Plot To Kill Federal Judge With A Wood Chipper Ends In Lengthy Prison Term
Facing what was likely the final public appearance of his life, 61-year-old John Arthur Walthall—a onetime successful insurance salesman turned convicted gold mining swindler—appeared simultaneously nervous and bitter today inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse while waiting to learn his punishment for plotting the attempted wood chipper assassination of federal officials in Orange County.
A shaking Walthall slowly sipped water from a tiny paper cup and stared at U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney, who rejected a defense-proposed 120-month term and agreed with Department of Justice officials that the appropriate punishment "to deter others from engaging in such a despicable crime" should be the maximum allowable under federal sentencing guidelines: 20 years in prison after the defendant finishes his current 14-year stint in 2023 for wire fraud.
Carney told a stone-faced-but-eager-to-rant Walthall that his 2014 Lompoc prison plot to kidnap, torture and murder U.S. District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford, assistant United States attorneys Ivy Wang and Mark Takla, FBI agents Brad Howard and Frank Bernal as well as one of his previous defense lawyers, James Riddet, was "diabolical."
"Mr. Walthall is a dangerous, manipulative and cruel man," Carney announced after predicting the defendant will likely spend the rest of his life in high-security custody. "He knew what he was doing and he knew it was wrong."
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