Sentencing due in Ohio for 5th bridge bomb plot defendant, the only one to go on trial

AKRON, Ohio – The last of five defendants in a failed anti-Wall Street plot to bomb a highway bridge near Cleveland faces sentencing after losing another bid for leniency.

U.S. District Court Judge David D. Dowd Jr. scheduled sentencing for Joshua Stafford, 25, of Cleveland, for Monday afternoon in Akron.

His co-defendants pleaded guilty and received sentences of six to 11½ years. Stafford was convicted in June at a trial where he served as his own attorney.

He was convicted of two counts of using weapons of mass destruction and one count of explosive materials.

Under federal guidelines, he could get a prison term up to life. The judge ruled Friday that Stafford's case deserves a terrorism enhancement, which could mean a tougher sentence.

Prosecutors said Stafford tried to use his cellphone to detonate the explosives, not knowing they were fakes created as part of a government sting.

No bomb went off, and no one was injured. The intended target was a busy highway bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park between Cleveland and Akron.

The government described the suspects as self-proclaimed anarchists who acted out of anger against corporate America and the government.

Responding to defense objections to a presentence report, the judge said evidence was clear that Stafford was part of a conspiracy "that had as its goal the destruction of the bridge, all of which was an outgrowth of the Occupy Cleveland" anti-corporate movement.

An informant who secretly recorded conversations helped FBI agents foil the bomb plot, and an undercover agent supplied the would-be bombers with fake plastic explosives, authorities said.

Douglas Wright, 27, of Indianapolis, was sentenced to 11½ years in prison; Brandon Baxter, 21, of Lakewood, to nine years and nine months; Connor Stevens, 21, of Berea, to eight years; and Anthony Hayne, 37, of Cleveland, six years.

The defense had argued that the men never meant to hurt anyone and were goaded by the ex-convict working as an FBI informant.