White supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. pleaded guilty today and avoided the death penalty for the 1999 murder of a US mail carrier and the shooting of five other people at a Jewish Community Center.
Four children, a teenage counselor and a woman were wounded in the August 1999 shootings at the suburban Los Angeles North Valley Jewish Community Center.
Hours later Furrow killed postman Joseph Ileto, a Filipino, as he was delivering mail.
Furrow's lawyers said they reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors under which the 39-year-old mechanic would receive a mandatory life prison sentence and avoid execution.
Because there is no parole in the federal criminal justice system Furrow will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
Attorney Maria Stratton, one of Furrow's defenders, said defense lawyers and prosecutors concluded independently that Furrow was suffering from serious psychiatric problems.
According to published reports Furrow is prone to mood swings and threatened several times to fire his attorneys but later changed his mind. He refused to attend any pretrial proceedings since after his arraignment more than a year ago.
Furrow told authorities his shooting spree was motivated by hatred, and called it a wake-up call to America to kill Jews. He surrendered in Las Vegas the day after the shootings. After his arrest law enforcement officials documented Furrow's history with white supremacist and anti-Semitic groups.
Reuters