Prison for Bomb Plot Supremacist
A mixed-race white supremacist was sentenced to almost 22 years in prison Wednesday for plotting to blow up black and Jewish landmarks in Boston and Washington.
Prosecutors accused Leo Felton, 31, and his girlfriend, Erica Chase, 22, of trying “to ignite a racial holy war ... that would promote chaos among the races.”
Felton, son of a black father and white mother, has said he blames his parents for “contaminating” him with black blood.
“I’ve committed crimes here, I’m not trying to say I’m a good person or a nice guy,” Felton said before sentencing. “But not every thing that has been attributed to me in these cases are understandable by these simplistic formulas.”
Felton and Chase were convicted in July of charges including conspiring to make a bomb, conspiring to make counterfeit bills and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison. Chase’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 31.
The couple were arrested in April 2001 when an off-duty police officer spotted Chase passing a counterfeit $20 bill. Investigators said Felton was making the phony money to help fund their plan and had already gathered most of the materials to make a bomb, including a 50-pound bag of ammonium nitrate, the fertilizer used in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Defense lawyers maintained they were being prosecuted for their beliefs and never planned to carry out violent acts.
Felton was a member of the White Order of Thule, and Chase belonged to the World Church of the Creator. They met after Chase corresponded with Felton while he was in prison for the attempted murder of a black taxi driver.
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