Court Won't Overturn Conviction Of Man Who Repeatedly Tried To Kill Hemet Officer
HEMET (AP) — A California appeals court has refused to overturn the conviction of a man who repeatedly tried to kill a Hemet police officer, likening his zany efforts to those of Wile E. Coyote.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise says an appellate panel on Monday upheld the 2011 conviction of Nicholas Smit.
Smit received four consecutive life sentences for trying to kill a police detective who was scheduled to testify in his drug trial.
Prosecutors say Smit left nail and gun booby-traps outside the detective's home and car, rerouted a natural gas line into a police office, set a zip gun to fire at the gate of a gang task force, set several fires and tried to fire a World War II-era rocket at the police station — but it fizzled.
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