| By Kim Palmer AKRON, Ohio (Reuters) - Two self-described anarchists who pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up a four-lane highway bridge near Cleveland were sentenced on Tuesday to 10 and 11 years in prison by a federal judge. Douglas Wright, 27, and Brandon Baxter, 20, both pleaded guilty on September 5 to conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, along with other related charges. U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. gave Wright 11 and a half years in prison and Baxter received just under 10 years in prison. Both received lifetime parole. Prosecutors had asked for 30 years for Wright and 25 years for Baxter. A third man, Connor Stevens, who also pleaded guilty to the conspiracy, will be sentenced later Tuesday. The men were three of five accused of plotting in April to blow up a bridge 30 miles south of Cleveland that runs through Cuyahoga Valley National Park. They were arrested after leaving two toolboxes at the base of the bridge that contained inert C-4 explosive purchased from an undercover FBI agent days earlier. After placing what they thought to be active explosives, the five men drove to a restaurant and used a cell phone to set off the explosives. FBI agents have said that the public was never in danger. Continued... |