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| Inmate Convicted in Okla. City Judge Plot |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/17/2003 |
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A man already serving time for murder was convicted of plotting to kill the federal judge in the Oklahoma City bombing trials, allegedly in the hopes that the judge's death would help the white supremacist movement. The jury deliberated just 35 minutes March 4 before finding Christopher Lee Bennett, 28, guilty of two counts of soliciting to commit a crime of violence. He faces up to 40 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Bennett, 28, is already serving a 99-year sentence for the 1994 strangulation and beating death of a Hispanic pharmacist. Prosecutors said Bennett solicited two fellow inmates in January 2001 to kill U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch, who presided over the Oklahoma City trials as well as the 1987 trial of two white supremacists convicted of killing a Jewish radio host in Denver. The inmates testified that Bennett wrote them letters in which he said the slaying would give publicity to the white supremacy movement. The letter written to inmate Jimmy Stamps said the slaying would send a 'clear and unmistakable' message akin to the gruesome 1998 death of a black man in Jasper, Texas. In that case, three white men were convicted of killing James Byrd Jr. by dragging him behind a pickup truck. 'If you think back just two years ago, my brothers in Jasper, Texas, drew national attention ... Imagine the publicity that would generated by that lapdog's death,' the letter said. Stamps said Bennett also promised him $50,000 from the Ku Klux Klan for the judge's murder. A former FBI agent testified that Bennett was angered by the death sentence of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and the sentence of life in prison for McVeigh's partner Terry Nichols, as well as the punishents of others tried before Matsch. 'He said it was not a joke,' said Scott Hendricks, who interviewed Bennett. 'He said Judge Matsch deserved to die, and it was just a matter of time.' |
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