Sacramento-area man sentenced to 19 years in terrorism plot

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.

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.

McDavid, 30, was found guilty by a jury in September of conspiring with two others to burn or blow up a federal facility.

Two veteran 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: that 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.

He said the conspiracy against those facilities, if there was one, was between McDavid and "Anna," 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 Jenson in August 2005," and that he targeted the genetics lab even though he knew people were living there and could be accidentally killed.

McDavid's parents and sisters addressed England, telling him 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, McDavid should be released in mid-2022.

He was studying philosophy at Sierra College in Rocklin when he decided to crisscross the country by hopping trains.

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

He learned merely talking of blowing things up and attempting, however unsuccessfully, to make a bomb is domestic terrorism, especially in post-9/11 America.

And, while it's unlikely any lawyer could have done a better job than Reichel, he learned the government has crack prosecutors like Lapham ready to go after him with all the tools at their disposal.

Finally, he learned that femme fatales are not just characters in old Raymond Chandler detective novels.

McDavid's anti-Iraq invasion stance led to loose associations with self-styled anarchists and radical environmentalists who traveled the country demonstrating at events.

Anna came into his life and, for him, the association morphed into a romantic attachment. She was attractive, strong-willed, exciting and older. Although cagey about her age, she is probably somewhere in her 30s.

A Florida college student, she was recruited by the FBI in 2004 to penetrate the protest movement. For any such investigation to get around U.S. citizens' freedom of assembly, the agents need proof of criminal acts. That's where Anna came in.

She was invited to a CrimethInc Convergence in Des Moines, Iowa, in August. Through Jenson, whom she had met earlier at a G-8 economic summit near Atlanta, she made her first contact with McDavid.

Then 27, he grew up in Orangevale, played football at Casa Roble Fundamental High School and worked as a carpenter while at Sierra.

They were together later that month at the Republican National Convention in New York – where Anna's aggressive behavior got her arrested – and again in the summer of 2005 at Weiner's apartment in Philadelphia.

At the latter location, Anna testified, she noticed right away that McDavid seemed dramatically more radical. It was also then that he first expressed his deep feelings for her. Just how much of his transformation was to impress her became a critical issue at the trial.

Reichel tried to build an entrapment defense around Anna and again argued entrapment Thursday.

But Lapham scoffed at the theory, and England refused to adopt it.

Jenson and Weiner, both 22, were allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges that carry a five-year prison cap. Jenson is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 7; Weiner's is set for Thursday.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Denny Walsh, (916) 321-1189.