Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Is Matthew Aaron Llaneza a dangerous Taliban sympathizer bent on doing harm to the United States? Could he be an impressionable and mentally ill American led astray by undercover FBI operatives posing as terrorists?
On Thursday, a federal judge in Oakland will decide how much prison time the 29-year-old deserves after pleading guilty to a bizarre plot to blow up a Bank of America branch in Oakland with an SUV supposedly loaded with explosives last February. The SUV was supplied by FBI agents and loaded with inert material to make Llaneza think the vehicle really contained explosives.
He was arrested after he tried to detonate the phony car bomb. The FBI alleges LLaneza hoped the explosive would spark civil unrest in the United States.
He faces as much as 15 years in prison when he is sentenced Thursday afternoon.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
