An unemployed crime lab technician has been found guilty on all 11 felony counts, including attempted murder, for planting bombs under the homes of Fremont's police chief and other city officials.
The verdict, reached Thursday but read in Alameda County Superior Court early Friday, followed two days of deliberations and 11 weeks of testimony in the case.
Rodney Blach, 54, has said federally trained agents carried out the six bombings, and that he was being framed. He sat stoically and stared at the clerk Friday as she read the verdict. A pre-sentencing hearing was scheduled for Aug. 27.
His lawyer, William Linehan, argued the case was largely circumstantial, relying only on Blach's motive and opportunity. He said he was disappointed with the verdict and would ask for a new trial.
The six bombs were planted during a 48-hour period in March 1998.
The first one ripped a 10-foot hole in the roof of police Chief Craig Steckler's home and set the front porch on fire. The same afternoon, City Councilman Bob Wasserman, Steckler's predecessor as police chief, found an explosive in a brown paper bag on his front walk. Authorities defused that bomb.
Two pipe bombs damaged newly constructed homes and another explosive went off at a water tank. Police detonated a sixth bomb.
No one was injured.
Blach, who had no prior criminal record, has been described by acquaintances as a conspiracy theorist.<
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LittleFoot said:
Liberals are always trying to "protect us from ourselves" instead of actually making anything better.
LittleFoot said:
Social Media has been a cancer to society. Full stop.
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