Kings Bay Protester gets 33 months

Update: Judge L. G. Wood today sentenced Patrick O'Neill to 14 months in prison, with credit for a couple of months he has already served. Patrick will stay out of jail for 90 days until a decision is made on where he will serve time.

From Kings Bay Plowshares:

Fifteen supporters in a carefully Covid masked and distanced Brunswick, Georgia courtroom, witnessed Father Steve Kelly (pictured above, second from left) receive a sentence of 33 months on October 15.

Kelly and six others entered the Kings Bay Trident submarine base in the early hours of April 4/5 2018 and symbolically disarmed weapons by hammering on "monuments to war", writing slogans and spilling human blood. All seven were convicted in October 2019, but sentencing has been delayed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Fr. Steve's sentence falls in the middle of the proposed guidelines and will likely allow his release from the Glynn County Detention Center where he is presently being detained 30 months after the action. He has accumulated sufficient good time during his incarceration to cover the remaining three months. 

Judge Wood held up a 7 inch thick sheath of hundreds of letters she had received in support of Steve and said she had read and considered all of them. However, she then proceeded to rule against all the arguments he had submitted disputing the probation department's assessment of his record and their recommendations for a substantial sentence. She ruled that the activists had shown disregard for human life by entering a deadly force zone and failed to show acceptance of responsibility. Fr. Steve had earlier submitted a presentencing statement where he told the court he would not agree to any conditions of probation or restitution.   

Fr. Steve's character witness, Dennis Apel from Santa Maria, CA, who has known him for many years and participated in numerous protests together strongly condemned the US court system for maintaining idolatry to the Pentagon. By using in limine motions to so broadly limit what Plowshares activists can say in court the "whole truth" which the witness' oath demands is impossible to express. (Full text follows below)

The prosecutor, Gil Gillully, expressed horror at property destruction by the defendants while remaining deeply oblivious to the threat of total global destruction by Trident’s nuclear weapons. 

The other four defendants, Mark Colville,(green shirt, center) Clare Grady (second from right), Martha Hennessy,(third from right) and Carmen Trotta, (third from left (are now scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 12 and 13, with Covid conditions possibly causing further postponements. Liz McAlister (far left) was sentenced to time served via video from her home in Connecticut in June. She had served 17 months in the Camden and Glynn County jails. She also received similar probation and restitution requirements.