
From The SF Chronicle - https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/east-bay-resident-gets-20-y…
An East Bay resident was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly 20 years in federal prison for committing a string of arsons and firebombings last year at the Oakland federal building and UC Berkeley campus, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
A federal judge in Oakland sentenced 35-year-old Casey Robert Goonan to 235 months in prison after referring to Goonan as a “domestic terrorist,” according to the DOJ. Goonan pleaded guilty in January to one count of maliciously damaging or destroying property by means of fire or explosives.
Early in the morning of June 1, 2024, Goonan placed a bag with six Molotov cocktails under the fuel tank of a marked University of California Police Department patrol car parked near the Berkeley campus, according to a plea agreement in the case. The patrol car caught fire after Goonan lit the bag and fled, prosecutors said.
Goonan also brought Molotov cocktails to the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland later that month, according to federal prosecutors. Goonan was chased off by officers after trying to throw the explosive devices into the federal building, but instead lit them on fire inside a planter on the side of the building.
Prosecutors said Goonan set other fires on the UC Berkeley campus on three other occasions in June 2024.
The court also ordered Goonan to serve 15 years of supervised release after the prison sentence and pay more than $94,000 in restitution.
The FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, California Office of the State Fire Marshal and UC Police Department investigated the case.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that “targeting law enforcement and government facilities is unacceptable.”
“The FBI is committed to aggressively investigating every instance of such targeting and to working with the Justice Department to make sure these criminals pay the price of their despicable actions,” Patel said.
Goonan said the fires and explosions were inspired by the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, according to the DOJ, and called on others to join the attacks “in support of Palestine.”
In a letter to the judge, Goonan, who uses they/them pronouns, said they were “consumed by despair over Gaza” when they “made the reckless and harmful decisions that brought me before this Court.”
“I am not an arsonist but an activist who in a manic fit of rage and desperation committed arson,” Goonan said.
Their attorney, Jeff Wozniak, said in a statement that his client was remorseful. Wozniak said the judge gave Goonan an “exceedingly harsh sentence which felt rooted in a disagreement with Casey’s politics and completely disregarded Casey’s well established struggles with mental health,” adding that no one was injured in the attacks.
Goonan is “ready to enter a new phase as an activist inside prison,” Wozniak said.
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