ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. (WAND) – A man found with an explosive device in his car got the maximum sentence after calling the judge a cockroach.
NBC Bay Area reports Saleh Ali, 48, was convicted on March 4 on counts of use of a destructive device with the intent to injure, sale and transportation of a destructive device and possession of a destructive device on a public highway, and a single charge of intent to unlawfully make a destructive device. Ali faced two counts for each of the first three charges.
A Brea, Calif., police officer pulled Ali over on Sept. 18, 2018, because the registration tag on his car was expired. He noticed suspicious items in the car that seemed to be an explosive device, then called out the bomb squad, which destroyed the device on the scene.
Ali represented himself in court and told the judge “you’re a cockroach” during his sentencing hearing. When Deputy Orange County District Attorney Susan Laird pushed for the maximum sentence, he said out loud that she “seems to be confused” and maybe “has a Jewish background”. The station says Laird is not Jewish.
The judge sentenced Ali to 19 years and four months in prison. He has June 2003 convictions from Passaic County, N.J., for aggravated assault with serious bodily injury and making terroristic threats.
The station reports Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzker asked for possession of bomb-making materials to become a “serious, violent felony”. Had it been, Ali could have been sentenced to life behind bars due to the state’s three-strikes law.
