20 Years for helicopter hijacker
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20 Years for helicopter hijacker
from the Naples Daily News .....
ATLANTA — A woman who hijacked a helicopter to help her husband escape from a Florida prison in 1999 should be sentenced to the minimum 20-year prison term instead of the 12 years she received, a federal appeals court has ruled.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled Tuesday that a federal judge erred in sentencing Josie Clark to the lesser sentence, which was below the mandatory 20 years prescribed by federal law.
A re-sentencing date was not immediately scheduled.
Clark, 54, and Wendy Calderon, 30, turned a gun on the pilot in December 2000 as they flew from a north Florida airport, ordering him to fly to the Union Correctional Institution, outside Raiford.
But Clark changed her mind during the flight and the prisoner was not freed. She and Calderon were arrested later that day. Calderon's boyfriend was at the jail.
Both women pleaded guilty to one count of hijacking an aircraft in a plea bargain in which prosecutors dropped additional charges of assault and conspiracy to hijack.
U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams sentenced Clark in October 2000 to 12 years in prison. Calderon was sentenced to 11 years and three months in federal prison.
Adams said he didn't give Clark the maximum 20-year sentence because she tried the breakout under threat from another death row inmate — identified in court records only as "Costa" — and because she was reluctant to cooperate and had no prior criminal record.
The appeals court said Adams incorrectly deviated from the 20-year sentence.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled Tuesday that a federal judge erred in sentencing Josie Clark to the lesser sentence, which was below the mandatory 20 years prescribed by federal law.
A re-sentencing date was not immediately scheduled.
Clark, 54, and Wendy Calderon, 30, turned a gun on the pilot in December 2000 as they flew from a north Florida airport, ordering him to fly to the Union Correctional Institution, outside Raiford.
But Clark changed her mind during the flight and the prisoner was not freed. She and Calderon were arrested later that day. Calderon's boyfriend was at the jail.
Both women pleaded guilty to one count of hijacking an aircraft in a plea bargain in which prosecutors dropped additional charges of assault and conspiracy to hijack.
U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams sentenced Clark in October 2000 to 12 years in prison. Calderon was sentenced to 11 years and three months in federal prison.
Adams said he didn't give Clark the maximum 20-year sentence because she tried the breakout under threat from another death row inmate — identified in court records only as "Costa" — and because she was reluctant to cooperate and had no prior criminal record.
The appeals court said Adams incorrectly deviated from the 20-year sentence.
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To: Nick Lappos
The penalty is to go through all of your previous posts on the various threads of Rotorheads and run them through the spell check function on your computer.
The word is spelled HIJACK
The penalty is to go through all of your previous posts on the various threads of Rotorheads and run them through the spell check function on your computer.
The word is spelled HIJACK
