Activist Pleads Guilty After Arson Lecture

FOX 6 (San Diego)

Last Update: 12/14 7:48 pm

An environmental and animal rights activist once tied to the radical Earth Liberation Front pleaded guilty Friday to showing people how to make a destructive device so it could be used to commit arson.

Rodney Adam Coronado, 41, faces a year and a day in federal prison when he is sentenced March 27 by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller.

Under the rarely used law, Coronado could have faced up to 20 years behind bars.

The Tucson resident's trial in September ended with a hung jury.

"The law does not protect those who cross the line to advocate violence by providing the tools and the roadmap for others to commit arson in the name of radical-environmental causes," said U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt. "The government remains committed to preventing the violence that may result from this type of dangerous conduct."

Coronado was arrested on Feb. 22, 2006, and charged with teaching and demonstrating the making of a destructive device before dozens of people in Hillcrest on Aug. 1, 2003.

The defendant first described his past criminal conduct to the crowd, including sinking whaling ships and burning research facilities to the ground, prosecutors said.

Coronado then spoke approvingly of arson as the most effective way to advance his radical environmental agenda, according to prosecutors.

Just hours after a large arson fire had destroyed an apartment complex under construction in the University Towne Center area of San Diego, Coronado described and demonstrated how to make a crude incendiary device using a plastic container filled with fuel mixture, a sponge and an incense stick.

A banner with the name Earth Liberation Front on it was found near the blaze.

http://www.fox6.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=aad9c47d-e97d-4c4d-84fe-05998c3defa0&rss=tick