Eco-terror figure gets nearly 20 years in prison

Eric McDavid, who went on the road to learn what was beyond his middle class, suburban Sacramento upbringing and returned a prisoner, was sentenced Thursday to 19 years and seven months in prison.

At the conclusion of a lengthy hearing before a crowded courtroom, U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. found McDavid's plan to "disrupt government and commercial installations" overrides his lack of a criminal history and a reputation among family and friends as "a peaceful individual."

England denied defense lawyer Mark Reichel's request for bail pending appeal. Reichel had earlier told the judge, "Mr. McDavid and I plan to pursue his appeal vigorously."

In an extremely unusual move, deputy U.S. marshals allowed McDavid's traumatized and tearful mother, father and two sisters to hug him before he was taken away.

He was found guilty by a jury in September of conspiring with two others to burn or blow up a federal facility.

Two very talented lawyers - Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Steven Lapham and Reichel - went head to head on whether the terrorism sentence enhancement should apply.

Reichel argued forcefully the jury did not find a necessary element: his client conspired with Zachary Jenson and Lauren Weiner to target the government installations specified in the indictment.

He argued that even Jenson and Weiner, who testified against McDavid in return for leniency, said there was no conspiracy among the three of them to focus on a U.S. Forest Service genetics lab in Placerville and the Nimbus Dam and neighboring fish hatchery in Rancho Cordova.

Reichel told the judge that former jurors he has spoken to, two of whom submitted declarations on behalf of McDavid, support that notion.

The conspiracy against those facilities, if there was one, was between McDavid and Anna -- not her real name -- an undercover FBI operative and the fourth member of the group, with whom McDavid was infatuated.

But Lapham said it is "undeniable ... that McDavid was the one who first advocated using explosives when he recruited Weiner and Jensen in August 2005; that he did so because, as he told Weiner, he no longer believed that non-violent protest was working; that he told the others what they were doing was a crime; that his preferred target was the Institute of Forest Genetics, the so-called 'tree factory'; that he knew that people were living at that facility, and that he was indifferent to the possibility that someone might be accidentally killed as a result of that attack."

McDavid's parents and sisters addressed England, telling him that their son and brother is a caring, gentle person who would never deliberately harm someone.

Lapham, however, said he cannot reconcile that image with "what Eric McDavid became."

"I don't believe it was all talk," England declared, adding it ceased to be that when the foursome bought bomb-making materials and began trying to make an explosive device.

England acknowledged that the terrorism enhancement is "an onerous provision of the law," but said he is convinced Congress meant it to be applied in cases like McDavid's.

"It's a new world since Sept. 11, 2001," he observed.

With credit for the maximum amount of time off for good behavior and the two years and four months he has spent in jail since his arrest, the 30-year-old McDavid should be released in mid-2022.

He was studying philosophy at Sierra Community College when he decided to crisscross the country by hopping trains. His sister, Sarah, also a student at Sierra, asked why.

"He told me he figured traveling around and meeting people of all walks of life was the best way to gain knowledge about philosophy, much more real than any classroom could offer," she wrote in a letter to England. "... I began to finally understand when he came home and would share his stories. His animation and excitement of the people he met showed me he was gaining an understanding of human beings and the world in which we live that most people will never have."

But some of what he would learn was unimaginable as he embarked on this odyssey.