The Filipino-American arrested for mailing bombs to critics of United States President Donald Trump has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a judge in New York on Monday, Eastern Daylight Time.
Cesar Sayoc, 57, pleaded guilty in March to sending 16 pipe bombs to 13 targets including former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, actor Robert de Niro, and cable news channel CNN in October last year. The bombs, however, did not go off.
During his sentencing, Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff said that Sayoc mailed the pipe bombs “to strike fear and terror into the minds of their victims and to intimidate those victims — mostly prominent political figures — from exercising their freedom,” USA Today reported.
The judge said that Sayoc created “a climate of fear and terror, going on, day after day, for several weeks.”
READ: Duterte spokesperson comments on Fil-Am suspected of sending mail bombs to Obama, Clinton
Sayoc only got 20 years in prison instead of the life sentence recommended by prosecutors. He was initially charged with use of a weapon of mass destruction, which mandates a life sentence, but this was eliminated when he pleaded guilty.
The judge also accepted the defense’s argument that Sayoc did not intend for the bombs to explode because of design flaws found in the bombs.
“I conclude in the end that Mr. Sayoc, though no firearms expert, was fully capable of concocting pipe bombs capable of exploding,” Rakoff said. “His decision to instead design the pipe bombs so they would not likely explode was, in the court’s view, a conscious choice.”
However, the prosecutors argued that even though they were not meant to explode, they still could have.
“His large-scale attack triggered massive law enforcement response and crippled parts of several major metropolitan areas … The defendant terrorized the public and placed thousands of individuals in harm’s way,” they said in court papers, according to The Independent.
Sayoc’s lawyers argued that his behavior was spurred by his obsession with Trump and anger at Democrats who allegedly vandalized his car with Trump stickers, NPR reported. They also said that Sayoc, a bodybuilder and nightclub bouncer, was allegedly mentally affected by his use of steroids, which led to his behavior.
Sayoc thanked the judge for the 20-year sentence and said that he regrets what he did.
“I wish more than anything I could turn back time and take back what I did,” Sayoc told Rakoff. “But I want you to know, Your Honor, with all my heart and soul, I feel the pain and suffering of these victims.”
Sayoc has been detained in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan since his arrest in October last year. Rakoff said that he would recommend that Sayoc be transferred to a federal prison in Florida near his family, but that this decision will ultimately be made by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Sayoc lived in Florida but was born to a mother of Italian descent and a Filipino father who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1970. Apart from working as a bouncer, he had also been a stripper and a pizza deliveryman.
