Criminal Justice
Prisoner is convicted for plotting wood-chipper murder of federal judge
A California inmate was convicted on Monday in a plot to kill a federal judge, two prosecutors and two FBI agents.
The inmate, John Walthall, was accused of seeking hit men to kill those who sent him to prison for scamming an elderly couple out of $5.5 million, including U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford of Santa Ana, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Prosecutors said Walthall wanted abductors to kidnap Guilford and kill him with a wood chipper.
Walthall’s lawyer had argued his client suffered from mental illness, and he was manipulated by two prisoners seeking reductions in their own sentences.
Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 11.
