Man accused in Oklahoma bomb plot acquitted
Jan 17, 2014, 7:26 PM
TULSA, Okla. (AP) – An Illinois man accused in a failed plot to firebomb dozens of Oklahoma churches was found not guilty by reason of insanity Friday after prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed he was mentally ill.
U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan found Gregory Arthur Weiler II of Elk Grove Village, Ill., not guilty on a charge of possessing an unregistered, destructive device. Prosecutors accused Weiler of plotting to bomb 48 churches in Ottawa County, though no explosives were set off and no one was injured.
Weiler was arrested in October 2012 after a motel worker in Miami, Okla., discovered a duffel bag containing components of Molotov cocktails in a trash bin. Court documents filed Friday show that Weiler admitted placing the items in the trash.
“Weiler also stated that he planned to burn all of the churches in Miami, Okla., using the Molotov cocktails he had manufactured,” said the court document, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Fries and federal public defender Stephen Greubel.
Last April, a judge ruled that Weiler wasn’t mentally competent to stand trial and he was sent to a federal facility for treatment. Earlier this month, he was found mentally competent, but Weiler’s attorney said he was made competent through the use of medication.
Both sides agreed in the court record with a psychiatric evaluation that said Weiler was mentally ill at the time of the incident in Miami.
“Further, the parties agree and stipulate that the defendant, Gregory A. Weiler II., was suffering from a mental disease and/or disorder that rendered him unable to appreciate the nature, quality or wrongfulness of his actions,” the document said.
Eagan ordered Friday that Weiler be sent to a medical facility for psychiatric examination and set another court hearing for Feb. 21.
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