled bomb attack targeting the Ferguson police chief, the county's prosecutor and other officials after last year's police shooting death of Michael Brown.

The sentences for Brandon Orlando Baldwin, 24, and Olajuwon Davis, 23 -- identified by federal agents as New Black Panther Party members -- mirrored those agreed upon by the men when they pleaded guilty in June to four felony counts, including conspiring to use explosives and making false written statements while buying firearms.

Their November arrests during a federal undercover operation came just days before St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch announced that a grand jury wouldn't indict Ferguson officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of the 18-year-old Brown, who was unarmed.

Davis and Baldwin later admitted in court that they plotted to obtain explosives to target McCulloch, then-Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson, an unspecified police station and an armored vehicle police used in controlling Ferguson protests.

Davis and Baldwin were taken into custody after buying three pipe bombs for $150, unaware the devices weren't functional and the seller during the nighttime meeting at an industrial park was a federal agent.

No explosives were ever detonated, and none of the would-be targets was harmed.

In court Thursday, after being described by defense attorney Kevin Lynch as "remarkably intelligent," a self-proclaimed philosopher and "artsy fellow," Davis apologized, telling U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey that his "reckless, irresponsible and stupid" misdeeds were not reflective of him as a married father of three.

When asked by Autrey if he cared to address the court before being sentenced, Baldwin declined. Baldwin's attorney, Brian Witherspoon, had said his client stood by his letter to the judge apologizing for "stupidity, as he put it."

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