Radical Tucson environmentalist gets 1 year, 1 day for speech

SAN DIEGO—A radical environmentalist was sentenced Thursday to one year and one day in federal prison for speaking publicly about how to make a homemade Molotov cocktail.

Rodney Coronado apologized for his past use of violent tactics in the name of animal rights and the environment, and said he had cut his ties to groups, including the Earth Liberation Front.

"I have done things in my past that I now regret," Coronado told U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Miller. He said he wanted to serve his sentence and then get on with his life in Tucson, Ariz.

The 41-year-old activist pleaded guilty in December to distributing information on destructive devices during an August 2003 speech about militant environmental activism at a community center in San Diego.

According to an account and photos of the speech posted on the Internet, Coronado demonstrated how to build a crude ignition device using a plastic jug filled with gasoline and oil.

The speech was given just hours after an arson fire destroyed a San Diego condominium project that was under construction a few miles away. A banner at the site indicated that the ELF claimed responsibility for the $50 million blaze, which at the time was the costliest act of eco-terrorism in U.S. history.

Coronado, who once acted as a spokesman for the group, arrived in San Diego after the fire broke out and has never been linked to the blaze.

Prosecutors accused Coronado, a longtime environmental activist renowned for helping sink whaling ships and destroying mink farms and animal research labs, of wanting people to follow in his footsteps.

He told The Associated Press after being charged in February 2006 that he had renounced violence and favored educating people about environmentally sustainable living rather than engaging in the sabotage efforts favored by environmentalists in the 1980s and 1990s.

Coronado's lawyers argued his innocence under the First Amendment. A trial in September ended with a hung jury.

His plea deal in December came after prosecutors agreed to drop efforts to prosecute Coronado for other speeches.

Coronado, who faced up to 20 years in prison under post-Sept. 11 terrorism legislation, was ordered to surrender by May 9.

Coronado previously served nearly five years in federal prison for his involvement in a 1992 arson at a Michigan State University mink research facility. He also served eight months in prison for trying to disrupt a 2004 mountain lion hunt in Arizona by pulling up sensors and disabling snare traps.