A Michigan man was sentenced to more than three years in prison Tuesday for possessing Molotov cocktails just before the Republican National Convention in St. Paul last summer.
Mark Bradley Depalma was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge John Tunheim.
According to an FBI affidavit, Depalma planned to use the explosives to create a power outage to disrupt Xcel Energy Center and the convention. Depalma was charged on Aug. 30 and pleaded guilty on Oct. 21 to possessing five Molotov cocktails that were not registered to him.
Much like the case against two other convention protesters from Texas, an undercover government informant helped lead officials to Depalma.
Depalma came to the FBI's attention while attending the CrimethInc Convergence near Waldo, Wis., in July 2008. At that event Depalma said he wished to "make some bombs" and "blow up" things during the RNC.
On Aug. 18, according to the FBI affidavit, Depalma went to the Hennepin County Library and spent 90 minutes researching recipes for explosive devices. He then made a list of items that he would need to make special Molotov cocktails that would stick to people and other targets.
A second protester, Bradley Crowder, has also pleaded guilty to possessing Molotov cocktails. A third, David Guy McKay, pleaded not guilty and his January trial ended in a hung jury.
A new trial for McKay is scheduled to begin Monday. McKay, who came to St. Paul from Austin, Texas, to disrupt the convention, said at his first trial that he was convinced to make Molotov cocktails by an undercover FBI informant and would never have done so on his own.
RNC protester gets prison for possessing Molotov cocktails |