Alleged conspirator in San Gabriel Valley arson attacks dies in France

February  5, 2010 La Times

Tyler James Johnson, a Caltech graduate student who fled the U.S. after authorities
identified him as an alleged conspirator in a case involving arson attacks at
several San Gabriel Valley car dealerships six years ago, has died.

He was 30. According to an obituary posted on the website of the Michigan-based
Staffan-Mitchell Funeral Home, Johnson was “killed from a fall due to an avalanche”
on Dec. 26 during a solo expedition in the Corsican mountains of France.

Johnson became a fugitive after being named as a co-conspirator
in the August 2003 firebombing of eight sport-utility vehicles at a
West Covina auto dealership and another SUV parked on a residential
street in Monrovia.

William Jensen Cottrell, then 24 and a doctoral candidate in physics,
implicated Johnson in the bombing rampage, alleging that Johnson and
another conspirator threw the Molotov cocktails that damaged or
destroyed the cars.

During his trial, Cottrell told the court that he and Johnson painted messages
on SUVs, including “Killer,” “Terrorist” and ELF, the initials of the
Earth Liberation Front, a militant environmental group.      
      
Cottrell was convicted of conspiracy and arson in November 2004 for his
part in vandalizing about 125 SUVs in the San Gabriel Valley. He was
sentenced in April 2005 to eight years in federal prison. But his arson convictions
were overturned last year and his sentence vacated by a federal appeals court.

According to Johnson’s online obituary, he spent the last six years in
Corsica, where he “befriended dozens of people, hiked nearly all 214
summits greater than 2,000 meters and co-founded Solaria, a nonprofit
association that designs solar technology.”

Described as a mathematician, physicist, photographer and mountaineer,
Johnson was born in Ingham County, Mich. He earned a bachelor's degree
in physics from Caltech in Pasadena, spoke fluent Chinese and French,
and traveled extensively throughout the U.S., China and Australia.

“Tyler will be remembered for his kind and friendly nature, leadership,
creative passion, independence, optimism, and idealistic vision of how
things should, and could, be,” the obituary read.

He is survived by his parents, James and Patrice Johnson of Dansville,
Mich., sister Kelsey Johnson,  grandmother Winnifred Johnson and
numerous aunts, uncles and cousins, according to the funeral home
website.

-- Ann M. Simmons