Anti-abortionist sentenced for carjacking, robberies

[Maddy McCall]

The Associated Press


HARRISBURG, PA. — An anti-abortion extremist already serving a lengthy federal prison sentence for sending hundreds of letters with fake anthrax to abortion clinics was sentenced today to 33 years and four months for carjacking, robbery and weapons offenses in four states.

Clayton Lee Waagner, 50, pleaded guilty in April to a Mississippi carjacking, weapons charges in Mississippi and Tennessee and robbing banks in Harrisburg and Morgantown, W.Va. The sentence will run concurrently with his prior federal sentences.

The cases were consolidated in federal court in Pennsylvania. Waagner, who once said he was on a mission from God to kill abortion providers, is currently imprisoned at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary.

Waagner’s attorney, federal Public Defender James V. Wade, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment today.

The Mississippi case involved using a .40-caliber handgun to carjack a van in a Tunica casino parking lot on Sept. 7, 2001. In Tennessee the same day, Waagner, a convicted felon at the time, allegedly possessed a pipe bomb, a rifle and a shotgun. The other Tennessee firearms charge occurred in May 2001, prosecutors said.

MORE: http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061212/NEWS/61212052

[uppityperson]

1. "Extremist"? "Anti-abortionist"? How about Terrorist?

Hi Maddy, wonder why he is described as an anti-abortionist and an extremist, not a terrorist? Here's a picture.

Waagner was awaiting sentencing on auto theft and weapons charges in Illinois in February 2001 when he escaped from jail. Over the following 10 months, authorities said, Waagner sent at least 550 anthrax-hoax letters to clinics in 24 states that either provided abortions or offered counseling about them. The letters contained white powder and were signed, “Army of God.”

Waagner was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the fake anthrax letters. At the time of his 2003 sentencing, he was already serving 49 years on firearms and escape charges in Illinois and Ohio.

19 yrs for fake anthrax letters
33 years and four months for carjacking, robbery and weapons offenses
49 yrs for firearms and escape charges


creepy, glad he is locked up

[Lexingtonian]

2. I think that sort of folks used to be

called just plain 'desperados'.

[uppityperson]

3. from the same part, same timeline, of USA I grew up in.

makes me feel ill.

[BlueIris]

4. Could we please label these sick "extremists" "terrorists," already?

Because they are.