Jan. 24 -- White supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. pleaded guilty in Los Angeles today to murder and federal hate-crime charges in the 1999 killing of a Filipino-American mailman and the wounding of five people at a Jewish community center.
He said, "Guilty, your honor," 16 times — one for every count he faced — as U.S. District Judge Nora Manella asked for his plea.
In exchange for his guilty pleas, Furrow, 39, managed to avoid the death penalty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole. The judge set a sentencing date of March 26, although Furrow told her he understood his guilty plea meant he would spend the rest of his natural life in prison.
Prosecutors had said they would seek the death penalty against Furrow, a former Olympia, Wash., resident, had he gone to trial.
Furrow's lawyers, public defenders, have described their client as psychotic and said they were prepared to mount an insanity defense if prosecutors demanded a trial. Furrow has a history of hospitalization for mental problems.
Evidence of Previous Mental Illness
On Aug. 10, 1999, Furrow went on a shooting spree, killing mail carrier Joseph Ileto just hours after he went on a rampage at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in the San Fernando Valley, leaving three boys, a teenage girl and a woman wounded.
The day after the shooting, Furrow surrendered in Las Vegas and allegedly told authorities he wanted his crime to be "a wake-up call to America to kill Jews."
According to the plea agreement, Furrow considered continuing his crime spree in Las Vegas. Furrow went through phone books in search of synagogues there before deciding he had sufficiently spread his message of hate, according to the agreement, and surrendered to the FBI.
At a news conference today, U.S. Attorney Alejandro Mayorkas said prosecutors dropped their push for the death penalty because of extensive evidence indicating Furrow suffered from mental problems in years preceding the rampage. The government has not agreed that Furrow was mentally ill during the attack, however.
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